Print This PostPlay-doh people
One of the ministries that is close to my heart is Helping Up Mission in downtown Baltimore. At a point in my life a couple of years ago I considered going down there to live and join their Spiritual Recovery program. Thank God for the mission! The staff, the volunteers, and the residents are all committed to a new way of life which includes freedom from addiction(s) and dependence on Christ for a new way of life.
Every Wednesday they have Art therapy. Normally, they make cards and decorate them for their friends and family. Today was my lucky day! Today they played with Play-Doh. And I helped! That’s right. Myself, along with about 20 other men (staff and volunteers included) made little faces. These faces were supposed to represent how we saw ourselves before recovery, in the midst of our addictions, and now.
I’m sure some enterprising grant writer somewhere could find some big money researching the benefits of Play-Doh Facemaking Therapy and the sociological implications for use in inner city drug rehab programs. Now, there’s a thought! Dangit! I checked. Someone already got awarded this years money. Just kidding!
It was both entertaining and sobering at the same time. Especially, when it came time for me to apply my fingertips to this helpless lump of pseudo clay. I am all thumbs when it comes to things artistic in nature so I decided to just go with the flow. I surprised myself when this orange lump of flour and salt and food coloring transformed into a round ball with a huge mouth crying out with Dumbo ears and not much else. I asked myself and God. Is this really how I saw myself? I could almost feel the cries of anguish emanating from the very depths of my soul. I DID see myself that way at one time. As I was working on me-that’s part of recovery-I was also checking out what some of the others were doing. There were a few guys who missed their calling. They should have been comic book superhero designers. Others were very one-dimensional in their approach. Addictions compress all of life to me and my next fix. Then there were the guys who, like me, should only be allowed to play with Play-Doh while they are under close supervision, preferably ADULT supervision. At least none of us ate our creations!
The one common denominator I noticed was that most of us had a clearer picture of how we perceived ourselves in the past than how we see ourselves now. They say hindsight is 20/20.
Perception is a tricky thing, you know. There is this perception that I have of myself. There is a perception of how you see me. There is even my perception of how I think you see me, or vice versa. But, the only perception that matters is how God sees me, and you. Isn’t it great that God sees us as the marred and scarred and disfigured persons we are, and also as the final masterpiece He created us to be. God is definitely in the recovery business. Just ask the guys at Helping Up Mission who are learning to let go of their past and step into the one day at a time life as a believer and follower of Jesus Christ. Me too!
July 21st, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Harvey – What a treat to have you at the art session last week – even better was this write-up and pictures. You have a gift with words and expressing yourself. Thanks for capturing this special day – hope you are able to attend again. Dave has sent this to quite a few people at HUM and has gotten very positive feed-back.
Carole