From Deep Inside

From Deep Inside

By Tom Wachunas

    “…We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body…”

    - 2 Corinthians 4: 8-10

    I suppose it’s a bit ironic that I should be writing this on April Fools’ Day, if only because what I wish to share with you is something of utmost seriousness. Still, you could call it a belated Easter meditation, though I dare say that it’s never out of season to seriously embrace the single greatest event in all of human history: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

    Not so ironic is the fact that the art work pictured above - my newest, called “Supplication” – very quickly evolved as a spontaneous prayer for the disunited state of America, which I uttered many times over the course of Holy Week.

    When I decided to photograph my work (painted fabric and found flag mounted on a flat wood armature) strictly for the purpose of this missive, I simply took the quickest way and, without thinking too much, placed it outdoors on my cement driveway. Looking down at it through the camera, I had the eerie feeling of examining roadkill, though the work is intended to be ultimately presented as a wall piece. But I didn’t think this unsettling association was too inappropriate.

   For all of the diversity of voices in this country that we claim to hold so dear, we have become a cacophonous choir, united only in our dissonance, with neither a harmonious score to sing nor a director to lead it. Our country is pressed down to the point of numbness by the aimless and weighty pluralism of its ideas. And there are times when I’m profoundly saddened that we’re losing - if we haven’t lost it altogether – the willingness to trust and walk the Way of Jesus, much less successfully navigate the treacherous roads we’ve already paved.

    In my mourning, then, I am indeed perplexed, yet not despairing. So it is that I offer this prayer for surrender to the what, where, and why of Him who is our Hope.