The Way of the Masters?

If you study the life of the masters from the perspective of their contemporaries, you will find a commonality in many: We love the masters now, but people hated them in their time. Yes, some of them were well respected for their skills and contributions to the arts. However, their attitudes and personality were rarely well received. We talk about Leonardo, Michelangelo, Bernini, Caravaggio, and other high caliber geniuses almost as if they were gods. Historical facts reveal that very few embraced them for who they were as people. Of course, what they did was amazing. Their work would probably never be surpassed in our lifetime, but is that worth it?

Artists in our time want to live the life of the masters, the way of the masters. Their arrogance is so detestable than even the screen bleeds rubbish when they write in group discussions. They attack and criticize others and their art, but rarely show their own work. On the other hand, you would find people who measure the success of an artist based on how much they sell. I was mocked in a LinkedIn discussion by someone because I stated that my reward is the appreciation, love, hugs, kisses, and support of those who come to celebrate with me in the show. Sales are extra blessings (no lack in that area).

I watched a clip of the episode of Dr. Who where Van Gogh was brought into a museum in our time. He saw his paintings elegantly hung in a majestic room. People admiring his masterpieces while he was astonished and confused. Then he heard the curator speak marvelous things about this amazing artist. With tears in his eyes and overjoyed, Van Gogh hugged and kissed the curator and left. Beautiful scene nevertheless! But who wants to have a completely miserable life, broke and rejected to be recognized in the future by people he never knew and never knew him? Who wants, like Bernini, to be so recognized and “loved” in death when in life people hated him for his arrogance and dislikable personality? That same attitude that announced the demise of some. There is wisdom in this:

Pride goes before destruction,
            And a haughty spirit before stumbling.

Proverbs 16:8

I want to be remembered not as a master in my craft after I die. I want people to think of me as someone they can approach, a friend, a dad, a husband, a brother, a son, a nice guy… now, not after I die. I measure my success based on having nothing and being entitled to nothing. I believe in grace. I don’t deserve it. Therefore, everything I receive is extra. I am thankful and even when I have or achieve is a chance to remember grace and being thankful. When you give thanks you guard your heart from arrogance and pride. Count everything as a blessing. As for me, I want to join the apostle in his vision:

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith – that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:8-11