Instead of staying in the castle, I opted to stay in one of the other lodges on the Glen Eyrie property. For one, I love getting outside and walking from place to place instead of being inside the same location all day. Plus, I’ve stayed in the castle before and it was less expensive to stay in one of the lodges.
My room in the Bighorn Lodge was lovely and spacious, and this is the view I woke up to out of my big picture window on Thursday morning.
As I made my way to the castle for breakfast, I was greeted by this friendly doe, who was already feasting on her morning fare. 🙂
Michael Card led the first session of the day on the topic of “Creativity as Servanthood.” He began by asking, “What are the implications of Jesus living a perfect life?” His response, “We can go to His life and find what we need. Everything He said was the perfect thing to have said.” Amazing thought!
The bulk of the talk centered on what Michael called “the radical reversal” of humility as the basis for exaltation and slavery as the basis for lordship. Jesus revealed the glory of God in His humility. This is most obvious in the way He performed miracles, where He seldom made a point to draw attention to Himself, but rather to point the individual to His Father. Michael also posited that creativity is only useful insomuch as it serves others. He concluded with two interesting points:
- We serve within the liberating confines of knowing who we are.
- We are called first to give ourselves, not what we think. We are not our gifts.
The other morning session was a creativity panel comprised of the following people: visual artists Michael and Teresa Carter, Michael Card, Phil Keaggy, Dr. Greg Cope, and Ken Lewis. For the hour and half allotted, anyone was invited to ask questions of one or more of the panel members and also offer their own thoughts or comments in response to questions posed by others. Here are a few quotes I captured that I thought were especially insightful and worth remembering:
“Productive artists aren’t afraid to produce insignificant works.” ~Teresa Carter (though I believe she was quoting another artist)
“Some of the best and most creative things come from very little.” ~Ken Lewis
“If you’re an artist, you will always be an artist.” ~Phil Keaggy
“Whether you’re right or wrong, I’m on your side. Especially when you’re wrong.” ~Michael Card (quoting something someone said to him as a young man that greatly impacted his life)
“Am I willing to be anonymous?” ~Teresa Carter
“Rests let the listener’s imagination fill in the blanks.” ~Ken Lewis
“You can’t say everything all the time.” ~Michael Card
“Your Worst Piece First” ~an assignment Michael Carter does with his art students to help them break out of their fear of creating a piece of artwork that won’t be good
After an alfresco lunch, we had the afternoon free to go hiking, take a nap, work on a project for the community presentations the following evening, or whatever else we felt like.
We re-joined the group for dinner and then a concert given by Phil Keaggy, Michael Card, and Ken Lewis. It was so fun to watch these guys make music together, improv on stage, laugh at their mistakes, and share their heart for praising the Lord! The last scheduled activity of the day was a “Star and Night Sky Party” at 9:30. Unfortunately, there was too much cloud cover to see the stars, so we just got our drinks at the on-site coffee shop and sat around the Carriage House courtyard talking and enjoying the refreshing night air.
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