Hi MMM readers! This is Oksana, the editor. I would like to thank each and every one of you for your support of the e-zine over these past 2 and a half months... it's meant a lot to me to hear your feedback, and I am touched to know that many of you have been positively impacted by this website.

I'd like to announce that I'll be taking a break from MMM over the next two weeks in order to spend some time with God and recharge on a spiritual and creative level. There is a lot going on in my life right now, and I'd like to give those things first priority for a while. I will see you again in two or three weeks!

Meanwhile, if you'd like to help MMM while I'm gone, you can...

Submit articles. We're in constant need of new material to publish. Click here to see how you can be a part of our ministry and serve creative Christian youth.

Submit questions. MMM is looking for reader-contributed questions concerning creativity and/or Christ. It only takes a minute to ask, so tell us what's on your mind! We will post replies to some of those questions in an article.

Fill out our survey. MMM wants to learn about your hobbies and interests. If you've got five minutes to spare, fill out a quick survey here.

Thank you for your help! I look forward to seeing you again soon!

Oksana K.

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As I kid, I used to dream of being a ballerina. I begged my parents incessantly to send me to ballet school, spent day and night immersing myself in dance books and sugarplum-fairy dreams, and was ecstatic when my dad finally brought me to the local studio, with its splendid rooms and point-shoe-flooded hallways, to sign me up for lessons. Sadly, as most childhood dreams tend to do, this one dissipated as soon as I got a taste of the nitty-gritty: the pulled muscles, embarrassing falls, and instructor reprimands that reduced me to tears. I was quickly faced with the fact that I had bad knees, flat feet, poor balance, bad posture, and no musicality to speak of. I was enrolled in dance classes for just over a year before realizing, at the age of 12, that it simply wasn't for me.

Although I still stand by my decision -- having found, in recent years, that God had better plans in store for me -- I do have the occasional wave of nostalgia for the tutus and pointe shoes of my past. In fact, I sometimes take an hour out of my day to watch ballet videos on YouTube and let myself vicariously re-live those early Saturday mornings and long weeknight hours at the studio.

A few months ago, I happened upon a video showing two dancers from China perform a beautiful duet, blending acrobatics with elegance to form a stirring, fluid dialogue about love and hope. Like over 5 million viewers before me, I watched transfixed. The music was beautiful; the grace in each movement, exquisite.

Something, however, was missing. Two things, in fact: the male dancer's leg, and the female dancer's arm.

Rebuilding Dreams

Ma Li, now 32, had just joined a professional dance company after years of rigorous training when she got into a bad car accident. Waking up at the hospital, Ma was horrified to discover that her right arm had been amputated. "I was shocked. ... How could [dance] be done with a physical deformity?" For this 19-year-old, every dream for the future had been hinged on her ability to move with grace, symmetry, and balance; and now, she could barely make her way through simple household tasks. Six years passed, with several changes in career, before Ma could accept her condition and return to the world of dance as an amputee.

Several days before one of her performances, Ma met Zhai Xiaowei, an athlete who had lost his leg in a car accident at the age of 5. After a brief conversation, she invited Zhai to her show, and Zhai recalls feeling "electrified" as he watched her dance: "My hair seemed to stand on end... she danced gracefully, even though she had only one arm." With no prior experience, Zhai made the decision to join Ma in a dance partnership that would soon take China -- and the internet -- by storm. In 2007, the pair made their first public appearance when they entered a competition hosted by one of China's largest television networks, placing second out of 7,000 contestants with a dance entitled "Hand in Hand." You can watch this video below:

The dance was far from your average pas-de-deux -- it was a display of utter teamwork and intricate interdependence. The partners knew one another's weaknesses, and made up for these by putting forth their strengths: where Ma had no arm, Zhai offered two of his own; where Zhai was missing a leg, Ma provided the strength in hers. As I watched the video, I began to wonder how much we could accomplish if we could only learn to do the same in our daily lives -- to focus on offering our best abilities, and let others fill in our weaknesses with their strengths.

Unfortunately, many people lack the kind of attitude that has helped Ma and Zhai redefine the possibilities of dance. Most of us tend to fall into one of two traps: we either see other peoples' needs but refuse to offer our strengths in assistance, or we choose to focus our lives on things at which we're not gifted, fruitlessly trying to perform an arabesque without a leg to lift while our healthy arms dangle unused.

Weakness: Obstacle or Opportunity?

