Love God. Love People.

This piece started like several others have: in a moment of inspiration, I started a collage.

No plan, no real goal. I just started arranging and gluing paper on a canvas board.

And while waiting for the glue to dry, the realization struck me: I have no plan,  no real goal. I just started arranging and gluing paper on a canvas board.

So there I was, stuck with yet another unfinished piece. No plan,  no real goal. Just a canvas board that's been covered in bits of paper, a canvas board thats been committed to those colors, those pieces of paper. I can't remove them, I can't work over them without wasting them. I'm stuck with another unfinished piece.

It sat around in my room for months.

A few times, I almost used it. A few times I started to get out my art stuff and give this canvas board meaning. Each time, I found I was missing the materials I needed (I have my art supplies split between my home and my college dorm, so it's a common problem). By the time I had access to what I needed, I had again lost any "inspiration" I thought I had. So each time, that canvas board ended up back on the shelf. No plan, no real goal.

Okay. Now leave the unfinished collage on your mental shelf, we're going in a new direction. I promise it'll connect. Okay. So, at the end of my school's first Wednesday night worship service this semester, everyone was handed an envelope. Inside, we were told, was a special challenge. "If you open the envelope," they said, "you have to do what's inside."

Each card said the same thing: "Love God. Love People."

Alright. Remember that collage? That unfinished, seemingly useless collage without a plan or a real goal? The minute I read the card, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. And once again, I didn't have what I needed. But this time was different. I had a plan, a real goal.

I sketched out my idea. I drew it again with a drawing app on my phone.

And I wrote a detailed description in my journal. I was not about to let that idea go.

I went home that Friday night, and came back to school the next morning with the paper and pressed orchids I needed. I sat down, turned on some music, and I gave that baby a new life.

Love God. Love People.

So an unfinished canvas became finished. A collage with no plan, no real goal, no purpose became one of my favorite collages I've made so far.

Love God. Love People.

-Cailey