“I picture my epitaph: "Here lies Paul Newman, who died a failure because his eyes turned brown". Paul Newman
The Life and Death of “Cool Hand Luke”
One of the endearing truths of fulfilled eschatology is that we no longer need to live our lives as if the skies will part at any moment and Jesus and His army of saints will suddenly appear to rescue us.This portrait of Paul Newman was the first portrait I painted in college over twenty eight years ago. When I heard yesterday that he had died, I pulled it out of storage, wiped the dust away from it and wanted to use it to make a point concerning not living a life that is hindered by an escapism mentality.
Life is meant to be lived to its fullest. From his charity work to his disdain for the celebrity image, Mr Newman lived more of a Godly life than most through his generosity and caring. A quick read of his biography would bare this out and point all of us in a better direction to live out our own existence as believers in Christ.Now to my reference of his role in “Cool Hand Luke.” There is a scene where he is alone in a church talking to God as the sounds and lights of police cruisers are just outside. Luke says;
"Is that your answer, old man? Well, I guess you're a hard case too.”
I love that line because it gets right to the heart of any relationship with God. The essence of the Christ was to teach us that life is about finding God in our external relationships with others. If our lives are to mean anything then its only in realizing that it isn’t God who is the “hard case” but our own hearts that forever wants to deceive us.The kingdom of heaven in its truest meaning has been found and revealed through the life of Jesus. The amazing thing was that it was always within us because of our capacity to love other human beings.
Jesus Christ was the perfect portrait of God's love in terms of human comprehension and living example. As pointed out above, we are not failures because our eye’s aren’t brown instead of blue or our bank accounts are empty instead of full, we are only failures when we love selflessly or fail to recognize the Christ in other lives. I recognize “the Christ” in men such as Paul Newman more so than most because of the actions that accompany his words.
That was the power of Jesus Christ. His words meant something because He had the authority and compassion to back them up. We should all have this same conviction towards each other if only to be recognized and rightly acknowledged by the world around us as believer’s in the one we call Lord.
James Robert Kessler
Because of Him Art Ministry 2008
The Life and Death of “Cool Hand Luke”
One of the endearing truths of fulfilled eschatology is that we no longer need to live our lives as if the skies will part at any moment and Jesus and His army of saints will suddenly appear to rescue us.This portrait of Paul Newman was the first portrait I painted in college over twenty eight years ago. When I heard yesterday that he had died, I pulled it out of storage, wiped the dust away from it and wanted to use it to make a point concerning not living a life that is hindered by an escapism mentality.
Life is meant to be lived to its fullest. From his charity work to his disdain for the celebrity image, Mr Newman lived more of a Godly life than most through his generosity and caring. A quick read of his biography would bare this out and point all of us in a better direction to live out our own existence as believers in Christ.Now to my reference of his role in “Cool Hand Luke.” There is a scene where he is alone in a church talking to God as the sounds and lights of police cruisers are just outside. Luke says;
"Is that your answer, old man? Well, I guess you're a hard case too.”
I love that line because it gets right to the heart of any relationship with God. The essence of the Christ was to teach us that life is about finding God in our external relationships with others. If our lives are to mean anything then its only in realizing that it isn’t God who is the “hard case” but our own hearts that forever wants to deceive us.The kingdom of heaven in its truest meaning has been found and revealed through the life of Jesus. The amazing thing was that it was always within us because of our capacity to love other human beings.
Jesus Christ was the perfect portrait of God's love in terms of human comprehension and living example. As pointed out above, we are not failures because our eye’s aren’t brown instead of blue or our bank accounts are empty instead of full, we are only failures when we love selflessly or fail to recognize the Christ in other lives. I recognize “the Christ” in men such as Paul Newman more so than most because of the actions that accompany his words.
That was the power of Jesus Christ. His words meant something because He had the authority and compassion to back them up. We should all have this same conviction towards each other if only to be recognized and rightly acknowledged by the world around us as believer’s in the one we call Lord.
James Robert Kessler
Because of Him Art Ministry 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment