Meaningful Work

For some time now I've struggled with how art and the Kingdom could mix without either being watered down. From an eternal standpoint, why do we need artists? Couldn't they just use their creative skills to build a house or their conceptual minds to solve world hunger? One of the more solid reasons I have found goes like this: If art is the visual summation of the culture, shouldn't we, at that very apex, see Jesus glorified?

Art through the centuries has come about through an abundance of time, plain and simple. Cultures who don't have to worry about hunting or buying food have the ability to sit and create. Stability allows for creativity. So, say this idea carries across the board exponentially, so that the more stable the culture is, the more prominent and better the art is. This art is, like all art, a reflection of the culture that produced it. As American Christians we should want to see God in that place. At the summit of the First World we should want to see the Gospel.

I still am honestly somewhat uneasy about saying all the way that I should grab hold of this privilege and not go head first into feeding hungry people with food and the Word. People have NEVER heard of this stuff. But, while I'm in my current situation, this helps me know that while my work my not be of ultimate importance, it is meaningful and not done in vain.