Hey kyukalv! You were one of the first people I ever found on Insta, and I just want to ask how you so confidently have been able to progress in your art journey without losing sight of your journey with God? I'm a Christian artist trying to become an artist professionally one day and I'm not sure if art is what He is calling me for.
Hi!! It's so nice to hear from you!!
As a kid I wanted to be an illustrator and specifically draw book covers. I loved art and kept up with it for years but there was a point where I lost my spark and hadn't done much of anything art related for three years. Theoretically, I still wanted to be an illustrator, but I was barely doing anything anymore, could I really still do it?
Which is when Rise of the TMNT came into my life. It might be silly to say so, but the show saved my love for art. I discovered it maybe a month after the movie had come out and just really fell in love with it. It made me feel inspired again and I started drawing again in 2022 and have kept it up ever since. God can use our interests and the talents He gave us for His glory and I think He used Rise to help me get back into art again.
I had a bit of a crisis right out of high school and took a gap year before I started college. I had taken up a lot of extra work and needed the break but it also gave me time to think. As the deadline came up for when I would go back to school I started freaking out because I still wanted to do art but I didn't know if I should pick something more stable. I tossed around a bunch of ideas, even becoming a teacher or a professional babysitter (both of which would have probably drained my life force by day three) and while I probably could have handled them had I chosen to become any of those ideas, I still wanted to do art. So when the college I applied to had an art program, and even a specific illustration program, I decided to go for it.
As a kid I wanted to be an illustrator and specifically draw book covers. Now I want to be an illustrator and specifically draw book covers, but I also want to create and publish comics about my original stories and characters too.
Now, how does faith come into play?
I think whatever a believer does for work, be it plumbing, painting roads, graphic design, professional ice skating, being a tour guide, librarian, flight attendant, teacher, chemist, archaeologist, etc. can be used to glorify God. Whether your position has people clapping for you in the streets or not, you can still glorify God in your behavior. You can make connections with those around you and be a light in a dark world. You can grow close with your coworkers and share the gospel with them or even your clients. The pastor at my old church used to be a locksmith and he would tell people the gospel when he could. There was a girl in one of my old classes who decided to become a tattoo artist and share the gospel with her clients when she could.
There are a wide variety of spheres of human interests, and the more believers in any one of them, the better. You don't have to just become a pastor or a missionary to glorify God (but if that's where you think He's calling you it's more than fine to go do so, you know, depending).
We've talked about God "calling" us a lot, but what about when it's hard to tell? Or He's not calling at all?
Before anything else, I am going to recommend a book called "Just Do Something" by Kevin DeYoung, because there does come a point where you need to just make a decision. In the foreword of the book, there is a quote from him that goes: "God is not a magic 8-ball we shake up and peer into whenever we have a decision to make. He is a good God who gives us brains, shows us the way of obedience, and invites us to take risks for Him."
We spend a lot of time asking God to tell us our future, but that's not how He works. If I'm being forthright, God cares a lot more about how you live your life in obedience to Him, worshipping Him, sharing the gospel, and glorifying Him to others. The big decisions for us like where to go to college, what to do as a career, whether or not to get married, etc. aren't as important as that.
Furthermore, in the book of Esther (Esther 3-4), after her cousin Mordecai overheard Haman's plot to massacre the Jews under the rule of King Xerxes, he implores her, a fellow Jew, as the new queen to go speak to King and stop the massacre. Initially, she refused, because going before the King if he did not summon her could very well mean her death, but Mordecai convinced her to go. In return, Esther asked him to gather the Jews and to pray and fast for her for three days, and she and her servants would do the same, and then she would go. She prayed for strength for her decision, but she did not pray and then continue to wait for a sign. She went and did it. We know on the other side of history that it all worked out but she did not, she just had to go.
It's all in the Lord's hands, so whether you succeed or you fail, it's part of His plan (Ephesians 1:11; Matthew 10:29-30; Psalm 139:16). But if this is what you really enjoy and you want to use the gifts God has given you full-time then I think you should go for it! You should still do research and set up a safety net and all that jazz, but at some point, you do have to take the leap and all the risks it entails.
I know that if I fail to be an artist full-time, then I'll work on finding a job with stable income and still do art because I love it. I'll be praying for you. I hope this helped!! :D
