Of All Places

I believe that God enjoys inserting Himself into my day in funny, surprising little (and sometimes big) ways. I suppose you could argue that I recognize random things as being of Him because I seek to have it be that way, but I don't know, I really think He places little tidbits in my life purposefully. He's big enough, He can do that.

I'm an art major. I'm honing in on graphic design. In my "field" Christianity isn't exactly in. I've been thinking a lot lately about post-college life, when I will be stripped of my Christian-y group identity and sent out. It's not that I'm going to a Christian school or anything, that's most certainly not the case, but I'm sure good at sticking with Christians. It's safe...and comfy. Well, it occurred to me yesterday, as I meandered about looking at work in one of my design classes, that I am awfully quick to hide my Christian identity when tossed into a "secular" group, for lack of a better term. I've been forewarned that it is frighteningly easy to fall away from your faith once you leave the spiritual sanctuary of a club you've found in college. I've continually thought, in response, that such a thing will never happen to me...no way! Then it occurred to me, I already do that. Yikes.

Not much later, we're in the midst of a discussion. It's always intriguing when we get into the intermingling of morality and graphic design, which we did yesterday. Primarily we discussed where you are morally obligated when it comes to the use of fonts. In case you didn't know, fonts are super expensive...I certainly didn't know that when I picked my major. Anyway, that's not my point. We also discussed whether, as designers, we are responsible for being knowledgeable of other cultures and languages. Should we be designing accordingly? Are we obligated to design intentionally for other people groups beyond our own?

The answer isn't clear. It was argued that it's better to stick with what you know and, should you need or want to stretch beyond that, to really immerse yourself in everything you can about the people you're designing for.

But here's what really caught my attention. My professor contended that, if we wait to design until we have thorough knowledge of everything, we will never design. Our work will never get out there because we're so concerned with what we don't know.

What in the world does this have to do with faith? Here's my thinking: in the big scheme of things, graphic design is nothing; we trump in up to be huge, but it's really nothing. I can never know everything about graphic design and how to be a good designer, but I'm still supposed to design. I'm still supposed to put myself out there, in spite of the fact that I will never be fully equipped.

God is ginormous. I can never know everything about Him. I can try, but let's be honest, it's not going to happen. As a Christian, it is quite literally my job to put myself out there and share Him. So often I don't do that, not only because it's scary and I'm shy, but because I feel ill-equipped. I feel like I don't know enough to be doing my job...but that's not how it works. If I wait until I know all there is to know about God, I will never share Him with anyone else...ever. No one would ever share Him with anyone.

That is truly an epic fail.

And I learned this in graphic design? Yes. I told you, He likes to surprise me.