TO OPEN NEW FRONTIERS OF THE MIND'S EYE

The environment we are surrounded by is an environment of control. Conformity. One of the most effective ways of keeping us there is through what I will call Bad Art. You might ask; What is Bad Art? I think it is just about everything we see and hear. The purpose of it is to shape us to follow the system we are living in. Bad Art is, transparent, in-your-face, fast paced and without breaks. You really don't have to think. The images are so powerful, they determine our response in thought and action. Like I said, just about everything we see and hear falls into this category.

I think it is Good Art that we are in need of, yet the Bad Art has shaped us to despise Good Art. Good Art is way to costly to the ones that have become comfortable with the Bad Art.

Good Art is never transparent nor spelled out neatly for us. It actually engages us in a the act of seeking. Answers are rarely ever spelled out. It always creates more questions. For those that are in the process of seeking, the seeking is often very disorienting and makes us uncomfortable. Most of this disorientation is caused by the conditioning we have been shaped by. The world system and it's Bad Art.

The seeking that Jesus' words create in us or that is set in motion by people around us that are coming to know Jesus in a real way will often (if not always) cause a disturbance of the waters. This is a necessary thing, but the Bad Art we have been exposed to tells us to "RUN". The Religious Bad Art will often say that God is not a God of confusion and many other things that keep us from walking out into the unfamiliar to seek Him where He is.

I have been thinking so much about Nicodemus lately and his walk out into the dark of night, so not to be seen by those using Bad Art (whom he had been a part of) to teach (control) others. The new teacher on the block was saying things in a way that had rattled Nicodemus and his conditioning. But something had begin to happen inside Nicodemus' mind. Jesus' words and stories had begun to disturb the waters. Many others with him had heard the things Jesus was saying. Why did Nicodemus end up risking it all at the hearing of what Jesus was saying while many of the others went on as they had always done?

Bad Art will always attempt to answer these questions for us. Good Art leaves us hanging and a bit unsettled. I like to think of it as having the rug gently pulled out from under me (again and again). All of this can be very scary, that is in the beginning until the old conditioning begins to lose it's grip on us and we begin to see that it is the questions that take us places that answer never will.