Y’all know I purely love having guest bloggers. So I’m so so pleased to welcome Adam Trest to our special place!

Here’s his official bio:

Adam Trest is a full time studio artist working and living in Laurel, MS with his wife Lily, and his daughters Fincher and Poppy. He is represented by The Caron Gallery in Tupelo, MS and T. Clifton Art in Memphis, TN.  His work is often seen on episodes of HGTV’s HomeTown and prints of his work can be purchased online at the Laurel Mercantile.

I’ll put some links at the end of his blog. But Adam’s a great guy. Our daughter Amy worked for him and Lily for a time and she just loved them. And that HGTV HomeTown connection is way cool, too … Ben and Erin Napier, good friends, worked their magic on a farmhouse they purchased, and you can find out about that whole experience right here. It’s a fun story.

I’ll step out of the way and let Adam tell his story. You’ll be encouraged.

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Holding Out for Hope

I started drawing when I was 3, or at least that’s what my mom always told me. She was an english teacher, but she could never find it in her heart to get on to me when I would color over the illustrations in my story books. She always said that I was just trying to make them better. Having that type of support system is dangerous for an artist, because I grew up with the spiderman way of thinking. With great power comes great responsibility, right? Only in my family, we replaced “power” with “talent”. 

The T word was thrown at me my whole life, and to some extent I really do believe some people have greater talents than others, but I really prefer the term gift. What I have is so much more than an ability that I was born with. I believe that the Lord gifted me with a desire to create. Between that desire, and the encouragement of my family, I was given the perfect equation for becoming an artist. 

When I look back at my life thus far, the hardest times were when I’ve not trusted that the Lord gave me adequate gifts to carry out his plan for my life. It was the years I spent in architecture school dealing with anxiety and depression because I thought I knew that being an architect was going to make me happy. I was given amazing opportunities to intern in West Palm Beach, and design actual buildings… all things that are dreams for architecture students. But I found myself lost and struggling. 

Returning to school that fall after my internship, I was drowning with my decision about what to do with my life. I truly believe that the Lord put a professor named Brent in my life to help put me back on my path. Sitting in his office, broken, he mentored me through the toughest decision of my life, and for the first time in my college career I saw a glimmer of hope. I changed my major, and poured myself into studio work. I honed the gifts the Lord blessed me with, and used my remaining time in college as a springboard into my professional life. 

The roller coaster of life has been full of highs and lows. Seasons of hopefulness and hopelessness. Hindsight has always proven those peaks were when I was trusting in my gifts, knowing that the Lord would provide because I was honoring him through those talents…. until December 4, 2011. 

I talked to her an hour before we got the call. There had been an accident, and just like that, my mom was gone. My number one cheerleader, my encourager, my toughest critic. Hopeless doesn’t begin to describe the feeling. When you’ve had that kind of support taken away, it feels like the floor has been pulled out from under you. I moved home. I stopped painting. I was hopeless. 

I remember sitting in the front pew of the funeral home and seeing the chapel bursting at the seams, because that is something that you should know about my mom: She used her gifts as a teacher to touch so many lives. Seeing the physical accumulation of her gift fill that room, generations of students, parents, and coworkers that she touched. It was a glimmer of hope. 

That day was long, and so was that following week. As a family we celebrated family birthdays and anniversaries, followed by our first Christmas without her. As hard as those days were, there was also a celebration of a life well lived. In that celebration of stories and memories, the glimmer of hope grew into a challenge. A challenge to live my life using my gifts to honor the One who gave them to me. My mom lived that every day, and for the last nine years I have tried to do the same. The artwork I create doesn’t have anything to do with my talents or abilities. My work is a gift that I get to share, because I find my hope in Christ. 

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Links:

Adam Trest : https://www.adamtrest.com

The Caron Gallery : https://thecarongallery.com/product-category/artists/adam-trest/

Clifton Art : https://www.tcliftonart.com

Laurel Mercantile : https://www.laurelmercantile.com/collections/adam-trest-home

HEAD’S UP! It’s Day 3 of my 12-book giveaway contest. Enter HERE!

It takes an extreme makeover. Life does, I mean.

Our daughter Amy and son-in-law Stone (and, of course, the grandbabies, Katherine and Levi) live in Laurel, Mississippi. Laurel’s a sweet southern town, but in recent times has gained national exposure because of a show on HGTV, Home Town.

The show is centered around Ben and Erin Napier, a thirtysomething couple who work with individuals, couples, and families in restoring homes in Laurel. Laurel is full of quaint, historic homes – if you’re a fan of the arts and crafts/bungalow style, you’ll be as happy as an alligator on a chicken farm. Erin’s the artist and designer, Ben is the hands-on craftsman, and with their team of friends, relatives, and other geniuses, they work what I think are little miracles with the properties they tackle. Since Laurel is a smallish town, and distinctly southern, everyone knows everyone else – or are just a couple of degrees away from knowing everyone else. Amy, for example, works for Adam Trest – his and Lily’s was one of the first homes the Napiers tackled for the show. They’re all good buddies.

(Shameless promo here. Check out some of Adam’s handiwork. It’s also available here.)

In other words, the Napiers do makeovers. In the world of HGTV and DIY, they are not alone. Their fans eat it up.

