U.S. Reflections
Sounding Stones, an Omaha Artist's expression of WMF Lifestyle Celebrations
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Background, by Chris Heuertz, WMF International Executive Director
A few years ago I did a weekend retreat for a local church in Omaha, NE. I wrote the messages for the retreat around the concept of “Five Stones of Brokenness.”
This idea came to me several years ago while I was in Israel. We were at the brook of Elah where David pulled five small, smooth stones from the river bed. One of these stones was used to slay the giant, Goliath, but the other four stones aren’t mentioned in the Scriptures again. Some Bible scholars believe that Goliath had four other brothers and David would eventually slay them as well. Other scholars correlated the number of stones that David took with the cities of Canaan that would be conquered by Israel.
As I stood in the dried up brook of Elah, I reflected on the five stones I had pulled from the brook and thought of the five giants in my own life that keep me from God: pride, control, excess, independence and resistance. God revealed to me the stones that would slay these giants:
- Humility slays the giant of pride.
- Submission slays the giant of control.
- Simplicity slays the giant of excess.
- Community slays the giant of independence.
- Brokenness slays the giant of resistance.
Artist Leslie Iwai, who is an art professor at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, was at the retreat. Leslie went home and was inspired to create the “Sounding Stones” sculpture as she reflected on the messages. She submitted a proposal to the city of Omaha for the project and was given a $41,000 grant to do the work, which took more than two years of consistent work to complete.
The “Sounding Stones” sit in Turner Park, which is about a mile from our Omaha office; I pass them every day on the way to work. They are a constant reminder of what God continues to teach me as I throw myself at His mercy and follow His broken heart into the world.
Artist's Statement, by Leslie Iwai
The sculpture installation “Sounding Stones” is a manifestation of a vision I had after a retreat where the story of David and Goliath became relevant to me (1 Sam. 17:4) through several messages given by Chris Heuertz, the Executive Director of Word Made Flesh. Each of the five sounding stones has a word written inside – humility, submission, simplicity, community and brokenness. These are the opposites of the things that keep us from God; they are the stones that slay the giants of pride, control, excess, independence and resistance.
The location of these stones being placed in Omaha – a city in the middle of our nation – is important. Soundings are often taken in the middle of a body of water to measure its depth. Likewise, in taking the “soundings” of our community, we measure its depth. The open core of each stone is to be a place for crying out. God purposes for all people to break through complacency and praise Him. But even “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40). My prayer is for these stones in the “Heartland of America” to create resonating rings throughout our nation, just as the ripples of a stone thrown into a lake reach all the way to shore.
The sculpture installation invites and challenges us to consider our character and seeks to provide a place of play, interaction, listening and voicing.
Leslie Iwai is an artist and teacher in Omaha, NE. She was commissioned to create “Sounding Stones” by the Omaha Public Art Commission with funds donated by the J. Doe Project 2001.
The sounding stones were created by sewing fabric forms and casting concrete within. A unique fabric form was individually hand-sewn for each of the five stones. Iwai spent over five hundred hours sewing the forms and casting the stones. The finished stones each weigh between 14 and 17 tons. The piece of fabric that formed each sculpture was placed under its corresponding stone, along with written prayers for humility, submission, simplicity, community and brokenness.