Sunday, September 7, 2014

Understanding The Canvas

Its kind of crazy; at one moment you were just a blank canvas. You looked like you produced no value and millions of people could walk by and never acknowledge that you existed. I’m sure it was painful to be ignored, but that’s life and it happens to all of us. It’s actually quite sad, in reality we all really just want to be noticed. Even if it’s just for a moment, it feels nice and that feeling is hard to come by. We live in a world where pain is routine and happiness is a miracle. As the years went by moments of happiness would come and shortly later replaced with scars of distress. These moments shaped you and truth is no really took the time to get to know you. You sat down at places hoping someone might ask how you were doing. That way you could actually tell the truth. But you also knew if anyone actually asked you, they didn’t really care to know. All you really needed was a minute to talk; to have relationship with a person. But I guess these days it is rare.  Rare to find some who cares, someone who loves, and someone who gets it. Even your friends and family will let you down. It sucks, but for some reason you of all people needed to find that out the hard way. It’s weird though you seemed like such a good person. The first thing I think of when I hear trouble most certainly was not you. But for some reason you felt bad luck followed you everywhere you went. I always wanted to say something to you, but I often let my new friends decide if I would or not. You see I knew deep down inside you might want to talk to me. You didn’t need to say anything for me to get it. But there was something really weird about you, its like you watched everyone all the time. I remember one day I was at my locker and you were sitting there and I simply said, “What’s up dude” you didn’t really reply, but the smile on your face showed a glimpse of hope. I still see it and often wonder if I would have stuck around for a little bit longer if you’d be here. Maybe if I didn’t decide to leave you freshman year and hangout with new people things would be different. Its awkward and even years later I still question it all. Life takes some crazy turns, but im not sure you had to do that. Then again, I guess I didn’t really understand you. I guess it took something like this for me to see that you weren’t just a blank canvas. You were a work of art just waiting to be displayed for the world to see. You had an amazing story and heart filled with love. But just like everyone else who doesn’t appreciate art i would walk by and ignore everything you represented.

I remember my first time going to an art museum. The only real reason I was there was to get extra credit for a class. But I had to be there for an hour and check in with my teacher. I walked around the entire place looking at the clock every chance I got hoping it was time to go. Not once did I stop to look at a picture or sculpture and try to understand it. I would just walk by and ignore it all. You see what I didn’t realize then was how much thought was put into those pieces. How much time was taken to create them or even how much value they actually have.

I want to encourage you take a moment of your life and care for someone. You see it’s to often in life that we ignore. Whether we want to believe it or not a lot of the hurt that exist here today is because of us. The lack of love that exists is crazy. I actually don’t understand it at all. Its weird because all of us are just searching for the same thing. We just want to feel wanted, loved, needed, missed, pursued and many other things. But oddly enough we are to eager to walk away instead of giving that away to people.

Whether you believe in Jesus or not hear me out. You see he was a different man. Someone I like to mirror myself after. He literally just loved people. He looked at them as people of worth. He understood what value they produced and how beautiful they are. He was just a solid friend.  He lived life and just loved people the best he could. So my challenge to you is to do just that. Be relational with people step out of your circle and meet someone new. Get to know a stranger. Imagine if we all actually cared about one another. Recognize the beauty we all produce. Don’t just walk by without a care in the world. Take a second and think about the value in front of you. “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance”- Aristotle

Signed By,


 A Man Chasing His Dreams

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