So for the next couple of weeks Brad and I are letting some of the guys in our dgroup lead the lesson. We have let them have the sky as the limit. Yesterday one of the guys showed up with crayons, paper, and took us to BW3. His instructions were simple- color what your soul feels like.
If you know Spencer, but dont really know Spencer, the idea would seem strange. Spenc is a 6-foot-something chunk of football muscle, so needless to say this guy is tough. But those who know Spencer know that he can be an extremely compassionate guy. He is like his dad (who is a guy aspire to be like in a lot of ways), in the fact that he could easily kill you with his pinky finger, but is a big soft teddy bear on the inside. I love how even though i know that about him it still can catch me by surprise sometimes when he breaks the typical football stereotype.
He did a great job leading the discussion following everyone sharing their pictures. I was proud of him and thankful for him making us be real and vulnerable as we colored, but balanced it with the manliness of eating wings. Great job dude!
The flip side of all this—I am not an artist at all, but somehow i was totally engaged in this activity and enjoyed it. I use the term enjoyed loosely, i liked the concept, but not the process. Not because it wasnt a good idea, but because I dont enjoy things i cant do well (ok perfectly…but Im working on lowering my standards for myself, but I’ll save those speculations for another blog) and as I said I am not an artist.
All this said, i did engage with the idea and immediately following the instructions I actually had a visual representation of the color of my soul. The final product wasnt exactly what I pictured because i simply lack the skills needed, but it is a lot closer than any other art endeavor Ive had.
The night ended with me dodging a lot of the specific questions asked, and it was obvious and noted by the group. But its kind of the norm these days and right now I am okay with that. Then I sent the picture and story to Chad, because it seemed like something he would appreciate. The funny thing is that the image has stuck with me through the night and well into this new day…not sure why. hmmm…