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First off, thanks again to my Facebook peeps for their Philippians suggestions! There was an awesome suggestion for Philippians 3:8 where Paul uses the word “skubala,” which is best translated as “sh*t.” I gotta tell you, when you’re designing your way through the Bible and you run into a passage that mentions “sh*t,” it’s very difficult to pass up. This morning… wait a second… time out….
Is anyone really less offended that I’ve used an asterisk in that word? I mean, you all know what word that is, right? Does one letter missing really make it less offensive? I don’t know about you, but it seems a little silly to me. Plus, Paul used this word in the the Bible! So let’s just be real. After all, you don’t really visit my site for polite talk about the Bible, right? It’s “shit.” Paul used the word “shit” and that is what I’ll use from here on out. So for those of you who haven’t left the site, let’s pick it back up. Where was I… oh yeah….
So this morning I started going with the “shit” direction, but I just couldn’t figure out a way to make that work. I may have to “leftover” that passage though. In other words, I’ll come back to that shit.
Now that we’re done swearing, let’s talk about God
In Philippians we find Paul encouraging people to think about good things. However, I don’t think Paul’s goal was to just make them feel happy. Rather, I think he wanted them to have a mood and mindset that makes them more receptive to to hearing and following God.
Are you gonna get all “Oprah” up in here?
I like Paul’s idea of thinking about good stuff. It sorta sounds a little self-help-Oprahish, but there’s a lot of truth in that. I know when I devote brain time to thinking about good stuff, I generally have a better attitude, I’m more thankful and I’m more focused on others. And that’s good. So for this design, I decided to list out some of the things that, in my opinion, contribute to me being in a mindset where I’m more likely to hear and follow God’s word. Just to be clear, this is not intended to be a literal translation of the passage.
I’d like to quickly rattle through each of the things in the design and give you my incredibly subjective reasons why I love each of them. Ready? Go!
- Cat – This is the internet, right? We gotta talk about cats! I love cats. Specifically I love my 2 cats, Tutti and Peppers. I’m amazed at how much joy I get from them.
- Thumbs Up – I like to be positive as much as possible. Y’know, hope the best in all situations?
- Suitcase – I don’t fly halfway around the world very often, but just a day trip can be refreshing. I love seeing different things in different places.
- Coffee – I don’t mean the sissy sweet latte stuff. I’m talking straight up dark roast. No cream, no sugar.
- Tshirt – I’ve never had a job where I need to wear a suit and I hope I never have to. What’s more comfortable than a tshirt?
- Movie Camera – Movies are awesome. I love getting lost in another world for a couple hours.
- Wheat – This one represents farming, which represents my grandpa. My grandpa was an amazing guy who farmed his entire life. He was a great example of how “being a man” doesn’t always mean being macho. It can mean being gentle, kind and humble.
- Bird – If I could be any animal, I’d be a bird. They fly in the air. How cool is that?!
- Baseball – If you think it’s a boring game, you just don’t get it.
- Cross – Jesus is a pretty sweet dude. I’ve talked about him before.
- Treble Clef – Music is a powerful thing. Like movies, I can get so caught up in music that it transports me into another world.
- Computer – It’s how I make my living and my art. Plus, did you know that you can see tons of funny cat pictures on a computer?
- Minnesota – I complain about it in the winter, but I really do love Minnesota. Great music and arts scene and the change of seasons is beautiful.
- Flower – I kinda like flowers, but this one really represents my wife, who loves flowers. She’s the love of my life and makes me a better person. When I first asked her out, I called her from a pay phone at a gas station since I didn’t have any minutes left on my cell phone for that month. (I was a real catch, huh?) I honestly don’t know why she married me, but I sure am glad she did.
- Popcorn – My addiction to the popcorn from Candyland has been well-documented. It makes all other popcorn taste like skubala.
- Beer – Like with coffee, I don’t mean sweet beer. And I don’t mean downing a 12 pack of Bud Light either. I’m talking about a single craft beer. Preferably local.
- Bonfire – Crisp evening, warm fire, close friends and a few marshmallows. Who doesn’t love that?
- iPhone – Remember when the internet wasn’t in your pocket? Me neither.
That it! I’m sure Paul was thinking about things a bit more holy than popcorn and beer. Again, this is not intended to be a literal translation of the passage. In other words, find all the humor you want in the design, just don’t look to it for accurate theology.
Like I mentioned, this is a very subjective list (which makes me think there won’t be a high demand for prints of this one). Your list may have 18 completely different things than mine. Why not drop a few of yours in the comments below?
