There’s a saying: “Great art, comes from great suffering”, and while Kris desired to become an artist, there seemed little hope that he would suffer enough to become even a novice finger-painter, because his life was inherently pleasant. He was born to a lovingly-married, middle-class couple in the mid-eighties, and his life was recognized as charmed by both friends and strangers alike. This only added to Kris’s fear that he would never become an artist and he felt his prayers for suffering had fallen on deaf ears.

But the Lord smiled upon Kris’s prayers to become an artist, and at the age of 9, Kris began his suffering by crashing his bike and colliding with an oncoming pickup truck. He was blessed with third degree burns all along his left arm and second degree burns on his left leg, which prevented him from engaging in his usual summer activities and forcing him to find ways to entertain himself inside.

A few years passed, and as his arm regained its strength the rest of his body saw fit to enter puberty early and humble his newly regained confidence with a series of red pustules; constantly irritating him, they pushed him deeper into his artistry. Kris found that writing and drawing were not enough and so he picked up the guitar as well.

After graduating high school, Kris had regained control of his body. His oily skin had begun to dry out and his scar had faded so much that people rarely even noticed he had been injured before. Kris became worried that the Lord had forgotten his prayers to become an artist, and decided to go to college as a backup plan. Little did he know that this step would be crucial in supplying him an unending cycle of both the greatest joy and the greatest suffering that he would ever come to know. Because it was there, that he met his wife.

Life continued, and in time Kris realized he had been blessed with everything he desired; a great wife, a great family, unique artistic expression, and a body that seemed to neither gain nor lose mass. And each blessing supplied Kris with equal suffering to the joy that it brought him. And he understood that becoming an artist was not achieved by suffering alone, but instead by working through the pain and pressing onward to the joy that lay ahead.

Press on, because the good stuff is just beyond.