When It Don’t Come Easy

“My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him all good things–trout as well as eternal salvation–come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy.” – A River Runs Through It, by Norman McClean 

But if you break down, I'll drive out and find you / If you forget my love, I'll try to remind you / And stay by you when it don't come easy. “When It Don’t Come Easy,” by Patty Griffin 

We are familiar with the challenge “do the hard thing,” and sometimes the hardest thing to do is to pay attention. 

We are distracted. Anxious. Cynical. Hurried. Haunted by ghosts we don’t have time to exorcise. 

But, what if the busy-mindset is a scarcity mindset? What if we have developed a kind of resistance to the “useless” things because they cannot promise results, success, or promotion? What if we have reduced the idea of abundance to a dream that leaves little space for mystery and beauty?

We don’t have to stay on this aimless path.

Artists can be our guides, teaching us the discipline of slowing down, of paying attention. 

The process of making is rooted in attention. It overflows with grace and generosity, never turning away from the harder realities and never without a redemptive posture. The artist helps us to know God because they are sensitive to the quieter movements of new creation. They are stewards of light who push back the boundaries of darkness and hold fast to the reality of renewal. 

But this is not easy work. 

It is work that bears the glory and shame of our humanity, that wrestles with God and demands a blessing, that knows the brush strokes of wounded hands, and that stretches a rough and ready canvas beyond the bounds of earth’s frame. It does not romanticize resurrection but drinks deeply of unfiltered grace – those slow sips that slowly revive the weary soul. 

Cultivating beauty is hard but lasting work. It stirs our imaginations, challenges our despair, and renews our hope. 

Artists, when it don’t come easy, keep going. Keep making. Keep teaching us how to pay attention.