Today’s Sketchy Sundays are an empty cage and an open hand.  Bit skew-iff in both cases, but I had too much coffee this morning and I couldn’t draw a straight line for shit.  No, seriously – jittery as fook.

In my head, there was a tiger in the cage.  But I didn’t get around to it in the end.

Drawing at church takes me back to my childhood when I was made to sit through sermons by my mum.  However, I have yet to receive a disapproving look for the drawing or indeed for keeping my eyes open during prayer times.  In your face, childhood discipline!

Talk today at Re:Hope was on Posture.  Summary: Postures matter to God so pay attention to what your body is saying.  Mine was saying ‘Caffeine overload!’ today, but I think God understood.

I’ve never been good at remembering church sermons.  I mean, I have no problems keeping my attention on speakers but for some reason it was like water through a sieve when it came to actual content.   So  I started to take notes a few years ago to try and retain some memory.  To no avail.  (I suspect this also applies to an extent to my university career…)

Then I started to draw during services.  I have a very visual mind. If someone tells me something, it’s gone.  I have a better chance if I see it written, but still not great.  But, I finally figured out that I have a good chance of remembering the main points of a sermon if I draw it in some kind of pictorial way.

Sometimes, what I produce is totally at odds with what is being said – as in this case.  The teaching was on anointing with oil at Re:Hope (http://www.rehope.co.uk/media/) and I draw a waterlily with petals drifting off.  Go figure!

The lotus seems to resonate – it has a central role in various eastern religions: Buddhism, Hinduism as well as being important to the Ancient Egyptians and Greeks.  For me, what speaks to me is the fact that they can float far and wide and seem unrooted, and yet their roots go deep.  I  have a half-finished (actually barely started) painting of waterlilies going off into the distance that I felt I wanted to try.  But as usual, time has been at a premium.  I’ll get around to it!

To be fair, I also drew a jug of oil.