The first trap is very common, particularly in the arts world. When you send a demo tape or draft to a producer or publisher, how often do you get constructive, personalized advice in return? If you aren't one of the lucky ones whose work is accepted, you usually get a canned rejection letter or no response at all. Although these experts have enough knowledge and skill to help even the most hopeless of hopefuls improve, many of them don't share this knowledge with artists who don't quite meet their expectations. On a practical level, this is reasonable, since it takes both time and money to reply to people individually. In Christianity, however, this kind of attitude isn't acceptable -- and all too common among ordinary artists like you and I.

I've often struggled with this when it came to sharing my writing and graphic designs skills. While door after door has opened for me to help out individuals and ministries with my abilities, I've turned many opportunities down in search of things that would be more "worth" my efforts. I used excuses like, "I have no time," "that ministry isn't professional enough," "I'm not good enough yet," or "I want to work for something bigger," and ended up hoarding my talents for myself instead of sharing them with the rest of the Christian body. As I eventually discovered, however, it was only through sharing my art skills that I could truly strengthen them -- even the smallest, least-professional ministry offers challenges and creative ideas that stretch artists' abilities, and as members become better with practice, these organizations grow larger and more professional. All that's needed to set off this chain reaction is to see weakness as an opportunity, not a criterion for giving up on somebody. When Ma saw Zhai for the first time, she could have said, "I can't dance with him, he has no leg." Instead, she thought, "I've got exactly what he lacks, and he has exactly what I need," and they joined forces to become a team.

Taking on Too Much

The second trap that artists may fall into is much more subtle and difficult to discern. On the surface, it can be called many things, like "widening one's horizons" or "becoming multiskilled" -- these, in themselves, are not bad things. But, deep down, they are often driven by a dissatisfaction with God's gifts -- a desire to exchange the unique ministry that God has chosen for each person for something more glamorous or well-paid. There is nothing wrong with experimenting: in fact, trying different things (which, like my ballet classes, may not quite work out in the end) can build up a huge inventory of "transferable skills" -- things like perseverance, courage, and appreciation, that can be applied to any of the arts. Even more importantly, experimenting can help you discover the ministry to which God has called you and pinpoint a few key areas that you're good at and passionate about.

The problem comes in when Christians who already have a sense of their calling begin to lose focus in search of something "better." Experimentation becomes an issue when it takes our attention off of our God-given ministry and spreads us so thin that we have no time to properly nourish our true strengths. This, too, is a lesson I've learned through experience. At several points in my life, I received a pretty clear call from God to pursue the field of writing, but for me, writing isn't the most fun activity in the world. It takes concentrated effort, a consistent positive attitude, hours of research, and dogged determination in an ever-waging war against writer's block -- not to mention the less-than-ideal salary and the crazy competitiveness of the field. Is it my dream career? No -- if I were perfectly honest, I'd much rather have a job that requires less effort and gives more in return. But I've had many indications that God wants me to serve him through writing.

Has this been enough to convince me? Unfortunately, no -- I've jumped around from one thing to the next: trying to teach myself piano, trying to master wheel pottery, teaching myself to sing, trying to learn Italian on my own, nearly switching career directions to become a statistician, and even going so far as to almost take up ballet again. All of these things have been fun, but not very rewarding -- I felt like a gardener who planted a hundred different seeds, and spent so much time moving from one to the next that none were properly tended to and they all ended up dead. Even worse, I forgot all about my true calling in the process, and left my gift for writing stagnant and under-nourished.

Created for Harmony

The problem is, when I fall into one of those two traps and cheat myself out of using the abilities that God has allotted to me, it's not just my loss -- it affects the entire Christian community. Everybody is given a unique part of the puzzle to fill, and I'm responsible for finding and focusing on the ministry for which God created me. If, figuratively speaking, he gave me a "hand" so that I could be a hand to those who have no hand, I should focus on using that hand instead of bemoaning the foot that I don't have -- there are others who can be that foot for me. We were created to complement each other's strengths and weaknesses, so when everybody works in harmony within the Church, there are no deficiencies that cannot be filled in by others.

In fact, one of the central characteristics of a servant is to do one's part to the best of one's ability, and let others do their part. Jesus, who has absolutely no incompetencies, imperfections, or inabilities, still allows and encourages us to be his hands and feet. It's not that he needs us to do these things for him -- it's that he entrusts us with his work. He lets us do it so that we can grow.

