OK so it has been awhile since I have "Blogged" and there are a lot of things I could blog about but I would like to talk with you about my art, and how it has changed me...
For those of you who did not know in the last few years I have begun to paint quite often...I began painting as a means of cheap Christmas gifts for my Mother and Sisters and it became something I enjoyed very much...and now is something that I am quite passionate about. When I moved to Houston to do Mission Year I wasn't sure how that would affect my painting but I knew it would do a great deal of work on me, and it did. I began (mostly to cut cost) painting on objects that I found on the side of the road. At first this was just an interesting and cheap way to put ideas down on "canvas" but it quickly took a turn as I realised what was occurring.
I was taking objects that people had thrown out, discarded, and found useless and I was bringing out their redemptive beauty. I was improving the quality of derelict objects that were other-wise cluttering up the street corners of our neighborhood. One day as I was trying to figure out what to paint on a piece of tile that I had found I realized that this is what Christ does...Jesus through his love looks at people, especially the derelict people of our society, and sees their redemptive beauty immediately...He does not have to search for it, he doesn't have to imagine it and create it because it is already there and he sees it clear as day...In Psalm 139 it says that God knew us in our mothers womb and that he knit us in before and behind...God has always known how beautiful of people we would be and has always seen us as such...
This thought began to represent itself in my art and through that began to bleed into the rest of my life especially in how I see people...I began to look at the wonderful children at the school I work at here in Houston's third ward and try to see the beauty that Christ sees in them no matter what they do...God sees a beauty in us because he created us and because we are his children and no matter how much we mess up or how hateful we are toward him he still sees us through that lens of Love.
My heart began to ache as I realized that other people do not realize this...Other people do not see these children as beautiful, they do not see my homeless friends as beautiful. I know they don't because if they did they would do something to help...If people truly saw the redemptive beauty that God grants each one of us then the sweet six year old girls I know don't have to wake up to mom and dad cooking crack in the kitchen instead of breakfast, if people saw the beauty then my friend who sits on the side of the road wouldn't be harassed out of her home by the department of transportation just because her home is under a bridge. If people saw the beauty that Christ sees then they would not be able to pay to have a teenage girl kid-napped off the streets of Houston and shipped off into the sex slave industry, Children wouldn't grow up in dangerous neighborhoods without a father, Men and Women wouldn't have to beg for food, and women would not have to sell their bodies to provide for their children...As I sit here weeping for the lovely people I have met and who will always be on my heart I understand that it is harsh of me to ask you to see them with the lens that God does but according to Dorothy Day "Love is a harsh and dreadful thing to ask, but it is the ONLY answer" GO d loves us not because of our societal standings, or how much money we have but because he created us...he created all of us. One person is not more important than another we are ALL God's children and we should act accordingly.
This is something that I believe in very much and I will now and forever do whatever I can to get people to view the hurting and the outcast with the same aching heart that God does because if we see that Beauty then the hurting stops....
Thank you and God Bless
Isaac Rice
Monday, December 7, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Waiting...
When you live in the City you wait in line for everything. You wait for food, the bathroom, computers at the library ( which is where I am now ). You wait for red lights to turn to green lights, wait for red hands to turn to white men walking ( or green men walking if you find your self in Europe). And if you live in Houston you definitely wait on the METRO.
One aspect of this year is our constant dependency on the public transit system here in Houston. The METRO, as it is called, is not the best system in the U.S. when it comes to public transit but it is not the worst either. Though there is one aspect that is always infused with the metro and that is waiting...
When my teammates and I get off of one bus to transfer to another the question isn't where do we go it is how long do we wait. In most aspects it is more beneficial for you to walk the direction you are heading and hope that when the bus comes by you are near enough to a stop that you can flag it down.
I will say one thing though, I have grown to love waiting for the bus, or at least I try, I realized this week while waiting for the bus that I always take to Yellowstone Academy, is that I am not waiting on the Bus the bus is Waiting on me! The METRO wasn't set up so that I could criticize it and be upset that it is late but rather the METRO was setup to help me reach my destination without having to walk fifteen miles round trip everyday.
I have found many ways to make the time pass quickly while waiting on a bus, however the thing I have found that makes time pass better then reading, talking to the other people waiting, or even complaining( my initial attempt to make time fly by) is trusting that the lord has his time and that the bus is running on that. For some reason the bus is late and I will be late but that is exactly what God wants.
