Thoughts while Traveling
3.28.2007
GREAT ARTICLE
Reflections on the arts and a horse named Seabiscuit
by Dick Ryan
My heart has been broken time and again by seeing the hurt and pain that many of my artistic friends have experienced!
The first time I saw the movie Seabiscuit, I wept so hard that I had to leave my seat and go to the back of the theater so I wouldn’t annoy the people around me.
For those who are not familiar with it, this commercial Hollywood release tells the true story of an undersized, abused, not-very-good-looking racehorse with a serious leg injury that became, many believe, the most famous horse of the twentieth Century. Tobey Maguire played Red Pollard, the half-blind jockey who was really too big to ride horses successfully. Jeff Bridges played the owner, and Chris Cooper played Seabiscuit’s trainer. The lives of all three men were as damaged and abused by the world as that of the horse.
But why did I weep? What was it about this movie that dug into my emotions so deeply? Part of my visceral reaction might be personal: There are times when I myself feel like a broken-down old horse, not fit to run races any more. More important: I’ve known so many talented people who have led lives full of defeat. I’ve known many fine artists who were designed by God to be racers but were turned into plow horses by our often hostile arts world. They were told that they didn’t “measure up” to the world’s expectations. As a result, their careers, their hearts and even their lives were often thrown into the trash. This is why I wept! Does life have to be this way?
I wept because God gives His children beautiful gifts with a plan attached—a good plan that shows each of us how God wants these gifts to be used. But many artists miss out on this plan of God. Jeremiah recorded the Lord as declaring, "For I know the plans I have for you . . . plans to give you hope and a future" (29:11). I believe with all my heart God’s promise is true. Why, then, do so few artists “walk” in these truths?
Several times in the movie, when a horse or a person was close to being thrown away because they didn’t measure up, first one character and then others repeated: “Why throw away a life because it’s a little banged up?” When an abused and confused and angry young Seabiscuit literally could not run in a straight line, the wise old trainer quietly said: “He’s forgotten how to be a horse. Let’s give‘m his head. Let him run through the country until he wants to stop—let him go. Let’s see what he’s got.”
Here is the deepest reason that I was so moved. Just as Seabiscuit was allowed to race, our artists need a new day: a day to run full out, to be all that God designed them to be! Seabiscuit is about hope, and we are entering a new day of hope for artists, newly enabled to race as God designed them to, each with the freedom to be the unique person our Lord had in mind when He gave us our gifts. I believe that the day has begun when artists will be free to have a second and a third and a hundredth chance to not have their dreams “thrown away” because they don’t measure up to the perfection of the world on their first try.
Hope is the most necessary of our artistic tools. Hope is what allows us to rewrite and experiment until our work and our lives are filled with real truth and real beauty. Hope is among the most essential gifts God gives us. It is a belief that God has a valuable purpose and meaning for our lives. Hope is about us, God’s people, being redeemed and transformed.
And my heart is filled with exquisite joy as I dream about God’s artistic gifts being used in new and wonderful ways, both inside and outside the Church. I see the beginning of the day when all the many forms of art are employed at the very highest quality levels to communicate God’s truth and beauty to this hurting world. Whether Christians are working at major network television headquarters in New York or playing in the top symphonies or teaching music in grade school or writing fiction and poetry or leading worship in Church—I see them doing it all for God’s glory, just as God designed each of us to do.
How will this amazing arts-world transformation happen? There can only be one answer: God himself has to do it! In His sovereign mercy, God is first restoring the hearts of artists. Once restored, He will show them how to walk in His power to accomplish His dream for each of their lives.
The bottom line of transformation is always belief. Is it really true that we can turn to Him and allow Him to confront and destroy the lie that the arts and our lives are of little importance? Yes, we can. We can have this centuries-old lie eliminated from our lives, and it is starting to happen already. Artists are beginning to again believe that God yearns to work in every corner of their lives—even their art—and are receiving new freedom as a result.
Isaiah 62:10 says, “Pass through, pass through the gates! Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the nations.” I believe that the time has come for God to show us how to “remove the stones” that have blocked so many artists from the life that God has planned for them. “Removing the stones”—the lies we have believed about God, the arts and ourselves—will result in our hearts being remade so that we can once again “run free.”
I can’t pretend that I know all the answers about how this transformation process occurs, but I know that one enormous factor is the creation of communities—real communities—open and witnessing communities that are safe places for Christian artists to be themselves. As the trainer said about Seabiscuit, “He needs to learn how to be a horse again.” Our artists need to learn to run and race and dance and sing and pray in a safe place, a place of healing and genuine encouragement and truth. We need to give them the time to learn what the world has tried to steal from them: to learn how to integrate their Christianity and their artistic lives. Each one needs to recover the true knowledge of God’s identity and who we are as His children and as His artists.
So, let’s return to the reasons why I was so deeply affected by a Hollywood movie about a racing horse named Seabiscuit. The personal part of my passionate reaction is very real. I can honestly admit to being a broken man who has lost much. But I can stand tall before you today and say: “God is good, and God is merciful!” This truth is what I want to be formed in the hearts of all artists!
The world said that Seabiscuit’s owner, jockey, trainer and the horse itself were losers—of no importance. The world has been saying that for hundreds of years about those of us who are artists, too. But I believe that a new day is dawning, a day when we will run very important races, when we will “press on” to the prize of showing the world through the arts something of God’s glory and mercy.
