Thursday, April 17, 2008

The Tool of Product- Pt. 2

A few weeks back, I started a small series about making SoulPerSuit cards and how they can be significant to your faith journey.
This week, I want to touch on how a SoulPerSuit card can actually be insignificant to your faith journey. There are some things that a SoulPerSuit card simply cannot do. Gotta keep it all in perspective, right?


Things SoulPerSuit cards are not:

-a substitute for active application
If the Lord is impressing on you the need to go to a brother and be reconciled, then don't make a SoulPerSuit card about reconciliation… go and be reconciled.
Perhaps you feel convicted to give over a certain area of your life to the Holy Spirit's control. I encourage you to not dance around the topic by fashioning a pretty SoulPerSuit card. Put yourself at the mercy of the Lord and do what He is prompting you to do.

(Between you and me, living out your faith and convictions is a much better SoulPerSuit "card" than anything you could dream up with a magazine collage.)

-an art contest
There is no such thing as a juried SoulPerSuit art show.
Your job is to get your thoughts out in a visual way that is meaningful to you.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about. (Artistically? Mediocre. Meaningful? Oh yeah.)



- mandatory (a)
Can you believe I just said that?!?

If you aren't feeling inspired to make a card during a given week's SoulPerSuit lesson, skip it. There are no rules. Often times your ideas will bubble and brew in the background and by the time you get to Week 5 of the study, you'll have the perfect idea for Week 2's application point. You can go back and revisit any lesson at any time. There are no rules.

But wait, there's more to this story...

- mandatory (b)
You might happen to be one of those people who just. plain. can’t. ever. think. of. a. single. card. idea.
Even after Week 2 and Week 5 march by.
Don't lose hope.
If it freaks you out to attempt making a SoulPerSuit card out of thin air, I recommend starting out by tackling the Shuffle the Deck questions at the beginning of each SoulPerSuit lesson. While the Shuffles are meant to get your creative juices pumping as a lead in to the focus of the lesson, the Shuffles might be the only creative thing you feel you can manage for now. Focus on the creative things you can do, and let the rest fall away. There are no rules.

The great thing about those Shuffle the Deck questions is that the instructions and art supply parameters are provided for you. All you have to do is follow the directions.


-just a playing card with a picture glued to it
While of course, this may be what your SoulPerSuit card looks like, there's really an infinite variety of things you can do for SPS.
If you like to bake cakes, bake a cake.
If you knit, then knit.
A dancer? Choreograph a little something that springs from your time in the Scriptures. Rhonda has even suggested attaching artwork all over the side door of a Volkswagen Bug!
Whatever thing you like to do most, do that thing.
Whatever new thing you want to try, try that thing.
There are no rules.

1 comment:

rhon said...

Great post, Erin. Thanks for putting this up.