Share the Gospel Through Really Bad Art??? OK!

So God must have been hearing the very depths of my heart, I mean, the very very depths of my heart to share the gospel that day, because it was 8 am, made it just in time for class, physically there but still mentally getting out of bed, bemoaning the fact that I had to sit in that lecture hall for 8 hours that day when I heard my name called loud and clear over the morning rustle. "Julie... Julie!" What? No... surely no. "Julie, come down!" Twenty new eyes focus around me and I realize with utter fear that I am the only person in that room of 70 people who's name is anything close to Julie. I slowly rise from my chair and immediately start panicking about if I had brushed my teeth that morning, why I decided to wear this outfit, what if my typical morning frog jumps out and I can't find words. There is nothing "morning person" about me!

Ok, so you're all probably thinking this is some bad dream, right? Right??? NO! I am being completely and utterly honest! And so the story continues...

Everyone around me is now making comments like, Oh Julie, what have you done? It was my second time to even come to this class, not that much damage could have been done, truly?! So I walk down to the front and a very eery silence takes place, the professor smiling at me and my class all eyes and ears to what happens next. And with that she turns on the projector and says ok, tell us your story.

Ok, stop there again! Rewind to one week previous when once again we sit in this 8am class to be given sheets of paper and pencils and told that as nurses we need to have a framework that we operate and work by and so lets start by drawing what our own life's framework looks like. Be creative they say, think about what and who makes you who you are and draw something that represents what makes you, you! Ha! If you know anything about me or anybody in my family for that matter, you'll immediately be very afraid because none of us were graciously given any artistic talent, whatsoever. But I didn't seem to care that morning because this was my little drawing, my 8 am drawing, and so I naturally began drawing mountains. They're pretty, easy triangles to draw, and I thought to myself, that's basically my life, a serious of mountains and valleys and you could argue what were the better parts of those journeys. So I doodled for a while and I was thinking to myself it's one of those things we turn in and get to look at when we graduate and snicker at all our big life goals and bad attempts at abstract art!

Ok, you can fast forward to me panicking on stage again. Here I am, facing my class of 70 students, a few professors, and all of a sudden I see with utter horror, my little doodle drawing, up on the big white screen in the big lecture hall. I was stunned, mortified, and even more traumatized when my "sweet" professor told me to explain myself and this picture. What was I thinking?! I don't even remember half the deep thoughts or reasons for my weird picture now, especially when I'm standing in the bright lights. And so I stumbled for words, said a few wows, laughed a little, and proceeded to say something, anything, to break the silence. I tried to at least explain why I chose to draw a bunch of mountains given my background of growing up in them in Montana, but then I got to go much further as I saw and remembered what I had written. At the base camp, the base trail that ran the low lines of the mount, was written, My Faith in Christ, and above the mountains written in bold was, My Joy in Christ. And each mountain held momentous and influential events and people that have formed me. And so I basically got to share my testimony and talk briefly about the God I live for, the people and trials that have shaped me and the joy I live with today. It all seemed trite and I really didn't want to sound preachy and I really really didn't want to sound one bit ashamed either. And so I ended in much more peace than when I walked down those stairs and laughed and smiled at God's sense of humor. So I have absolutely no idea what if any difference that will make on my journey through this program, but I'm so grateful I got to be so upfront and in many ways, my actions will be watched and looked upon. My love, my demeanor, my life is a reflection and I guess God wanted there to be no mistake who it was a reflection of.

And there be my most embarrassing story of the week, hopefully the month! Still blushing that my "art" display was so ashamedly exposed, but so thankful I got to share a little of my story to my cohort this early on our journey.

More thoughts soon...

Love Jules