Is it tempting to steal the spotlight, to pretend that you have it all with no need for others? Yes -- and it's very selfish. For some people, "expanding their horizons" becomes a race for quantity, not quality -- a way to build up a big resume or add another accomplishment to the list of things they've tried in their lives. People enter fields that they have no true passion or talent for, produce lackluster work that lowers the standards in these industries, and fail to offer their true gifts to the body of Christ. Wouldn't it be better if everyone fulfilled their role and let others fulfill theirs?

The young woman in the video didn't try to perform lifts using her one arm -- she let the man do that, and he ended up strengthening his arms. Likewise, he didn't try to do jumps and footwork that required two legs -- he left that job to the young lady's strong legs. Together, they reinforced their strengths and filled in each other's weaknesses, dancing in perfect union.

And it was beautiful.


Article by Oksana K.
Image credits: Graphic by Oksana K. Images from CCTV, DayLife; textures from Angelique Brunas and Sanami276.
Read more about Ma and Zhai here.

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Hi readers! I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for supporting MMM. Over 1,000 first-time visitors have come to the site since its launch on April 19, and many of you continue to return to the e-zine to read and submit articles. I want to thank all of you for your contributions, prayers, encouragement, and feedback -- it's been a wonderful experience serving you through this site.

The e-zine will be a little quiet over the next two weeks as I (the editor) finish up senior exams. However, over that time period, I'd like to give you a little assignment: I want to hear your questions about creativity and Christianity. What would you like to ask MMM about faith and the arts? Do you want advice, an opinion, or information? Ask away -- anything goes! Post 1-5 questions as a comment, tweet (@mmministry), or send them through email (mm.ministry@gmail.com), and I'll choose several of the reader-submitted questions to answer right here on the blog. All questions sent through email will be posted anonymously.

Do you have any questions running through your mind right now? Great! Send them in, and tell your friends about this blog post -- we want to get as many as possible over the next two weeks. I look forward to seeing what you send in, and responding to your queries. :)

Article by Oksana K.
Image credits:Night-fate-stock


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If there was a prize for the most bothersome, aggravating shower in the world, mine would win it hands down. Sure, it has a nice silver-plated head with multiple 'massage' settings, an adjustable neck which sets the water at just the right angle, and beautiful hand-painted tiles along its walls. But don't let any of that fool you -- there's an ugly temperament behind the pretty facade.

Here's how an average encounter with the Shower of Doom plays out: I turn on the faucet, step in, and begin to relax, taking in the soft sounds of the pitter-pattering droplets and the soapy fragrance of the rising steam. Always an easy target, I am oblivious to the attack that's about to take place. Seconds tick by and the shower gets progressively warmer. It feels nice -- nice, until I realize that I'm standing in a torrent of scalding hot water. Then the shock hits me like an electric current, and every nerve ending on my skin joins in a simultaneous wail: "I'm boiling! Get me out of here!" I do a couple of pirouettes while trying to gauge where the tap handles are, scramble to remember which way is left and which way is right and which way to turn which tap without boiling myself even more, and gather my wits about me just long enough to twist the 'cold' handle a wee bit to the left. Just a millimetre or two does the trick.

Aaah... Refreshing, cool water comes pouring down like a blessing on my simmering self, and the atmosphere grows calm once more. The temperature is perfectly balanced -- not too hot and not too cold. Now that's more like it! I begin humming the overture to a musical and start to forget all about my previous ordeal.

But not for long.

Two seconds later, I find myself in freezing water. It's so cold that it literally knocks the breath out of me. I scramble for the faucet handle and twist it frantically. How could one millimetre have done this? I'd barely even turned the tap, and the shower went completely arctic on me! When I give my shower a quarter of an inch, it takes a mile. It refuses to understand that there's a middle ground between hot and cold. And, thus, the drama repeats itself every single day, creating a vicious cycle that will either cause me permanent shower-phobia or eventually teach me how to properly turn on the water. Either way, it's not fun.

But why, you might be asking, am I sharing this profoundly edifying and enlightening experience with you? Well, there's a little more to this story than meets the eye. I realized, during one of those episodes, that they can serve as an illustration of our lives and the way we sin.

I fool myself every single day. I tell God, "This is it. I will not walk away from you ever again. I will not make any more excuses for my sin. There is nothing in the world that can justify it, so I repent of it for life." And for the first few minutes, I do. I'm fired-up, living the "hot" life of Revelation, enjoying the resolve that pulses in every step I take as I return to the narrow path of my God. And then something catches my eye. It's about as important as an atom compared to the Lord I serve, but somehow, it grabs my attention and I become absolutely overwhelmed with desire for it.

