Doodling As Spiritual Practice
God Brings Beauty Out of Chaos
Next week I will interview Brian Edgar author of The God Who Plays A Playful Approach to Theology and Spirituality for my podcast The Liturgical Rebels. His book is fascinating. He contends that a playful attitude towards God and the world lies at the centre of Christian faith. Not quite the view most of us grew up with, but it reminded me of some of what I wrote in The Gift Of Wonder. In fact in preparation for the interview, I re-read parts of The Gift of Wonder as I realized I needed to refresh my own mind about what I wrote.
One of the fun spiritual practices I talk about in my book is doodling, something which I have not done for quite a while but hope to indulge in again while we are away in Canada this next week visiting our good friends Tom and Kim Balke. It was Kim who encouraged me to doodle as a spiritual practice.. For that reason I decided to repost this doodling exercise I wrote a few years ago in response to my book. I hope you enjoy it.
This week I had fun doodling. Some of you may remember that this is one of the practices I talk about in The Gift of Wonder . I was introduced to it by my good friend Kim Balke and I find it to be an inspirational way to look at life and the challenges I am facing from a different perspective. It is also a great stimulus to creativity and a way to open my heart and my soul to the movement the spirit of God. I even think that God loves to doodle. When I fly I love to look down at the meandering patterns of rivers, in some places slowly being filled with silt, in others breaking through the bank and creating new and imaginative paths. That’s God doodling I think. Filling in the pattern here. Extending and making it new there. Always creating and expressing new things.
Doodles begin with chaos
Doodle taking shape
I grabbed one of my gel pens and my art journal, closed my eyes, did a few deep breaths to relax myself and doodled with my left for about 15 seconds. When I opened my eyes I was a little frustrated with the image. My gel pen was obviously drying out a bit and the pattern was interrupted by blank spaces.
But as I stared at it God began to speak. “Like this image, your life is chaotic and messy at times, and even the lines of messiness aren’t clear. You fill in the lines and then add shape and color to bring out its beauty, just as I do in your life, and a little like I did when I created the earth and all that is in it“.
So I started to add color. My first line of dots looked like a question mark. Life’s uncertainties are always before us but sometimes we are more aware of them than at others. So many of my friends are facing uncertain situations at the moment, illness, job loss, life transitions and I want to be able to fix them, but they are not mine to fix.
Question: Are there places in your life that seem chaotic reigns and messiness reigns where God might be beginning a new creation in you?
What do we do with loose ends?
“But I don’t like loose ends” I reminded God, they speak of unfinished business, unfulfilled dreams, uncompleted tasks that nag at my brain and make me feel inadequate.
“Loose ends are a part of who we all are” God reminded me. “It’s only when you pull on them at the wrong time that they unravel.” Wow now that could keep my contemplative mind busy for the next week on its own.
Question: Are there things in your life that are unravelling because you have pulled on them at the wrong time or in the wrong way?
Out of chaos beauty can emerge
Out of chaos beauty can emerge
Now as I look at my completed doodle I am amazed at the beauty that has emerged. There is still a lot of blank space and my fingers itch to fill it in, but God prompts me to wait and sit in silence for a while. I think about my own life, admire the beauty that God has created out of the chaos and messiness, consider the blank spaces I still itch to see filled in and sit patiently(I hope) waiting for the Spirit to guide me into completeness. There is beauty in incompleteness. I am not finished with you yet. Be patient, allow the unfinished shapes to beckon you on to new adventures, new creativity, new revelation
Question: Where are the spaces in your life that you itched to see filled in but sense God is saying wait?
Why don’t you pull out some gel pens, crayons, coloured pencils or paint pens this week and make your own doodle. I would love to hear what insight God gives you as you prayerfully do this.
Christine, you and Tom came to teach my wife and me (and our colleagues) many years ago when we began working as campus ministers. I’ve been grateful for your work ever since. As an environmental studies and religion professor now, I encourage doodling and sketching all the time. So glad to see what you have written about — and doodled — here.