This summer I discovered the work of Nikki McClure, an artist based in Olympia, Washington. Nikki’s work is simple and striking. The more time I spend with it, the more my heart rate slows and my imagination awakens. With one word and a simple image, I can access the state of my heart and a language of prayer that is hard for me to access on my own.
Consider This: 9/25/2023
A few weeks ago, the Student Deacons of the University Church in Yale and I looked at a few of Nikki’s works. We took 15 minutes to look at the art and pray. A few students, like me, were drawn to the image above: “Process.”
It is so easy to feel like we aren’t allowed to be in process. We are already supposed to know the answers, right? We are already supposed to have figured out what we need and want, right? We are already supposed to have mapped out our future and found our friends and mended relationships in our families and solved all earthly injustices … right?
Instant gratification is so accessible these days. It can feel as if we are supposed to be “instant” in all we do too.
Today, as the seasons change and fall really begins, I want to encourage each of us (myself very much included) to embrace what is already true: we are always in process. We are always becoming – and this is a beautiful thing.