"Find the Good, and praise it."
This was the advice of Hugh Hewitt to young, Christian bloggers (at GodBlogCon), who wondered what they should be saying. We live in a world of criticism, where one tends to feel the need to tear things down. If we, as college students, are planning on making a difference in the world as we get older (this apparently applies especially to the political realm, but I think it true for everyone), things we say online now will follow us. One stupid comment on a young blog can ruin a person's influence twenty years down the road. So, both to be safe, and to be uplifting in a negative world, we ought to point out good, not bad. As Hugh said, once you're forty, you are allowed to criticize. Right now, I do not know enough about anything to criticize anything. Also, my own note here, there are enough people being negative. It's only natural, in our fallen world.
The good that I have been finding recently (well, for the last two years, really) stems from the art department here at Biola. We have a nice campus, but nothing incredibly beautiful. My friends who are art majors (as well as art majors with whom I have not been acquainted) strive with every project to bring beauty and love to the campus, in subtle or outright ways. This past week or two, the 4-D design class has been working on installations around campus. The specific assignment was to "find a place, and make it yours." They were to add something to it every day for a week. The few that I have seen have been fun, exciting, awe-inspiring, and beautiful. So, now that I have "found good," it seems to be my responsibility to "praise it." Thus, I have gone about campus (still in the process of this, really) taking pictures of all the installations I know of. The next few posts will be to share these and praise them to the world - these young, Christian artists who are coming every day to a better understanding of The Good, Truth, and Beauty, and helping those non-artistic ones, like myself, to appreciate beauty within the mundane every day.
Blessings on your travels,
Emily
This was the advice of Hugh Hewitt to young, Christian bloggers (at GodBlogCon), who wondered what they should be saying. We live in a world of criticism, where one tends to feel the need to tear things down. If we, as college students, are planning on making a difference in the world as we get older (this apparently applies especially to the political realm, but I think it true for everyone), things we say online now will follow us. One stupid comment on a young blog can ruin a person's influence twenty years down the road. So, both to be safe, and to be uplifting in a negative world, we ought to point out good, not bad. As Hugh said, once you're forty, you are allowed to criticize. Right now, I do not know enough about anything to criticize anything. Also, my own note here, there are enough people being negative. It's only natural, in our fallen world.
The good that I have been finding recently (well, for the last two years, really) stems from the art department here at Biola. We have a nice campus, but nothing incredibly beautiful. My friends who are art majors (as well as art majors with whom I have not been acquainted) strive with every project to bring beauty and love to the campus, in subtle or outright ways. This past week or two, the 4-D design class has been working on installations around campus. The specific assignment was to "find a place, and make it yours." They were to add something to it every day for a week. The few that I have seen have been fun, exciting, awe-inspiring, and beautiful. So, now that I have "found good," it seems to be my responsibility to "praise it." Thus, I have gone about campus (still in the process of this, really) taking pictures of all the installations I know of. The next few posts will be to share these and praise them to the world - these young, Christian artists who are coming every day to a better understanding of The Good, Truth, and Beauty, and helping those non-artistic ones, like myself, to appreciate beauty within the mundane every day.
Blessings on your travels,
Emily
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