Tags: naughty word, Paul, think
Posted on Friday, June 24.
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Fish. They’re like birds in a cage, except they actually fly in the cage, instead of making noise and biting you.
Little kids. When they’re sweet and innocent, they remind me of how God wants me to be. When they’re not, they remind me of what I’m really like inside.
Listening to my two kids play nicely right now, but remembering the tantrum from less than an hour ago, your comment seems extremely pertinent.
Things on my list:
My mom, aka “Grandma”, one of the most amazing ladies I know.
Love, of God, friends, family and food.
Learning (or books), because knowing more is good, and reading is good for the imagination.
The ocean, probably the most powerful force on earth after God; so destructive, but also calming and beautiful, and teeming with tons of amazing life forms.
Also, I don’t have the internet in my pocket.
Great artwork, great post, this is good shit.
the word shit didn’t come around till 1800′s. col. 3:10 -set you mind on heavenly things, not on earthly things.
Thanks for the comment! I think Matt did a great job explaining my use of the word “shit.” I guess I’m not quite clear what you’re trying to say with the Colossians 3:10 reference though?
Either way, thanks for visiting the site!
skubala was the “vulgar term used for feces.” even if “shit” wasn’t around until the 1800′s, it is what we use as the “vulgar term for feces” today. it does a pretty good job of setting the spectrum for what all things should be counted as compared to knowing Christ. :)
btw, i’d probably include 15/18 of these in my own… not sure what the other three would be, though… may have to repost later after i figure that out.
I liked your mention of grandpa… Brought tears to my eyes.
Thanks for the kind words, everyone!
Jim, I love Jesus and I enjoy good creativity and certainly some humour, like that which you express in these visuals, but I am not a keen supporter of misconstruing the power of the Spirit behind the word of God. I wouldn’t have equated “true” with “awesome”, “noble” with “rad”, “pure” with “sweet”, and I would not have attributed “praiseworthy” to any of those things in your list. Because the list the the apostle Paul gives in chapter 4 is what he exhorts us to think always about, and you’re right in saying these things Paul intends to bring joy out from us. But I can’t say these are in the same category of things that Paul taught and lived out amongst the Philippians (4:9).
I welcome, encourage and support all who seek to make Christ known and use what He has blessed each of us with to Christ’s glory in our individual ways, and this is not a personal attack nor a statement of “I don’t like these visual summaries that you’re making” (because I honestly do like them!) but I think there’s a fine line between presenting the gospel for the edification of this generation in this context, and diluting or even misrepresenting the timeless Biblical truth of God that transcends culture and context.
This short messsage from John Piper is what stayed in the back of my mind as I write this to you.
I hope all others who come to your site would take from you what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable that you’ve done, Jim, and that at the same time we would learn from each other about all that is not the above, and to change these things.
Your brother in Christ
am I not allowed to post URLs here? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY6bn-MrjdQ
It didn’t show up =\ Well, I was referring to the youtube video titled “John Piper – The Achillies’ Heel of the Next Generation”.
Hey Lee – Thanks for your comment and for both your and Piper’s warning. After giving this some thought, I’ve actually decided not to respond to any of the specific issues you raised in this post. Instead, I’ll say this…
With any wide-ranging project or book, it’s always important to see each individual piece of it in context of the whole. In the Bible, for instance, if you read only the book of Judges, you will not have a complete picture of God and his heart for humanity.
My series of Bible designs and write ups will end up at roughly 90 total, making this post a 1/90th representation of the overall project. My guess is that you haven’t read many of the other 89. I don’t say that as a knock on you at all. (I myself wouldn’t want to go through and re-read all of them.) I bring that up because if you’d read more of my posts and gotten an idea of some of the general themes that come up in this project, I don’t think you’d have quite so strong a response to this post. You still may disagree with it, sure, but I think you’d know that it was maybe just one spot where I may have gotten a little theologically lazy or sidetracked.
If you have time, I’d ask you to take a stroll through a few of my other designs and write ups, specifically my Easter series. I think that you might find that one of the main themes of this entire project is that Jesus is COMPLETELY unlike anyone or anything that has ever existed.
This post? It’s probably not very well thought out and I probably wrote it pretty quick and it’s probably 99% humor/sarcasm and 1% solid theology, but it is what it is: a snapshot of my Word project on June 24, 2011.
Thank you again for the comment. I do appreciate hearing from folks who may take issue with some of the stuff I do.