Chapter 7 – Making Time – Part 4

Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:58

Exercise 4: Telephone Liberation

For practice, don’t answer your phone this week whether or not you are on the artist-time clock. Let your answering machine take messages for you. If you do give in and pick up the telephone, write down the Caller’s Name, Date, and Time Spent Talking. At the end of the week, add up the time you spent on the phone – that could’ve been artist time!

My phone never rings. It is so rare that it should ring, that it is usually important. My phone rang three times in the last week. My Mom wanted us to bring cheesecake for dessert. My daughter’s prescription was ready. The Dance Studio wanted to remind us of an extra practice. That’s it. I bet each call lasted under a minute. Wow! 3 whole minutes of artist time. Sorry. Joking. Telephones are not my problem.

I don’t even get enough email to warrant turning it off. You know, only check it in the morning and ignore it the rest of the day.

And I get so few texts, it is a game to see how long I can string someone along to continue to talk to me… Secret’s out.

SSSSSooooooo. Yesterday was amazing! I was in the zone. I was at work and it was relatively quiet and I drew a castle that was 50 inches at the base and 72 inches to its highest turret. And I must have done it in 4 hours. It was the last of 7 seven castles and the big one. 6 whole sheets of poster board. I had already measured it for scale a couple of weeks ago, but yesterday was the moment of truth.

I sat there looking at it. It was so huge and detailed that I began to question my sanity. I couldn’t work on it as a whole. I had to build it from the ground up. The original picture was so tiny – less than an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper. Every ½ inch equaled 4 inches.

And then I started and the lovely thing was that the bottom quarter held the mass. The further I got up the building, the less that needed to be done. It was so exciting. I got tunnel vision and all I could see was each 8 inch by 12.5 inch square I had marked off. I saw only vertical lines capped off by turrets. It was glorious.

And then I was interrupted a few times, but that was even WOW. My mind was so primed that the information just flowed. You need what? How about “some obscure title.” I had conversations where I just couldn’t find the right word to finish a sentence and yet the other person knew exactly what I was trying to say.

I was grinning like an idiot.

I was there. The time melted away, but every second was used. And I could finally exhale.

I did it. Insane? Yes! But I did it. I knew I could. Why do I question myself? It’s what I do. What I was gifted to do. I’d rather do that than anything else. Get in that zone…

And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Romans 5:5

He said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” Zechariah 4:13 (ESV)

God has a beautiful sense of humor.