James 3

3:9–11

“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same stream?”

I do talk quite a bit and this verse/chapter has left me wondering about all the little things that I say to people that I consider to have no significance. It reminds me of all the things I say in jest, but could potentially hurt or degrade someone—even if I know them and think they know I’m “joking”. To be honest, it reminds me of how friends are normally the ones that we become the most sensitive to (even though we give them the benefit of the doubt). However, when we beat something/someone over the head enough, it starts to seep in. But enough about the tongue for now; let’s get on to the good stuff: wisdom!

3:13

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom.”

3:16–18

“For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that come from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.”

I love these verses! I feel like God has truly given me this kind of wisdom over the past several months, but it makes me reconsider just how weighty of a thing it actually is—and how I’m not always acting out wisdom with the qualifications listed.

If we claim to have wisdom, we are to show it by our good lives and deeds stemmed from humility. Here’s when earthly wisdom and logic versus heavenly wisdom and logic come in. Most people claim to be wise because of what they know and how they have solved problems (which generally leads to boasting), but heavenly wisdom is directly related to humility—becoming the least.

I could take forever to go through all of the list, but I have to go to class. I guess I keep thinking about how many of us claim to have wisdom, but what kind of wisdom do we really have? Is it full of mercy? Is it considerate? Does it produce good fruit in your life and in the lives of others? Is it submissive or impartial? Sincere? Pure? Peace-loving? Yeah, it’s a pretty hefty checklist and I’ve got quite a bit of work to do.

As always, I’d love to hear thoughts.

The “Aha!” Moment

Only recently am I making connections between my personality and what I chose as my career. It seems strange because one would think that you should be obviously aware of yourself and know yourself enough to pick a career based on that knowledge.

In a sense, I know myself and the tendencies I have more than anyone. However, after attending more and more lectures by world-class designers, I am becoming increasingly convinced that my role as a designer is more of a problem-solver than simply a “maker of things”. I suppose this realization might seem obvious to others, but when I think about it, it fits. Where architects, engineers, mathematicians, and scientists solve problems of structure and all things technical, the designers of the world do the same thing to a certain extent, but with more of a business/marketing, psychological/sociological, and cultural perspective.

Think about it, designers communicate. Designers simplify. They have to have certain knowledge of their audience, clients, etc. in order to make an effective product. One story I heard at a recent lecture was about a woman whose grandmother almost killed herself by taking the wrong medication on accident. The grandmother couldn’t read the labels well and therefore used the wrong bottle. As a result, the woman saw an obvious problem with the way the labeling system was organized, designed a system of her own, and ended up selling the product to Target (see the images below). That is entrepreneurship in design.

I used to want to be a doctor or a physician’s assistant when I was in high school right up until I started college. I wanted to help people and that was the most tangible way at that point—at least in my mind. Then I moved on to marketing, always knowing that I wanted to use it as an aid to art. You see, art moves people emotionally, it evokes a response (whether a static one, a subtle one, an eccentric one, etc.), and it asks questions; it challenges the way things are—specifically design. It takes an understanding of people and their responses, their habits, their concerns and their culture to design well.

I am a problem-solver; I always have been. Not in the mathematical sense but in the social sense. It’s almost a responsibility that some might view as indirect, but I see it as a positive correlation. This is it. This is how I do big things—all to the glory of God. Granted, if He sends me to Wisconsin or St. Petersburg, I’ll go; it’s just a different venue of serving Him. Whatever it takes. Whether it’s a painting, a packaging project for a company, a corporate identity, non-profit work, etc. I want to help people in this way. Not all designers view design with this sort of responsibility; most think that they just pop out a poster and some business cards and that’s it. There’s so much more to it though—and that excites me; it challenges me to do better, to be the best I can, to think critically about my work and the work around me. By this dialogue among designers and everyone else, we can further and challenge design itself.