LIFE IS SHORT

Just a reminder that life is short, so get out there and live it with expectancy and joy.

When it comes time to check-out of this crazy planet, be sure your heart is free from the entanglements of this world and is ready to meet your Maker without hostility toward any person . . . and with clean hands. Nothing is worth our losing the opportunity to receive the finer things. Don't go out of this world with the poison of unforgiveness in you inner being. Forgive.

So, today, take a deep breath and let it go. As you do, simply choose to expel all things that can bind or poison your spirit; anything that diminishes the radiance of your own soul. You can do this. You really can, but YOU must make the choice to let it go. So, loosen your grip on the offenses life has thrown at you and turn them loose. Send them away.

Yes, you will have to renew that decision many times, so just renew it each time. Over the course of time you will find that you have become free from those negative thoughts, and your emotions will eventually follow suit. I have discovered this to be true in my own life. Forgiveness comes first. It is a choice. Feelings come later. Many of one's feelings are the results of their choices. Choose to feel good. Let all that icky stuff go.

You might want to read and ponder the wise and comforting words of Psalm 23. There is a lot more there than what one might see at first glance. Reflect on each line, each word and each idea. You will be lifted up as you read it, study it, and embrace the ideas in this timeless proclamation.

There is someone who cares about you very deeply. Direct your thoughts his way today. You will be glad you did. Embrace forgiveness, and extend forgiveness to others too. Reach for goodness and light. With virtue you will not only live longer, you will live well. PEACE TO YOU TODAY & ALWAYS!
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By the way, visit my China Blog at http://perceptions21.blogspot.com/ -

HONG KONG

GO HERE FOR THE REST OF THE BLOGS ABOUT OUR TOUR OF CHINA:
http://perceptions21.blogspot.com

Our first two days in Hong Kong were an eye-opener. It is both an island and a peninsula. We have spent some time on the island, but our hotel is on the peninsula. The city is full of color and movement, and the aroma of food wafting through the air. The sights of colorful advertisements of so many businesses, and giant advertisements that cover half the size of a tall building are surprising. There are people everywhere and the city is alive all day and all night.

We have had many new experiences. Hong Kong is large and beautiful and busy and warm. Being from Seattle, where the temperature stays moderate all year long, experiencing intense humidity and eighty-something temperatures was a bit of a shift for us, but there is so much air conditioning everywhere, even in some open-to-the-outside businesses. funny.

Wonderful people have become our new friends. Lori, our guide is amazing and lots of fun. Today she takes us to the mainland on the ferry, to meet a lady named Pat, who will take us to Shenzhen university where we will be teaching art, literature and writing English. It seems like everyone here wants to learn English. It has given me new insight into the power of language and the desire for people everywhere to communicate with each other across cultures.

Here is a picture I took from a high point above the city on Saturday night. It is a huge business center, kind of like a fancy mall, but more commercial and recreational. Believe it or not, we ate dinner at Bubba Gumps! How weird that was. But fear not, we are eating LOTS of Chinese food, and things I am not sure I should ask about its contents. All of it is delicious, and Connie is bravely trying to learn to eat with chopsticks. HA!

Oh yes, we were told that the government may block people from posting to blogs, but I hope we can find a way to keep you all on our tour with us.

More later.

HAVING FUN!

Our flight out of Seattle was delayed three hours, so we missed our first connecting flight in Tokyo for Hong Kong and had to stay in Japan for the night. It was all good, and we had fun seeing a little of the Narita airport.

Northwest Airlines put us up in the Radisson and everyone treated us very well.

On Saturday morning, Connie and I caught a Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong at 10 AM, and now we are in HK - safe and sound, and excited about what lays before us.

Here, Connie is having fun with a poster in the Narita airport that makes sport of travelers who through fits over not being able to carry certain forbidden items onto the air craft - like lighters in their suitcase - duh. We are having fun. :-)

Next, pictures of Hong Kong and updates.

PORTALS & WORLDS

Today we step through a new doorway into a bright world; China! The dragon is awakening.

Though itineraries have been set and refined, what awaits in these next five cities and universities is still a mystery in many ways. In the next three weeks that mystery will unfold.

