[Deuteronomy 6:4]  - 

As I painted this image, what held my attention was the tension between the figure leaning into the storm and the storm itself with all its strength pushing the other way. For the first part of worship with Corie and Ericka leading, I let the colors run diagonally, continually adding more and more layers of running paint. The colors ran and created an atmosphere that only began to appear as a storm that pushed hard as the figure emerged. Storms are not optional. They come. We stay standing… albeit leaning. The sense I had looking at the figure was that obeying God is not optional. If you look for God, if you hear God’s voice, you obey regardless of the storms. You keep going. This, by the way, is the meaning of the Hebrew word for ‘believe’. ‘Shamah’, means both to hear, and it means to obey. Believing is not just hearing God, it is also found in the action of obeying. 

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

Click HERE for time lapse video of this painting.