One tentative step to the right. One millimetre. It can't do any harm. So I turn down the heat of my faith by a tiny increment; I skip a prayer, let a witnessing chance slip by, disobey my parents, say an unkind word to a friend. And the next thing I know, I am absolutely cold.

I might be wrong about this as I don't know the Bible by heart, but I don't think that God ever talks of Christians regressing -- in his eyes, we either walk forward or fall away. There's no such thing as a millimeter when it comes to sin -- the tinest veering off of his path turns the soul to ice, and to break the law at one point is to break it fully. We think, it's no big deal, this is only a fraction of a sin, but when it comes to evil, a millimetre quickly turns into a mile.

Sometimes, I can't stand the heat of living for Christ 100%, and I decide to tone it down just a little -- to just be one small decimal-point more like the rest of the world is. Surely it won't change the temperature much. So I wake up in the morning and think, I'll read my Bible a little later, after I do my hair. Not reading the Bible at all is obviously out of the question -- at first. But in the mad rush that ensues when I realise I'm late for school, my initial thought quickly morphs into, Okay, I'll read it after school. After school, when I'm starving and have tons of homework, it's suddenly not that big of a stretch to think, Not tonight. I'll read my Bible tomorrow. Ouch! Do you see how that happened? In the early morning, I would have been shocked at the thought of not reading my Bible all day, but, millimeter by millimeter, that thought becomes acceptable to me, and before I know it, I am left cold.

Let's look at it another way. I've never skydived before, and even the thought of jumping from a diving board at the pool scares me. But if I leap a few times from my kitchen counter, I'm suddenly no longer so afraid of jumping from the top of, say, the play-structure at the local park. And when I take that risk, a diving board isn't so scary anymore. After jumping from the highest diving-board in the pool, will I still be as afraid of sky-diving as I used to be? All it takes is that first jump from the kitchen counter, and a bunch of possibilities are opened. With many things in life, that's a good thing. With sin, it's not -- the tiniest droplet of a lukewarm or sinful lifestyle can leave one's faith utterly frozen.

As much as I hate the fact that my shower is out to get me, my daily hassle with it is a good reminder to enjoy the fiery life that God wants me to live, and to never cave into the idea that a little millimeter won't change anything. Even the smallest steps have big consequences. In the words of Casting Crowns,

"It's a slow fade when you give yourself away,
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray...
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away;
People never crumble in a day.

The journey from your mind to your hands
Is shorter than you're thinking,
Be careful if you think you stand
You just might be sinking..."

Article by Oksana K.



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What would you do if you had 1,612 hours, all to yourself, to spend however you wanted? Would you read a stack of books? Travel to a different continent? Write a novel? Record a CD? Think about it for a moment... all of that free time. How would you use it?

The answer might surprise you -- according to statistics, you'd most likely spend it online. 1,612 hours -- that's exactly how much time the average teenager allots to internet use every year. Sound outrageous? It is! But sadly, for many of us, that number is probably much higher -- after all, this statistic is based on an average of 4.4 hours of web-surfing per day. For me, it's common to spend as many as eight hours a day on the computer, especially during weekends and holidays. And I'll be the first to admit that, no, not all of that time goes towards MMM!

The subject of internet addiction is becoming more and more relevant to Christian youth as the web becomes an increasingly useful tool for witnessing, ministry, fellowship and spiritual growth. These benefits are infinitely valuable, especially for Christians who have limited access to church and wouldn't be able to participate in such activities otherwise. Unfortunately, the "online church" can easily be twisted into an excuse for avoiding in-person gatherings and witnessing -- after all, why put in extra effort when you can worship, learn, and interact without having to leave your chair? The time that Christians invest into online lives must be matched by an equal or larger investment of commitment to "real-life" friendships, relationships and responsibilities; otherwise, believers risk neglecting the very people and ministries whom they can impact most -- those right in their community.

That has certainly proved true for me. Although this ministry may seem like a big, time-consuming project (and it should be!), I spend only a small fraction of my online time on it. Every time I use the computer, I log on with the intention of accomplishing something important, something that glorifies God. It only takes a few minutes, however, until I find myself checking another Facebook profile, entangled in another forum debate, or tuned into another YouTube video. I've ended up alienated from my closest family and friends, with little "online ministry" to speak of for all the hours that I've spent staring at the screen.

It's a common misconception, however, that these hours in themselves are a negative thing. It's not necessarily the online-time itself that's bad -- it's also the way that this time is used. If a person tries to cut down on their internet time, they're only looking at part of the picture: just as much effort should be placed into using that limited time as constructively as possible. Last weekend, I decided to take some real action against my web addiction, and did something that addressed both of these facets so effectively that I was surprised and wanted to share it with all of you. What I did was very simple. It took me about 5 minutes, but it has been invaluable in keeping me accountable for my web use.