Pray that it may be so! Then some of us will weep with joy!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
by Dick Ryan
My heart has been broken time and again by seeing the hurt and pain that many of my artistic friends have experienced!
The first time I saw the movie Seabiscuit, I wept so hard that I had to leave my seat and go to the back of the theater so I wouldn’t annoy the people around me.
For those who are not familiar with it, this commercial Hollywood release tells the true story of an undersized, abused, not-very-good-looking racehorse with a serious leg injury that became, many believe, the most famous horse of the twentieth Century. Tobey Maguire played Red Pollard, the half-blind jockey who was really too big to ride horses successfully. Jeff Bridges played the owner, and Chris Cooper played Seabiscuit’s trainer. The lives of all three men were as damaged and abused by the world as that of the horse.
But why did I weep? What was it about this movie that dug into my emotions so deeply? Part of my visceral reaction might be personal: There are times when I myself feel like a broken-down old horse, not fit to run races any more. More important: I’ve known so many talented people who have led lives full of defeat. I’ve known many fine artists who were designed by God to be racers but were turned into plow horses by our often hostile arts world. They were told that they didn’t “measure up” to the world’s expectations. As a result, their careers, their hearts and even their lives were often thrown into the trash. This is why I wept! Does life have to be this way?
I wept because God gives His children beautiful gifts with a plan attached—a good plan that shows each of us how God wants these gifts to be used. But many artists miss out on this plan of God. Jeremiah recorded the Lord as declaring, "For I know the plans I have for you . . . plans to give you hope and a future" (29:11). I believe with all my heart God’s promise is true. Why, then, do so few artists “walk” in these truths?
Several times in the movie, when a horse or a person was close to being thrown away because they didn’t measure up, first one character and then others repeated: “Why throw away a life because it’s a little banged up?” When an abused and confused and angry young Seabiscuit literally could not run in a straight line, the wise old trainer quietly said: “He’s forgotten how to be a horse. Let’s give‘m his head. Let him run through the country until he wants to stop—let him go. Let’s see what he’s got.”
Here is the deepest reason that I was so moved. Just as Seabiscuit was allowed to race, our artists need a new day: a day to run full out, to be all that God designed them to be! Seabiscuit is about hope, and we are entering a new day of hope for artists, newly enabled to race as God designed them to, each with the freedom to be the unique person our Lord had in mind when He gave us our gifts. I believe that the day has begun when artists will be free to have a second and a third and a hundredth chance to not have their dreams “thrown away” because they don’t measure up to the perfection of the world on their first try.
Hope is the most necessary of our artistic tools. Hope is what allows us to rewrite and experiment until our work and our lives are filled with real truth and real beauty. Hope is among the most essential gifts God gives us. It is a belief that God has a valuable purpose and meaning for our lives. Hope is about us, God’s people, being redeemed and transformed.
And my heart is filled with exquisite joy as I dream about God’s artistic gifts being used in new and wonderful ways, both inside and outside the Church. I see the beginning of the day when all the many forms of art are employed at the very highest quality levels to communicate God’s truth and beauty to this hurting world. Whether Christians are working at major network television headquarters in New York or playing in the top symphonies or teaching music in grade school or writing fiction and poetry or leading worship in Church—I see them doing it all for God’s glory, just as God designed each of us to do.
How will this amazing arts-world transformation happen? There can only be one answer: God himself has to do it! In His sovereign mercy, God is first restoring the hearts of artists. Once restored, He will show them how to walk in His power to accomplish His dream for each of their lives.
The bottom line of transformation is always belief. Is it really true that we can turn to Him and allow Him to confront and destroy the lie that the arts and our lives are of little importance? Yes, we can. We can have this centuries-old lie eliminated from our lives, and it is starting to happen already. Artists are beginning to again believe that God yearns to work in every corner of their lives—even their art—and are receiving new freedom as a result.
Isaiah 62:10 says, “Pass through, pass through the gates! Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the nations.” I believe that the time has come for God to show us how to “remove the stones” that have blocked so many artists from the life that God has planned for them. “Removing the stones”—the lies we have believed about God, the arts and ourselves—will result in our hearts being remade so that we can once again “run free.”
I can’t pretend that I know all the answers about how this transformation process occurs, but I know that one enormous factor is the creation of communities—real communities—open and witnessing communities that are safe places for Christian artists to be themselves. As the trainer said about Seabiscuit, “He needs to learn how to be a horse again.” Our artists need to learn to run and race and dance and sing and pray in a safe place, a place of healing and genuine encouragement and truth. We need to give them the time to learn what the world has tried to steal from them: to learn how to integrate their Christianity and their artistic lives. Each one needs to recover the true knowledge of God’s identity and who we are as His children and as His artists.
So, let’s return to the reasons why I was so deeply affected by a Hollywood movie about a racing horse named Seabiscuit. The personal part of my passionate reaction is very real. I can honestly admit to being a broken man who has lost much. But I can stand tall before you today and say: “God is good, and God is merciful!” This truth is what I want to be formed in the hearts of all artists!
The world said that Seabiscuit’s owner, jockey, trainer and the horse itself were losers—of no importance. The world has been saying that for hundreds of years about those of us who are artists, too. But I believe that a new day is dawning, a day when we will run very important races, when we will “press on” to the prize of showing the world through the arts something of God’s glory and mercy.
Pray that it may be so! Then some of us will weep with joy!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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