Loneliness: Searching for Resurrection in a Modern Epidemic by artist S. Jewell S. McGhee
|
“Empty”
mixed media collage on paper 11”x18” By S. Jewell S. McGhee, 2024 for Loneliness: Searching for Resurrection in a Modern Epidemic with support from the Arts and Worship ministry of the Missouri United Methodist Church Sometimes loneliness feels like emptiness. When loneliness feels like emptiness, we have a sense of where the color is supposed to be. We feel the empty perch where there should be life and song and movement. But instead, we feel upside down and backwards, kept at a distance from ourselves, perhaps. Kept at a distance not only from those we love, those we had felt connected to, but even at a distance from ourselves. Even in the emptiness, the compassion and presence of God moves towards us, reaching down to soothe our aches. Jesus come to Peter on the beach and offers him breakfast. A simple next step. An ordinary human thing, that doesn’t move mountains, but perhaps plants a mustard seed. |
|
“Longing” by S. Jewell S. McGhee, 2024 mixed media collage on paper 11x17” for Loneliness: Searching for Resurrection in a Modern Epidemic with support from the Arts and Worship ministry of the Missouri United Methodist Church Sometimes loneliness feels like longing or grief. When loneliness feels like longing, we are pulled out of the present into the past or into the future. We become out of time and out of step. We live in a broken present with ricocheting echoes that haunt or taunt us. The picture of ourselves feels incomplete and we try to cover over the gashes with paper and scotch tape. We spend our energy in mending our memories, even becoming envious of ourselves. The patterns we create distract and confuse us. We fear the stillness. And yet “You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do no fear.’” There is a bud within our longing that is filled with life and hope. There is a possibility. With water and light and nutrients and time. More water and light and nutrients and time. And then a little more water and light and nutrients and time. Perhaps we can fill the waiting with a little less discontent and a little more patience for the blooming. |
|
|
“Isolation”
by S. Jewell S. McGhee, 2024 mixed media collage on paper 11x17” for Loneliness: Searching for Resurrection in a Modern Epidemic with support from the Arts and Worship ministry of the Missouri United Methodist Church Sometimes loneliness feels like isolation and we feel Alone. They are together. We are outside of it. You are outside of it. It’s heavy and cumbersome, trips you up and catches your feet. A lump in your throat. A crack in the sidewalk. A muscle ache that lingers. There can be a yearning for companionship, a pull towards what you don’t have, and then the invisible wall of impossibility stretches relentlessly between you and others. While the density of ‘Many’ feels intimidating and its shadow feels crass. The wind swirls up the leaves into a mess and then is gone and those leaves settle…falling back together. Finding rest. Being leaves. What would it be like to settle? To let yourself fall into where you are, to settle in? To find yourself and invest yourself in a place where others are. To feel the self that is worthy and good and truly you. God tells Jeremiah “seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you…if it prospers, you too will prosper.” |
|
“Unnoticed”
mixed media collage on paper 11x17” by S. Jewell S. McGhee, 2024 for Loneliness: Searching for Resurrection in a Modern Epidemic with support from the Arts and Worship ministry of the Missouri United Methodist Church Sometimes loneliness feels like being unnoticed. Crowded but unheard. Surrounded but unseen. Dis-connected. The loneliest place can be full of people. Which part is welcome here? Listen- don’t talk. Talk- don’t think. Watch- don’t touch. Mind here. Body there. Emotions elsewhere. Be pretty. Be strong. Be funny. Be carefree. Be quiet. Only a fraction of you has any space in this place. Our partial selves are broken selves. I wonder if we even know our unbroken self? Do we have compassion for all the pieces that make us up? But the truth is- you are best when you are whole. Your whole self is actually good. Plant the truth. Plant your true self. There is room for you. Not only for you in this moment, but for the self that can grow and bloom and become and belong. |
|
Resurrection
“Grace Unbounded” by S. Jewell S. McGhee, 2015
mixed media collage on paper 12x12”
for Loneliness: Searching for Resurrection in a Modern Epidemic
When you were in that lonely place, God was there.
For every tear you held in or let fall, God wept with you.
It is hard to grasp the infinite depths of God’s love, the limitless bounds of God’s grace.
And in those aching moments, with those unanswered questions, and loneliness, perhaps it felt like death had won.
But even then resurrection was moving towards you like gravity. Unhurried. Unhindered. Untidy. Unworried.
Lavish.
It is a mystery of God’s pleasure and delight. And it surrounds us, swirling like a playful wind catching our scarf. Ever closer to fulfillment. Ever closer to face to face. Ever closer to God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. (Eph 1:7-10)
“Grace Unbounded” by S. Jewell S. McGhee, 2015
mixed media collage on paper 12x12”
for Loneliness: Searching for Resurrection in a Modern Epidemic
When you were in that lonely place, God was there.
For every tear you held in or let fall, God wept with you.
It is hard to grasp the infinite depths of God’s love, the limitless bounds of God’s grace.
And in those aching moments, with those unanswered questions, and loneliness, perhaps it felt like death had won.
But even then resurrection was moving towards you like gravity. Unhurried. Unhindered. Untidy. Unworried.
Lavish.
It is a mystery of God’s pleasure and delight. And it surrounds us, swirling like a playful wind catching our scarf. Ever closer to fulfillment. Ever closer to face to face. Ever closer to God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. (Eph 1:7-10)
