“. . . these
days, resistance looks more like Apollyon standing arrogantly astride
Christian’s path; like the combined forces of the world, the flesh and the
devil, pitted against my efforts to follow a call I’ve heard, a summons as wild
and strange and full of longing as the cry of wild geese over a winter
landscape. Resistance means there is probably something on the other side worth
fighting for. Making art is waging war on all the inner demons and the outer
distractions that would keep us silent and compliant in this world.” ~Lanier Ivester
The battle
rages. The inner critics are
caustic and the distractions alluring.
The embers of creativity recede under the strong draught of resistance.
But silence,
darkness and defeat are not imminent.
I have seen the
fires of creativity burning brightly in a children’s home in India. The children are without parents in a home
lacking running water, electricity, computers, the Internet, bicycles, cell
phones and TV, and yet beauty and art prevail. In the midst of faith, hope and love—drawings, paintings, gardens,
dancing, weavings, poems and songs radiate forth in illumination and victory.
There is a
war to be fought—within and without.
The resistance is great, but the calling to make art is greater. We must fan into the flame the fires of
creativity. There is something on the other side worth fighting for.
It is a battle to be won.