All Thumbs
Lately I've been trying to understand the connection between God as designer and people as designers. As you know God has quite a design portfolio.First, you have all the standard portfolio pieces that He's well known for: the intricacy of the human body, the beauty of nature and the expansiveness of the universe. Then you have the not so often recognized design projects where He's art directed and architected: Noah's ark (one boat, one family, a million animals, very simple materials and the charge to save the human race from a flood…talk about design challenges); the Temple in Jerusalem (won't even go there); identity development for His "company" (hmmm…a timeless logo to express His love for the next 2000 plus years, connect with people across all cultures and genders, be simple for the poorest of the earth to use…glad I didn't get that creative brief), and the list goes on. When you consider His design portfolio, you realize that all His designs lead us closer to Him. So should our design.
We get in trouble when our design leads people to ourselves or to something else…money, power, greed, whatever. We need to uncover the heart of design. What does it look like? Does this mean that design work has to be "religious" in nature to qualify? I hope not. Take your thumb for instance. Nothing religious there, but so perfectly functional that it points to a magnificent Designer.
So what do we do the next time a client wants us to design a piece to sell widget x or service y? Say no, and only do religious stuff? Spin off a different company to handle the church crowd versus the un-churched crowd (yes, this too is being attempted)? Our Greek tendency is to want to compartmentalize our spirituality into secular and non-secular, Jew and Gentile, religious and non-religious. This thinking widens the gap between our passion and our profession. And I don't see any evidence at all in the natural world that God as a designer did made secular thumbs and religious thumbs. They are all just His thumbs. Is there a rule of thumb here for us?
We get in trouble when our design leads people to ourselves or to something else…money, power, greed, whatever. We need to uncover the heart of design. What does it look like? Does this mean that design work has to be "religious" in nature to qualify? I hope not. Take your thumb for instance. Nothing religious there, but so perfectly functional that it points to a magnificent Designer.
So what do we do the next time a client wants us to design a piece to sell widget x or service y? Say no, and only do religious stuff? Spin off a different company to handle the church crowd versus the un-churched crowd (yes, this too is being attempted)? Our Greek tendency is to want to compartmentalize our spirituality into secular and non-secular, Jew and Gentile, religious and non-religious. This thinking widens the gap between our passion and our profession. And I don't see any evidence at all in the natural world that God as a designer did made secular thumbs and religious thumbs. They are all just His thumbs. Is there a rule of thumb here for us?
posted by fivemcclungs at 11:35 AM
3 Comments:
i love your post! Yes, God is a fantastic designer. I love the work He did in Africa.
"I love the work he did in Africa." is a double-edged comment, Kristian. I don't usually ascribe irony to enthusiastic posts, but then I remind myself that God DID make Africa - the animals and continent grand - it's the abysmal politics and warfare that mar the beauty.
Within my own sphere I see lots of inspiring things that show that perhaps God had "design teams" work on different things. Look at the birds. The variety and complexity -from large brown pelicans to jewel-like tiny hummingbirds - always amazes me. It inspired James Audubon to paint the variety and that is how I view the role of the artist/designer. More than cataloguing, but creating art that mirrors the world.....
During the day I work with businesses to help them make more money and grow larger...as designers/marketers I think we have to look at what we are marketing, if people take the bait that we are out there making attractive, what effect does it have on the world and does it bring God glory?
My passion is not design...oh, I appreciate good design when I see it, but my passion is helping the church tell it's story and reach the lost.
Sometimes I struggle with the question you pose...do we only "work for the cause" or do we make a difference in the "real world"...maybe it just depends on what God has called us to do.
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