Standing At the Door and What Do You See?

"Door Way to the Past"- 18x24 Acrylic Painting

I painted this piece a few years back and I have always liked how it turned out but this year it is taking on a completely new meaning to me.  Initially my focus for painting this piece was for us to LOOK BACK into history and that is why I titled the piece "Doorways to the Past".  This old shack, like so many that can be found scattered all over the state are reminders of the miners and ranchers that endure untold hardships to settle the west.  I wanted to have each viewer consider what it must have been like to look out through that doorway and for them to consider the harshness of the Nevada desert and the difficulties and hardships these unnamed pioneers faced as they tried to eke out an existence.  Today, all that are left are the ruins and crumbled structures and a weathered headstone standing as a testimony to their struggles, trials and forgotten lives.

But today, with this NEW YEAR,  I look at this piece I am seeing it now from a completely different perspective.  The doorway is our past and I am standing there LOOKING FORWARD to the path that is the path of our future.  We can choose to live there in the ruins of our past mistakes, regrets, guilt and broken relationships.  We can let these things control our lives, hold us back and stunt our potential or we can choose to step through the threshold and follow that path the leads to our future.  Too often we don't realize how much of a prisoner our past makes us be.  Even if our lives are not full of bad choices and regret we can still be a prisinor.  Maybe the doorway represent comfort boundaries and complacancy that holds us back from living that full joyful life that God has planned for us.  I can see that path heading off into the horizon, can you?  It is clearly visible through the rocks, scrub brush and cactus that cover the desert floor but we are so blinded by the baggage we carry that weighs us down that we can't see it.

That reminds me of that moving song by Dara Maclean called "Suitcases".

How can you move when they're weighing you down?
What can you do when you're tied to the ground, yeah?
You carry your burdens heavy like gravity
Just let them go now, there's freedom in release

You can't run when you're holding suitcases
It's a new day, throw away your mistakes
And open up your heart, lay down your guard
You don't have to be afraid

An artist friend of mine shared with me her verse for 2016 and I thought it went along with this blog post and so I thought I would share Isaiah 43:19 with you today..."See, I have already begun!  Do you not see it?  I will make a pathway through the wilderness.  I will create rivers in the dry wasteland."

There's the doorway and all you have to do is to take a small step over the threshold.  That is my plan for 2016.  Living more by faith, getting stronger, drawing closer to God, serving and sharing about the love of my Savior with more boldness and throwing myself into my art.  What is it you want to do?  

Go on....OPEN that door that holds you back!  You can't change your past....only the future.