Focus - Isabella Lilias Trotter

1853–1928

In an 1883 lecture, art critic John Ruskin announced, “For a long time I used to say . . . women could not draw or paint. I’m beginning to bow myself to the much more delightful conviction that no one else can.” Who changed his mind? A talented young Briton named Lilias Trotter.

Born into a wealthy home in 1853, she grew up enjoying fine art and international travel. Yet she also had a deep sense of spirituality. As a young woman, she attended deeper-life conferences and volunteered with the YWCA.

On a trip to Venice, her mother arranged a meeting with John Ruskin, who was staying at the same hotel. Seeing the young artist’s watercolors, the hard-to-please critic raved. It was “extremely right minded and careful work.” If Lilias kept at it, he suggested, she could become the “greatest living painter,” producing art that was “Immortal.”

This was a big break for her. With John Ruskin’s coaching, Lilias applied herself to art. But he was increasingly demanding that she give up distractions—like her YWCA ministry on the streets of London. Lilias reached a difficult decision: “I see clear as daylight now, I cannot give myself to painting in the way he means and continue to ‘seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness.’”

Finally her life was in focus. In 1888, she went to the North African nation of Algeria as a missionary, and for the next forty years she served there, reaching out to the largely Muslim population. She used her immense creativity to pioneer new methods that were far ahead of her time.

This comment from her writings still rings true for modern believers: “Never has it been so easy to live in half a dozen good harmless worlds at once—art, music, social science, games, motoring, the following of some profession, and so on. And between them we run the risk of drifting about, the ‘good’ hiding the ‘best.’”

You don’t have to be an art prodigy to experience the pull of different activities. We are a generation of multitaskers. It’s harder than ever to focus on what God truly wants from us. But when we seek him first—his Word, his desires, his Kingdom—everything else falls into perspective.

Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Matthew 6:33, NIV