Using God’s Talents to Proclaim Christ: Artwork to God’s Glory

Karyn Lukasek was one of the presenters at the October ELS Women’s Mission Society Rally in Apple Valley, Minnesota. Karyn, who is a Bethany Lutheran College graduate with a studio art degree, related how the Lord has enabled her to make use of her artwork in religious publications. One of those publications is an Arch Book Series account of creation produced by Concordia Publishing House. Below is part of her presentation to the Mission Rally.
The theme for today’s Mission Society meeting is “Learning to engage others more faithfully with Jesus.” Evangelism and Mission Work is a tricky topic because so many of us have aversions to striking up controversial conversation with other people.
We recently moved from an apartment complex where our next-door neighbor was an incessant discusser of religion. While he believed that the Bible was true, he did not believe that Jesus was his Savior from sin, for one needed only follow Jesus’ example to achieve perfection in this life.
Finding a stranger who loved to talk about Scripture was exciting. But it soon became apparent that this neighbor was not going to listen to the real Gospel. I began avoiding him and his family because whenever we crossed paths, he would spend hours talking about what he thought Scripture said.
What frustrated me was that this neighbor always seemed to have his biblical arguments well-planned out. I found myself fumbling for the right words to defend my faith in my Savior. If I knew what I believed, why could I not communicate it effectively? Then it dawned on me that I was—once again!—focusing on myself and not trusting that God’s Word can work a miracle on my neighbor’s heart just by saying, “Jesus died for your sins.”
My point about this neighbor is that each of us have been given a different set of gifts, which can be used to engage others more faithfully with Jesus. As I said before, public speaking is not one of my gifts. Perhaps my aversion to speaking led me to engage others with Jesus through art and writing. I am perfectly happy to be cutting up tiny pieces of colored paper and gluing them together until they resemble the six days of creation or using a three-haired paintbrush to turn gobs of paint into Jesus’ hand, or compulsively organizing sentences and punctuation into a cohesive letter or story.
In fact, I did write a ten-page letter to our neighbor, citing Bible passages that defended the Lutheran faith and encouraging them to look more closely at Scripture. On paper, I was finally able to express what I believed in a fluent and organized manner. I kept reminding myself that creating faith was God’s job, not mine.
After my children’s book was published, my mother had a profound comment: “Karyn, God is using you through this book to reach lots of people with the Gospel!” That is when the light really came on—this book was not about me, it was about God spreading His Word! God was providing me with an awesome opportunity to engage others with Jesus.
God also provides you with your own unique way of spreading His Gospel. Mission work occurs in a wide variety of ways because we are not all the same. While I wished that I was a confident speaker, I was overlooking the other abilities God did give me. I may be the finger in the body of Christ while someone else may be a mouth, or a toe, or an ear. I do well at finger-work, so why worry about toe-work?
There is nothing wrong with desiring to improve a particular skill and working at it. The point is that God graciously gives each of us natural talents with which to serve Him. He makes us different so that His Word can be proclaimed in dozens of different ways. He gives us abilities to speak and He also works through writing, music, artwork, financial support of the church and missions, teaching, prayer—and the list goes on. Consider how mothers read all those Bible stories to their children, pray with them, bring them to church, and have them baptized.
The purpose of this presentation is not to make you feel guilted into writing a children’s book or painting a rendition of the Lord’s Supper that rivals da Vinci’s. I would rather encourage you to know that God has provided you with special talents and He promises to be with you, guiding your words and actions so that His Son, your Savior, is proclaimed.