FLOURISH-MEANT
PODCAST
HOST: TINA YEAGER
How can we find emotional healing through creativity and art? This week’s amazing guest offers insights from his personal healing journey during the process of publishing a powerful and inspiring children’s book he co-authored with his late wife.
Matthew Ronan likes telling good stories, helping others tell good stories, and most of all wants his life to be a good story. He is an artist, writer, and content producer who’s worked in film, television, and radio. His credits include projects for Disney/Lucasfilm, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and the Michael Jackson estate. He lives in San Francisco with his daughter Catica. Chastidy Ronan was an executive director of a family support center, a teacher, a missionary, and a nanny, but the brightest part of her life was being a mom. She taught elementary through college in Ohio, Haiti, China, and San Francisco. She knew five languages and always got the most blue ribbons in Toastmasters. She died in 2019 from colon cancer and is survived by her daughter Catica and her husband, Matthew.
Matthew shares his heart-gripping story of multiple miscarriages, his wife’s diagnosis of stage four cancer when their daughter was five months old, and the simultaneous dissolution of the company he had founded during Chastidy’s illness. Ronan relates the original dream he shared with his wife about writing children’s books. He notes how life became too busy to follow this dream until they resurrected the idea during Chastidy’s battle with cancer. Chemotherapy regimens and caring for their young daughter made writing difficult, so Ronan had to finish the book after his wife passed away.
Matthew recounts the challenges of navigating life as a creative professional. He notes the fears that seized him as he worked on the book, especially after facing multiple traumatic losses with regard to his family, previous creative projects and the dissolution of his company.
Ronan details how God worked on his heart as he worked through the chapters of the book. The Lord shifted his perspective from worldly success standards toward inspiring others. The mindset change freed Matthew from worry and anxiety.
We address the irony of how those who serve in the healing media of art suffer great attacks on their emotional well-being, identity, and discouragement. Matthew discusses the sensitivity of creatives as part of their power to offer emotionally transformative work. The emotional nature of an artist also renders them vulnerable to pain. Ronan highlights the cultural pressures and intense competition in the artistic industries.
We discuss the issues of comparison and spiritual warfare faced by creatives. Matthew shares his recent encounter with a man armed with a knife who charged at Ronan and his six-year-old daughter. He pointed out the incident occurred right before he was scheduled to share his testimony at an event.
We also emphasize how those who do not work in creative arts industries can enjoy healing and connection with God through art. Matthew defines art as valuable to all people because it is the language of the heart. Ronan states that art is a tool that God uses for discipleship. He urges us to resist the temptation to ascribe value to our creative projects by comparing them to what others have produced. We differentiate between therapeutic art, healing art, art as worship and the art crafted as work.
Matthew and Chastidy Ronan’s book, The Girl With 5 Hearts, is about a girl who gives her hearts to the things that she loves, only to have them rejected and broken. It is a painfully honest, yet hopeful story about giving your heart back to the One who made it, because many things in life can break it. No stranger to heartbreak and loss Chastidy’s inspiration for The Girl With 5 Hearts was autobiographic, at the same time universal. This story will inspire both young and old, and point towards healing even the deepest of wounds. Learn more and get your copy at the girlwithfivehearts.com Get your copy of a book to help you connect with the Lord’s renewal through insightful study chapters, creative illustrations, and easy craft projects. Discover restoration through Upcycled: Crafted for a Purpose by Tina Yeager on Amazon, through Bold Vision Books, or wherever books are sold. https://www.amazon.com/Upcycled-Craft…
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