There have been many times where my teammates and I have had to run to catch buses and other times when we miss buses, but almost every time that my team and I or even just myself have missed a bus and had to wait on the next we have met new friends or seen old ones. Those social collisions would not have happened if we had driven, or caught the earlier bus, or taken our friend up on the ride home. In "New Neighbor" by Leroy Barber the president of Mission Year there is a section that asks a simple question "would Jesus drive?" In this little section of the book the writer talks about an instance on the bus where the bus was late and was taking its time on its route but then it had to stop for about five minutes to allow a woman in a wheel chair to get on. People had to get out of their seats on an already crowded bus, but no one griped or grumbled. Why? because they all knew the woman and in fact instead of complaining they were all talking to her and being congenial. For a moment people stopped worrying about being on time and stopped worrying about having to wait and instead enjoyed the simple interactions of human connection.
This is not meant to be an attack on those who use and own cars, because most of our country is built on an automobile centered society and blah blah blah. However if you live in a city with public transit try it out see what people use all the time and put your self in their shoes. You never know you may be sitting on the bus and next thing you know Jesus is sitting next to you.
I know this is a loaded topic and it doesn't make much sense but I only have so much time on the computer in the library...I will talk about this more however.
I love you all
Ike
One aspect of this year is our constant dependency on the public transit system here in Houston. The METRO, as it is called, is not the best system in the U.S. when it comes to public transit but it is not the worst either. Though there is one aspect that is always infused with the metro and that is waiting...
When my teammates and I get off of one bus to transfer to another the question isn't where do we go it is how long do we wait. In most aspects it is more beneficial for you to walk the direction you are heading and hope that when the bus comes by you are near enough to a stop that you can flag it down.
I will say one thing though, I have grown to love waiting for the bus, or at least I try, I realized this week while waiting for the bus that I always take to Yellowstone Academy, is that I am not waiting on the Bus the bus is Waiting on me! The METRO wasn't set up so that I could criticize it and be upset that it is late but rather the METRO was setup to help me reach my destination without having to walk fifteen miles round trip everyday.
I have found many ways to make the time pass quickly while waiting on a bus, however the thing I have found that makes time pass better then reading, talking to the other people waiting, or even complaining( my initial attempt to make time fly by) is trusting that the lord has his time and that the bus is running on that. For some reason the bus is late and I will be late but that is exactly what God wants.
There have been many times where my teammates and I have had to run to catch buses and other times when we miss buses, but almost every time that my team and I or even just myself have missed a bus and had to wait on the next we have met new friends or seen old ones. Those social collisions would not have happened if we had driven, or caught the earlier bus, or taken our friend up on the ride home. In "New Neighbor" by Leroy Barber the president of Mission Year there is a section that asks a simple question "would Jesus drive?" In this little section of the book the writer talks about an instance on the bus where the bus was late and was taking its time on its route but then it had to stop for about five minutes to allow a woman in a wheel chair to get on. People had to get out of their seats on an already crowded bus, but no one griped or grumbled. Why? because they all knew the woman and in fact instead of complaining they were all talking to her and being congenial. For a moment people stopped worrying about being on time and stopped worrying about having to wait and instead enjoyed the simple interactions of human connection.
This is not meant to be an attack on those who use and own cars, because most of our country is built on an automobile centered society and blah blah blah. However if you live in a city with public transit try it out see what people use all the time and put your self in their shoes. You never know you may be sitting on the bus and next thing you know Jesus is sitting next to you.
I know this is a loaded topic and it doesn't make much sense but I only have so much time on the computer in the library...I will talk about this more however.
I love you all
Ike
Monday, October 5, 2009
A thorn among lilies...without restrain.
This past weekend my team and I attended a speaking engagement around the Galleria area of Houston. First off the Galleria is the perfect example of American consumerism and therefore as my teammates and I drove through on our way to the event we were amazed by the amount of money that goes into some things and the lack of money that goes into others.
At the conference we were blessed to hear from a Franciscan Monk of the third order. His name was Chris Webb and he is president of the organization named Renevare, he is subsequently the subject of this blog.
Chris is a practicing Franciscan Monk (weird robe and all) he spoke this past weekend on what else but St. Francis. Chris' ideas were not entirely new to my teammates and I but to the rest of the crowd it was breathtakingly extreme and new.
While there were many things I pulled from our time there the one thing I would like to talk about is the mission question that Chris proposed.
"What does it mean for me to follow Christ without reserve?"
