#jon foreman

Artist Jon Foreman's Sculpt the Word project.

Convexum Fluxus, 2024

You say you want Christians to "welcome" you, and not ask you to change. Thats so misleading. Do you want them to keep being Christians? Because Christians, by definition, are followers of Jesus Christ of Nazareth...who specifically demands that anyone who comes to Him "denies themselves" and let their old selves die. So what the heck do you mean, Selmer? What the heck do you mean, "Christians say they'll welcome me but it's only if I change?" We're all changing. We all identified one way, with our wrongdoings, with our feelings, and then we came to Christ and that part of us died. It's not about our welcome. It's about Him, Him being Lord, and He said "die to yourself." If that's not what you're actively looking for, if you're not looking to change because you realize you need it, then you don't actually want Christianity. You don't actually want anything to do with the real actual person/God Jesus the Christ of Nazareth. You just want to be in the "social club" you've morphed Christianity into.

Welcoming is not about "can you come hang out with us." It's also not about "can you come hang out with us and feel included and also feel approved for every single choice you make." What? Thats just an echo chamber. Nobody who really loves you in your life will accept every single thing about you and approve every choice you make. How much greater is a love that recognizes when and where you're wrong, is not afraid to call you out on it, and is willing to sacrifice your opinion of them and the comfortable space of your relationship if it means the truth might set you free? Because that love cares more about you, the person made in the image of God, than they do your opinions, or the feelings that lie to you and hurt you.

That's actual love. Thats how Christ loves you. But don't you dare say "Christians don't love and welcome me for who I am: they pretend to, but they really just want me to change." There's nothing pretend about it. It's all very up-front. Christ said "come and die, and when your old self is dead, I'll give you new life." We all did it. He is doing it to all of us. We didn't deserve it. If you don't like it, you don't actually want Christianity.

Sculpt the world

Jon Foreman ne fait pas que de l’art, il collabore avec la Terre. Connu en ligne sous le nom de @sculpttheworld, cet artiste terrestre basé au Royaume-Uni organise des pierres, du sable, de la mousse et du bois flotté dans des conceptions complexes et méditatives qui se sentent à la fois mathématiques et mystiques. Qu’il soit en spirale de pierres dans des mandalas célestes ou qu’il superpose des feuilles dans des mosaïques de bois, le travail de Foreman est profondément respectueux de la terre et intentionnellement temporaire.

"'There is no such thing as freedom on earth,' he said. 'Only different kinds of bondages. And comparative bondages. You think you are free now because you’ve escaped from a peculiarly unbearable kind of bondage. But are you? You love me—that’s a bondage.'

'Who said or wrote that ‘the prison unto which we doom ourselves no prison is’?' asked Valancy dreamily, clinging to his arm as they climbed up the rock steps.

'Ah, now you have it,' said Barney. 'That’s all the freedom we can hope for—the freedom to choose our prison.'"