What did I do? I installed a computer timer.

The way it works is simple: every ten minutes, the timer triggers a pop-up window which stays open for one minute. During that minute, I do three things -- I reflect on what I've accomplished so far, decide whether or not I really need to keep using the computer (if I have no good reason to continue, it's time to log off), and take a quick moment to pray. When the pop-up window disappears, I go on with my work for another ten-minute interval. Easy, right? Almost too easy to make a difference, you might be thinking (I know I was). Well, not quite.

How often do you pray while you're online? The internet is amazingly adept at engaging the surfer's attention on a particular page, and making anything else -- prayer, church, your mom asking for help in the kitchen -- seem like an unwelcome distraction. Before installing the computer timer, I had rarely prayed while surfing the web. I lacked the will-power to snap myself out of a cyber-world that contained 19.2 billion web-pages for exploration, and any attempts at prayer were hurried, with more thought given to what link I should click next than to what I wanted to tell God. Installing a timer which prompts me to pray every ten minutes might seem like a mechanical approach to the problem, but its purpose is not to impose a legalistic schedule on prayer; rather, it coaches me to "pray continually," as Paul exhorted believers to. Anyone who wants to pray continually must learn to move God to the forefront of their mind by shutting out unimportant distractions, and that's exactly what this timer teaches me to do.

When I let God become my main focus -- even for a single minute -- my perspective changes entirely. I begin to see what I've done online in the light of what He's done for me, and it makes me realize that whatever enthralling video or annoying broken link I've just been concentrating on isn't really that important after all. If I'm at a loss over how to start praying, I simply tell God about the site I'm currently surfing, and a whole new dimension is added to my experience.

Prayer keeps me accountable: if, in telling God about it, I realize that the site at which I'm looking doesn't please God, I'm convicted to turn it off. Prayer motivates me. After a moment of silent reflection, I have a new vision; a desire to spend the remainder of my time in a better way. The internet can really "quench the Spirit" by distracting me from my God-given mission (1 Th. 5:19), so setting aside a minute of prayer lets me satisfy my thirst enough to keep on working. Prayer keeps me down-to-earth. If something difficult is going on in my life, I often use the web as a means of escape: it distracts me from things that I'm afraid of, gives me an excuse to put off hard work for later. It allows me to slip into an online-profile-self where I can pretend that I "have it all together." My prayer-timer puts me face-to-face with whatever I'm using the web to flee from, and reminds me that God alone can serve as my refuge.

In addition to the benefits listed above, the timer has proved very handy in helping me get a better sense of how time passes while I'm online. When I look down at my clock after spending a few hours on the computer, I'm usually surprised at how the minutes have flown by -- I'm often caught off guard by how quickly "just one more minute" here and "just one more minute" there can add up! After installing the timer, I've gotten a good grasp on how fleeting and precious each minute is -- instead of waiting until they day is over to come to my senses and realize how I've been wasting time, the realization hits me every ten minutes, and I always have a chance to make the next ten minutes count!

Finally, and perhaps most importantly of all, installing a computer timer has taught me to be still. It's a well-known fact that they Internet is a fast-paced world. Have you noticed how news stories are no longer labeled by date? Today, it's common to see things like "posted 1 minute ago" or "added half an hour ago" instead of the traditional date-and-time. Why? Because, online, speed and efficiency are everything -- the faster you are, the more likely you are to succeed. When Christians get caught up in trying to be the first and the fastest, they can lose touch with the meaning of peace, stillness, and rest. One minute can seem far too long when you have to tear yourself away from the bustling activity and excitement of the web, but it is so refreshing to have a moment of stillness during which all of your attentions, efforts, and thoughts abide on God.

The computer timer has worked wonders for my over-use of the computer, but it hasn't always been easy -- sometimes, prayer is the last thing I want to do in a particular moment. However, if you install a timer -- or take any other measure to curb your computer-time -- make sure you're consistent. If you ignore it once, you're more likely to take it less seriously the next time, and after a while it will simply become meaningless. If, on the other hand, you put real, sincere effort into becoming a more responsible web-surfer, you'll find both your online and offline time more rewarding and God-glorifying. So try installing an online timer on your computer, and see how it works for you!

Article by Oksana K.
Image credits: DyingBeautyStock and others.
Statistics from: The Independent

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