In addition to universities, we will also be visiting an International School to explore the "Arts and the Imagination" with children from Kindergarten through High School. This is going to be delightful!

In every place, from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, from Xian to Nanchang, people are excited about inviting us into their worlds. Yes, we go as teachers with much to share, but more than that, we go as students with even more to learn. That sounds like a cliche', but it is truer than truth itself.

This journey will be wondrous in many ways, and we are so grateful to all of our friends who have made this journey possible. Thank you! - thank you for participating with us in this adventure. We are so full of appreciation for special friends like you. You know who you are - and we do too :-) Your generosity will not be forgotten.

C'mon along! Stay with us to see what unfolds. Visit The Illuminatrium often.

My next blog will be from China!!!

COMPLETE PAINTINGS IN AN HOUR

Some of you know that I paint in churches during worship and sermons. It is fun and people seem to enjoy it, plus, ironically enough, God seems to use it to inspire both artists and non-artists. The comments people make always give me joyous insights into how God ignites the creative process in us, and how he uses us to do that for each other.

If you, or someone you know would like for me to come paint in a public event, go ahead, give me a shout. Let's make some notable art together.

No two paintings are alike. I do something unique for each and every service and group. There are no canned images, no formula-paintings. Each creation is fresh and special. Every painting is a "one-off" work of art done specifically for that group experience in that moment of time.

Sometimes groups auction off my paintings for various fundraisers, and sometimes they frame them immediately and display the art in their churches, schools, or group gathering places on the spot.

Paintings are brought to to various degree of finish, depending on what people want. Some paintings I take back with me to my studio and spend a few more hours tidying up and bringing the artwork to higher refinement, and some paintings go right on the wall after the public painting session.

To see more of these paintings, you can find them on my website at http://www.danielriceart.net/ and click on the GALLERY link. You will find more of these panels as well as other interesting things to look at. I do hope you enjoy it.

WE ARE HEADING FOR CHINA IN MAY

Many of you are aware that Connie and I are going to China. We leave May 22nd and return June 15th. Five cities and four universities will be visited during this time.

Our itinerary takes us from Seattle to Hong Kong, to Shenzhen, to Nanchang, to Xian to Beijing and back to Seattle. We will be teaching in four universities across China, about writing, the arts, tourism in English speaking nations, and much more.

This trip has been a dream of ours for a number of years. Now, thanks to the generous gifts of friends and relatives, this trip will be a reality. Thanks to everyone of you who has made this trip to China a possibility.

If you would like to be part of or team but have not had the opportunity to contributed to this venture, we invite you to do so today. Thank you for giving generously to the China team.

Check out the special gift for you described in our mid-April China team flier. Go here to take a peek. http://www.danielriceart.net/CHINA/update_d.pdf

A LOVE FOR THE TRUTH

This painting is called, "The Triumph of Truth," by Peter Paul Rubens. Why do you suppose he depicts Truth naked, and who are these other figures? What is Rubens trying to tell us?

Loving truth and recognizing truth requires a number of things. Not everyone loves the truth, not everyone loves the idea that truth exists independently of them; beyond their own personal perspectives, and not everyone is prepared to give truth a welcoming embrace - especially when it militates against their sensibilities and beliefs. Truth can seem harsh and unflattering. Truth can be hard to take. Truth can cut you down as well as lift you up. Truth is tough stuff.

Truth has to do with what "is;" that which is independent of us, not that which comes from inside of us. Truth does not originate from us, and is not dependent upon our approval for its existence. We do not decree what is true or false, truth is something we learn to recognize, something we discover, something we come to love or not. The discovery of that truth is often unsettling, and sometimes shocking.

What I mean is, truth is truth whether I consent to its veracity or not. Truth is never subjective. It is always first objective, then it becomes personalized as we adopt it, but North American culture does not like to see it that way. Truth, in contemporary America, is often described as the subjective product of emotion and personal preference. We say, "What is true for you may not be true for me,:" and that might hold strong in some circumstances, like saying vanilla ice cream is better than strawberry, but it does not hold true across the spectrum of life. Sometimes truth (in the form of facts) mean little or nothing to a person who wishes to place their own perspectives at the locus of highest esteem, but this does not mean that their own preferences or personal perspectives could ever equal truth. They don't.