There is something appealing about taking something in shambles and restoring it. Part of the appeal of Home Town is that, in the course of one episode, you can see a home that looks like the most unlikely place to live transformed into a cozy showplace. Indeed, all of Laurel is in the midst of a renaissance. Old timers scratch their heads, bemused that their little town has become a destination spot for road-trippers. I love it.

Think you need a makeover? It takes an extreme makeover.

People are into personal makeovers too, y’know. There are gyms, and diets, and plastic surgeons. There are life coaches. There are about a gazillion self-help gurus out there.

I’m not devaluing any of these. What they are evidence of, though, is this internal sense people have that they are not completely what they want or need to be.

Most folks would think of personal makeovers as a physical thing. Makeovers could also be educational (like going back to school to learn a skill, trade, or just to have a degree). Certainly mental and emotional makeovers can happen through counseling and therapy.

But. How can one’s spirit be made over?

Our current pervasive worldview would inform us that being spiritual, as opposed to being religious or (gasp!) Christian, is a good thing.

But I’m driving a personal stake down right here. I’d contend that nothing can makeover your spirit and soul except Jesus Christ Himself.

I never wanted my blog to be just a feel-good devotional thought. However, I’m about to go full-throttle Christian on ya. If I took any other route, I’d be dishonest and disingenuous.

I have tried to make over myself many times.  I live in a fairly constant state of being hard on myself, simply because I’ve felt that I was capable of so much more than I was contributing to the world. I’ve taken on all sorts of self-improvement tactics (I won’t take time to catalogue them here, but I’d just say I’ve been down a lot of roads), and the results at best were fleeting.

I guess I’ve always known that the only change, the only makeover that lasts, happens to come from the hands of God. Heck, I’ve known that for years. Problem is, I’ve sometimes been guilty of turning to Him as the last resort.

These things I know (and you might just know, too. But let’s take a refresher.)

• If you’re a Christian, God did not give you eternal salvation because of anything you’ve done, good or bad. He saved you because of His love for you. I know that’s Christianity 101, but the implications are just staggering. In essence, all the pressure is off you. You don’t have to perform or produce to stay in God’s good graces. There is nothing you can possibly do that would cause Him to not love you.
• He has plans for you. He delights in watching you work and develop those plans. You are His favorite project.
• His love doesn’t depend on you being the smartest person in the room. Listen again – you don’t even have to be good to be loved by Him. (You should probably want to be good, though.)
• His love is based on His goodness, not yours.

This is amazing stuff. Fill your mind with His wonder. Let it flood your body. You’re safe because His loving arms are around you and His heavenly angels surround you.

This is life: Burdens will weigh you down. Wickedness will hold you back from experiencing joy. Don’t you long to be set free, to feel clean inside and out?

The beauty  is that you don’t have to strive to fix things on your own. As a believer, you have a supernatural helper. A counselor. A friend like no other.

Ancient script states this:

He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior. *

You probably aren’t looking for some theological treastice here, so I’ll not offer one. This isn’t the time to deal with the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Just considering the verses I cited, here’s the breakdown:

• From the moment you grasp onto faith in Jesus Christ, you are “possessed,” if you will, by the Holy Spirit. He shapes your life in a new way. You are no longer your own. Jesus takes you and renews you. Like a makeover, right?
• See how special you are? Christ knew in this life you’d have questions and troubles. You may feel alone, but God makes a way for you to never be alone. Embrace this.
• The question must be asked: What might keep you from doing this? It’s an exchanged life – yours for His. I’m guessing many folks balk at the thought of not being “the master of their fates, the captain of their souls.” Here’s your sign – you have never had the final say-so over your life. You may think you do, and you have all sorts of free choices you can make, but the final outcome is forever and all time out of your hands. My reasonable faith teaches me that if I don’t have the last word, it’d be wise to trust the one who does, and be moldable and available to Him.
• The implication, then, is that no matter what the world throws at you, you are spiritually bulletproof.
• I mean, dang. In the flesh, you may not be anything special. But because He’s shown extraordinary compassion and mercy to you, filled you with His Holy Spirit, you are totally cleansed from all guilt, shame, and perceived inadequacies. Whatever good is in you, whatever abilities you have, is there because He’s poured out His Spirit on you. He wanted to do this.

I’ll tell you what this means. It means He can transform your desires, rearrange your priorities, and realign your mind with Christ’s. In His power you can break the chains of addiction, conquer giants, and discern the lies of the Enemy. He can enable you to overcome every obstacle the world puts in your way so you can become everything God asks you to be.

I’m not sure why only a handful of believers choose to claim these promises. I may try to deal with that later. I have some thoughts about why most Christians lead fruitless, defeated lives. (Hint: It ain’t God’s fault. But beating yourself up over it doesn’t help, either.)

Here’s my marching orders for all of us:

• Let God revive your heart.
• Ask Him to renew your faith.
• Beg that He fill you with childlike energy so you can persevere through trying times.
• Sense His all-consuming love.
• Relax in His goodness.
• Learn to listen to His promptings and obey. Right then.
• Let the world see His beauty and His transforming life-changing power in you.

These are lofty thoughts, and God knows that I fail, and spectacularly. But just because I have to soar on eagle’s wings to experience Him is no excuse for me to be content with plodding along with my eyes on the ground. It takes an extreme makeover to experience the reality of Christ. I’m open to that.

*Titus 3:5-6

HEAD’S UP! It’s Day 3 of my 12-book giveaway contest. Enter HERE!