First, my feature on Supernatural Fairytales is up :) Click and go see this wonderful blogazine with so many neat fantasy and fairytale features, art, and literature. Dorlana runs the blogazine and is also a pretty great writer - check out her pieces and her blog! Thanks Dorlana for featuring my art! :)
Next, check out my new picture/link to my jewelry etsy shop ----> It's featuring the main image for my new banner in the shop :) I've also got a new banner in my artofjenna etsy shop so click on over there to see that too! I get so proud of my "graphic designs" :)
Found this beautiful piece on etsy the other day and I knew I had to post it on here. Can we say major awesomeness?!?! I think I am in love. :) So beautiful. I shall be saving for a while in hopes of getting this lovely jacket
And last, some new books I've been starting to read.
Amy Inspired
I picked this up tonight at Borders and starting reading it. I think I was/am drawn to it because the main character is trying to find the strength to pursue her dream, or at least keep pursuing it since she's already gone most of the way and life isn't really turning out to be as ideal as she expected. Now she has to trust that God is leading her. Totally there right now in my own life. Maybe this will be an encouragement for me? Maybe? Although I am (unfortunately?) relating to the sarcasm and cynicism of this "Amy." Haha, probably an indicator of something...
Radical
This book just kept popping up in my face, even though I would have rather ignored it because while I will read some books on Christian living, I'm definitely skeptical of most. But it wouldn't go away (lol) so I decided ok, let's give this a try. I've read through the first two chapters, and honestly, I can't really say how I feel about it. I have highly mixed emotions. On the one hand, it makes me super uncomfortable about the way I've been living out my faith- which is probably good. On the other hand, it's really, for me at least, starting to bring back a lot of the "fear God so that you will do the following things so that you might be saved and if you don't well too bad for you" feelings that have taken me so long to move past. This kind of fear that I'm talking about here is not to compare with the fear of Holy God, although these lines are starting to get blurred in my mind now, hence part of the problem. But I know the unhealthy fear (such as the fear of hell being more of a motivator than the love of God) had a grip on me for so much of my life (yay Churches of Christ...), and I really don't want to go back to that place. So, that's the number one thing that makes me uncomfortable in a bad way from this book. Number two is something that I again have super mixed feelings about. I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that followers of Christ must not fall into the same problem that the rich young ruler had. This book really talks about giving of yourself and doing the very things that Christ commanded. But I'm having a really hard time with this when I consider my art. I have always felt like making art was/is what God wants me to do. How is such a lifestyle in keeping with Jesus' commands then? If I live a lifestyle that involves selling what I have and giving to the poor and living only to tell others the good news (in a literal speaking/telling sense) then how am I to make art? I'm afraid the lifestyles do not agree. If I sell everything and move to a third world country to serve and spread the news of Jesus, how can I paint? I know that this probably sounds irrational, and before I picked up this book, I would have agreed. I've always reasoned that God calls different people to different things. But I feel that this author is plainly saying, look, Jesus said that those who follow him must be prepared to abandon their jobs, families, etc. for Him. And not everyone that says to Jesus, "Lord, lord" will be saved because not everyone obeys the will of the Father in these regards. Now we're getting back into the "you didn't obey so you aren't saved" mentality in which something you do, motivated by fear, saves you. Which I don't think is the intent of this writer at all, but this is how these ideas are causing me to think or react so far. So, not sure how I feel about the book yet. I really like some things he says, but others make me fear again, for better or for worse. I guess we will just see...
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