Chris told a story of a conversation he had during his first thoughts of joining the Franciscan lifestyle. He was talking to a friend in a frenzy saying how it sounded crazy to just give everything away he was saying how you can't just give everything away and his friend simply said "Why Not?"...
So Chris' question for people is now Do you have anything better to do?
What is holding all of us back? What is keeping us from following Christ? Why is there reservation in our walk with him?
Simply put there should not be reservation and if there is we should be doing everything we can to rid our selves of reservation.
Look at your walk. If there is reservation ( and we all have them some are obvious some are not) then seek God's wisdom to find the ways to rid your self of any reservation.
I am calling this a thorn among lilies because what we are called to do is not comfortable it is not the normal lifestyle in our society If you follow it you will be a thorn in the side of those who desire to be comfortable and you will stick out.
"Love is a harsh and dreadful thing to ask of us, but it is the only answer." Dorothy Day
We are called to live a life of unconditional love. A love that is unending, a blind love, and a love that has nothing holding it back.
Love God, Love People nothing else matters!
Love
Ike
At the conference we were blessed to hear from a Franciscan Monk of the third order. His name was Chris Webb and he is president of the organization named Renevare, he is subsequently the subject of this blog.
Chris is a practicing Franciscan Monk (weird robe and all) he spoke this past weekend on what else but St. Francis. Chris' ideas were not entirely new to my teammates and I but to the rest of the crowd it was breathtakingly extreme and new.
While there were many things I pulled from our time there the one thing I would like to talk about is the mission question that Chris proposed.
"What does it mean for me to follow Christ without reserve?"
Chris told a story of a conversation he had during his first thoughts of joining the Franciscan lifestyle. He was talking to a friend in a frenzy saying how it sounded crazy to just give everything away he was saying how you can't just give everything away and his friend simply said "Why Not?"...
So Chris' question for people is now Do you have anything better to do?
What is holding all of us back? What is keeping us from following Christ? Why is there reservation in our walk with him?
Simply put there should not be reservation and if there is we should be doing everything we can to rid our selves of reservation.
Look at your walk. If there is reservation ( and we all have them some are obvious some are not) then seek God's wisdom to find the ways to rid your self of any reservation.
I am calling this a thorn among lilies because what we are called to do is not comfortable it is not the normal lifestyle in our society If you follow it you will be a thorn in the side of those who desire to be comfortable and you will stick out.
"Love is a harsh and dreadful thing to ask of us, but it is the only answer." Dorothy Day
We are called to live a life of unconditional love. A love that is unending, a blind love, and a love that has nothing holding it back.
Love God, Love People nothing else matters!
Love
Ike
Monday, September 28, 2009
Just thought you would like to know...
So....
As I sit here in the down town branch of the Houston Public Library trying to think through these past four weeks I find the task daunting.
Like any story the beginning is the best place to begin. My mother and I arrived in Houston on August 26th and stayed the night in a hotel in Conroe (an outlying suburb of the greater Houston Metro Area). On Thursday the 27th we made our way to what would become my teams home church "Ecclessia". There I met my teammates and city directors. After a welcome dinner we were introduced to a few of the service sites that we would be working with. After the dinner we made our way to our pastors house to sleep as we did not yet have a house. That is right we were homeless. Our first full day as a team we went on a prayer tour of Houston provided by CSM a christian organization that works closely with college age people who are doing work in the inner city. This tour was both informative and enlightening. The reality began to set in that we were in a city that was hurting. The next day we met with our City Director briefly and then were on our way to National Mission Year training outside of Atlanta Georgia.
After an amazing week long training we made our was back to H-town with the exciting news that we now have a house. We are living in what is known as the Eastwood neighborhood which is on the northern edge of the third ward, which is one of the most impoverished areas of Houston. After a week of In-City training and furniture moving we were ready to begin our year long adventure. We were assigned out service sites and set out to work at them.
Iwas placed at Yellowstone Academy which is a private school for pre-k through sixth grade. Yellowstone is located in the third ward where it provides a top-notch christian education to children whose families are suffering from the plight of urban poverty. I have enjoyed my time working there so far and look forward to seeing what relationships will be forged through my time there. I work during the day as a substitute, teachers' aide, and all around od-job worker, in the afternoon I work in there extended day program which is an after school care program on steroids. The kids at Yellowstone are amazing and a lot of fun.
On top of our time spent at our different service sites my teammates and myself are getting to know our neighbors and our neighborhood. We have met several people so far and have even found that one of our neighbors is a certified Mui Tai and mixed Martial Arts instructor, so he has offered to give free private lessons to us and other neighbors.
