by Michael Winters
“Get Well Soon” and “When is Soon?” by Carrie Hardaway
The above images by Carrie Hardaway reflect something many people are feeling lately. “When is Soon?” asks the image on the right. I remember back at the beginning of COVID-19 in March when we tried to make plans for May, and then in May when we tried to make plans for August. We keep thinking surely in another month or so…
And when it comes to the cycle of police killing, outrage, things roughly going back to the status quo, police killing, outrage, etc., we think surely something soon will break the cycle.
The psalmic way of saying “When is soon?” is to say “How long, O Lord?” This God-oriented refrain repeats in Psalm 13:
“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.” (Psalm 13:1-4)
The psalmist’s hope in God allowed him to express his feelings fully, but also pivot from desperation to trust and gratitude.
“But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.” (Psalm 13:5-6)
In Christ, we too can pivot to trust and gratitude. We know Jesus has already broken the cycle of violence and sickness and death. We can lament the pain we ourselves experience and the pain others are experiencing, but we don’t lament as those who have no hope. Nearly 2,000 years ago Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection made the definitive blow against all evil, and He has secured a future free from sin and death available to anyone and everyone who will accept it.
We accept Jesus and await that future, and we pray for Christ’s kingdom to come as we work to live in God’s will on earth here and now, as it is in heaven.
I hope that we as artists, like David in Psalm 13, can make art that both expresses the full range of human emotion and is fortified by deep trust and gratitude toward God.