Do you love design? I know I do. No mid-century modern for me. No thanks! Oh, I know those of you who love those sleek lines will claim that is what makes it design.
To me that’s like saying a single note is the equivalent of a symphony.
Give me ornate carvings, layered paintings, embellished quilts. Oh, yes, I agree that the eye needs a place to rest. I understand that, and plan for that. Even my walls have blank expanses, and I’m an artist.
The point of sensory overload is different for everyone.
At this moment, I’m so overwhelmed I’m not capable of much more than running screaming into the sunset. When I’m overwhelmed, I’m incapable of making good decisions, incapable of true creativity, incapable of being the person I want people to see, or hear. I seek a hole to hide in until the input stops. And that doesn’t work all that well, because I take me in there.
Never mind all the outside influences, I’m too complex.
I’m so grateful that the God (who created everything in layers of ornate design, with embellishments that serve no purpose but to delight the eye) is not overwhelmed, does not suffer from sensory overload.
“Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. An indecisive man is unstable in all his ways.”
James 1:5-8
These are perhaps the most complex verses in the Bible. An intertwining mass of circular reasoning to those who don’t get it. Most of us don’t get it. I don’t get it. Too often.
The verses before make it clear that the topic is the testing of our faith through trials, and that testing leads to endurance, maturity, completeness. I suppose it’s no wonder that God doesn’t make the wisdom we’re asking for clear every time. Would it be a test of faith if we knew the answer for sure?
So the test is this~can we believe that he’s given us wisdom~have the guts to act on what we think is the answer? Sometimes that still, small voice is teeny. Sometimes we know we’re hearing God say, “You know what to do” but we doubt ourselves and our ability to hear God, because we’ve ignored him too often, hidden in our holes too easily, delayed the inevitable.
So we don’t trust ourselves, and we float on the sea of indecision, in a boat named “Unanswered Prayers.”
I don’t know about you, but I suffer from motion-sickness.