Even when it comes to simple facts, people are not always convinced by facts. People don't always recognize or welcome truth either. The fact is, our beliefs and personal viewpoints are continually being colored by our preferences and our emotions. Truth is colored by nothing. Truth colors all other things. Someone said that a person's philosophy is dictated by their morality, and not the other way around, but this is not how truth works.

Truth is the judge of all philosophies, and determines their soundness, not the other way around. This is an unpopular thing to say, because as soon as one starts speaking about truth they get labeled as a fundamentalist. But to say truth does not exist is equally fundamentalistic because it asserts something as true. It is inescapable. Each of us has ideas about truth whether they are well formed or not. Each of us believes in truth of one sort or another. The only difference is whether our beliefs reflect the reality that stands beyond us.

People frequently believe what they FEEL to be true, and some people believe what they WANT to be true. For all of our wonderful complexity as human beings, for all of our intellect and thinking, we are still majorly influenced by our moral preferences and our emotions. This is upside down living, and it leads to despair and brokenness. Take for example our emotions themselves . . .

Emotions get the best of us and make fools of us all, yet which of us would give up their emotions for cold calculating bald intellect. Why? Because emotions take us places and provide us with richness that the cold intellect never can. A purely scientific mind can might use sex for purposes of procreation, but lovers make love. Procreation to them is a byproduct, not merely an end. We lament over the troubles our emotions cause us, but if there was a surgery that would remove our emotions once and for all, precious few of us would go for it. It seems that those pesky, unpredictable, troublesome, infuriating emotions of ours are some of the things that make us feel most human. I have often wondered about this oddity . . . emotions.

Art is often about emotions. I wonder if the arts could exist without emotions. I don't see how they could. Here is an even weirder thing, the Bible speaks of God's emotions. Is the Bible merely speaking in the language of accommodation for the sake of our understanding . . . so WE can relate to God . . . or does God really and truly have emotions like us? Can it be that such a view of God is not provincial, not merely anthropomorphizing the deity? Can emotions be important in the heavens?

The profound mystery of the "incarnation" is that God took upon himself human flesh, and we see that God in the form of Jesus of Nazareth displaying really honest emotions. I don't know about you, but that kind of Divine identification with human emotions says something wonderful to me about our own thought life as well. Jesus' own words are profound and meaningful when he said, "Be angry, but sin not." He is not denying us the use of our emotions, not even of anger. He says, USE THEM, but don't let them lead you into the wrong path.

Emotions may be as transformable as the surface of the water, but this does not make them worthless. Emotions are not our enemies. Emotions are important to the intellect, to wholeness as a human being, but let us never forget that reason is given to balance out the inherent weaknesses of mere emotion. Logic is not merely a construct of Modernity, it is part of human civilization in every culture. Emotional maturity, that is, putting emotions to their proper work for us, is a mark of maturity and wisdom. It is both winsome and wise.

When we construct our personal belief systems, let us not forget the need for emotion. Let us retain it and embrace emotion, but let us never give our emotions the final say. The last word belongs to our minds, our reason, our intellect and our ability to make sound judgments -- but beyond that, our maturity relies not in our intellect but in Truth itself.

I never want to dismiss logic because my emotions are telling me something different, and I never what to reject the Truth simply because my intellect cannot get it's mind around the Truth.

I never want to fear when there is no reason to fear. I never want to despair or be overly optimistic either. I want to know the Truth. Only the truth has the ability to set one free from the tyranny of emotions and the restrictions of the mind.

I hope, as I grow, that I can correct the excesses of my emotions and bring them into useful service to my mind, and I pray I can bring my mind into conformity to the Truth itself.

Here is a curious scripture in the New Testament. It relates to the issue of Truth, and the importance of loving the Truth.

2 Thess 2:8-13 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.
9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders,
10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie
12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. NIV

It is interesting to consider that Jesus said, "I AM THE TRUTH." In one of his prayers he said to God, "Your word is truth." I wonder what he meant by that, and I wonder if anyone ponders those words very deeply. The apostle Paul said, "The truth is in Jesus." (Eph 4) Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." John 5:24 NIV