(Week 31) Tutwiler Revival
Story behind the paintings:
Above is the new home for my latest creations!
Do you recognize the neutral cinderblock walls?
Can you recall from days gone by (if in your 40s, now like me) or can you see them now (in your young adulthood) from a dorm room twin bed?
My friend is taking her only daughter to college this week. Leading up to this send off, they asked me to paint some abstracts for her new pad!
Based on the title of this post and being from the great state of Alabama, you may be able to distinguish the “historic” Tutwiler dormitory:
“communal living for girls ready to start friendships, study hard, and stay close, close to each other and close to campus!”
Water colors and abstracts are new to me, but I love the challenge. My friends sent me swatches and pictures of art they liked and my quest began.
God now has me on a new “abstract artistic adventure”
and
I’m hooked.
Take-away Treasure:
I am sick and tired of the enemy of our soul chewing up and spitting out God’s daughters, our daughters, us!
“When I see what’s happened to the young women in the city, the pain breaks my heart.”
Lam. 3:51 MSG
This is where my heart breaks. The sidelines are off limits. I am in the fight. Complacency is trumped by compassion and compassion without action is just pity, and that doesn’t help anyone.
“Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?” James 2:14-17 MSG
Apart from God, we can do nothing, but with HIM, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!
Therefore,
I’m ALL IN with HIM, whatever that looks like, for my sisters and daughters and mothers, all of God’s girls!
TUTWILER REVIVAL
“I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.” Psalm 27:13 NASB
Tutwiler is not only a dorm. Tutwiler is also the name of a women’s prison in Alabama.
Walking beside girls of the next generation through small groups, journal writing and “the gift of presence” has been, is and will continue to be a treasure I do not take for granted.
Walking alongside prisoners in Costa Rica and close to home continues to captivate my heart. I have witnessed God’s hot pursuit of HIS girls in the midst of some really hard places.
Both the dorm and the prison house God’s daughters.
Both have housed girls whom I love very much, but God loves more.
GOD AND HIS GIRLS:
HE sees us as the apple of HIS eye.
HE calls us beautiful and fearfully and wonderfully made.
HE sings over and delights in us.
HE will never leave or forsake us.
HE has a plan and purpose for us.
HE will bring beauty from the ashes in our lives.
HE removes all shame.
and
HE will continue to co-write our love stories until HE brings us Home.
It is my custom to pray while I paint. The prayer possibilities are endless and getting to pray for a dorm and a prison full of my sisters is one of my greatest privileges.
“Forget about what’s happened;
don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.
It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
There it is! I’m making a road through the desert,
rivers in the badlands.” Isaiah 43:20 MSG
Little does TUT (Both the dorm and the prison) know
but
REVIVAL is NOW!
I pray that every foot that steps into that dorm or prison (BOTH TUTS) will be drawn to Jesus for themselves.
That bonds of friendship and sisterhood will be stronger than ever and tongues will be tamed, speaking only words of life, not strife.
Envy and jealousy will be left freezing on the front lawn and the victory songs of collaborating, not competing, sisters will be heard from every room, hall and common area!
Grudges and gossip will be only distant memories from a time and place they no longer know.
Forgiveness and grace will be the garlands that deck the halls and the necks of all of God’s TUT girls!
God’s princesses will hold their heads high, confident in the One who redeemed them.
Purity, honesty, kindness, generosity, goodness, compassion and love will be the fruit flowing from TUT.
Cold hearts will grow warm, the lost will be found, and the lonely will be surrounded by open arms.
There will be “no vacancy” for depression, anxiety or addiction to move in, for they will be buried in the valley of dry bones. Insecurity, shame, and fear will join the motley crew in that parched pit!
Joy, peace and freedom will be the daily dance.
Robes of righteousness are the uniform each girl will sport. These digs are perma-clean, due to the, once and for all, sacrifice of Jesus, who took all the dirty laundry away from TUT, and replaced it with a royal wardrobe,
gifted not earned,
from the King of TUT,
the one and only,
KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS (see Rev. 19:16)
“I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me…The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.” Romans 12:3 MSG
May we stay in awe of God’s greatness and grateful of the grace HE’s given us. Look around, and allow your heart to break for what breaks HIS. Don’t remain paralyzed in despair but go all in with the ONE who made all things and who has already won the war!
We may not know what that looks like, but if we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we will find ourselves moving where and how HE moves. Our faith will have feet and we will do the will of God in our own generation, thus fulfilling our Kingdom purpose!
AMEN
About Katie Wilson
Where my faith and creativity collide! A freedom freelancer, prayerful painter and clarion for Christ. #amwriting #Compel Forgiven and Free Living a life that says: COME AND SEE!