These past four weeks have been filled with meeting people, learning, frustration (mainly with the horribly chaotic excuse for public transit) and with exhaustion. But every minute, second, and moment has been great. God has shown me so many things about myself, how I interact with others, and also the greatest thing He has shown me what living out love truly looks like ( though I know that I have not mastered this and in fact will continue to learn about this subject for the rest of my life).
This post is more informatory then anything but I needed to put all this down so that I can begin to chew the cud of this past month.
thanks for reading I hope to post more often and hopefully this helps me understand what is going on in my head and helps to to know what this experience is.
"No significant learning occurs without significant relationship." -Dr James Comer
...The End
-Ike
p.s. be on the look out for some pictures of my recent painting on Face book.
As I sit here in the down town branch of the Houston Public Library trying to think through these past four weeks I find the task daunting.
Like any story the beginning is the best place to begin. My mother and I arrived in Houston on August 26th and stayed the night in a hotel in Conroe (an outlying suburb of the greater Houston Metro Area). On Thursday the 27th we made our way to what would become my teams home church "Ecclessia". There I met my teammates and city directors. After a welcome dinner we were introduced to a few of the service sites that we would be working with. After the dinner we made our way to our pastors house to sleep as we did not yet have a house. That is right we were homeless. Our first full day as a team we went on a prayer tour of Houston provided by CSM a christian organization that works closely with college age people who are doing work in the inner city. This tour was both informative and enlightening. The reality began to set in that we were in a city that was hurting. The next day we met with our City Director briefly and then were on our way to National Mission Year training outside of Atlanta Georgia.
After an amazing week long training we made our was back to H-town with the exciting news that we now have a house. We are living in what is known as the Eastwood neighborhood which is on the northern edge of the third ward, which is one of the most impoverished areas of Houston. After a week of In-City training and furniture moving we were ready to begin our year long adventure. We were assigned out service sites and set out to work at them.
Iwas placed at Yellowstone Academy which is a private school for pre-k through sixth grade. Yellowstone is located in the third ward where it provides a top-notch christian education to children whose families are suffering from the plight of urban poverty. I have enjoyed my time working there so far and look forward to seeing what relationships will be forged through my time there. I work during the day as a substitute, teachers' aide, and all around od-job worker, in the afternoon I work in there extended day program which is an after school care program on steroids. The kids at Yellowstone are amazing and a lot of fun.
On top of our time spent at our different service sites my teammates and myself are getting to know our neighbors and our neighborhood. We have met several people so far and have even found that one of our neighbors is a certified Mui Tai and mixed Martial Arts instructor, so he has offered to give free private lessons to us and other neighbors.
These past four weeks have been filled with meeting people, learning, frustration (mainly with the horribly chaotic excuse for public transit) and with exhaustion. But every minute, second, and moment has been great. God has shown me so many things about myself, how I interact with others, and also the greatest thing He has shown me what living out love truly looks like ( though I know that I have not mastered this and in fact will continue to learn about this subject for the rest of my life).
This post is more informatory then anything but I needed to put all this down so that I can begin to chew the cud of this past month.
thanks for reading I hope to post more often and hopefully this helps me understand what is going on in my head and helps to to know what this experience is.
"No significant learning occurs without significant relationship." -Dr James Comer
...The End
-Ike
p.s. be on the look out for some pictures of my recent painting on Face book.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
The start of something new...
As you may ,or may not, already know I am embarking on an adventure in less then on week, where I will be spending the next year (from this September to the following August) Living in community with the Urban Poor of Houston, Texas. I will be spending my days volunteering at after-school programs, home-less shelters, and many other venues through which I can better live Christ's Love to the community in which I will be living. I am doing all these things through a program called Mission Year (www.missionyear.org). As part of my participation in the program I am asked to try to raise $12,000 throughout the whole year. I understand that times are tough for some people these days and as such I am not asking that you give an overwhelming amount of money (though every little bit helps) I am contacting you to inform you of my plans and hope that you can show your support in whatever way you so desire. ( the occasional prayer shout-out is appreciated as this will prove to be a difficult year for sure.) Thank you in advance for whatever support you put forth, I cannot wait to share with you the experiences I have this next year.
If you so desire you can use this link to send in support. https://www.missionyear.org/launch/isaacrice
I will be updating this as much as I can.
Love,
Isaac
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