I saw this Maya Angelou quote on Facebook a couple of months ago and it caused me to think. I felt that it rang true with me. I know that there are more ideas in my head than I will ever have time to pursue in an entire lifetime, and they just keep multiplying. Sometimes it gets frustrating because I want to make "all the things", I want to design "all the things", I want to do "all the things", but I know that my time is limited. Anyone else ever feel this way? I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.
This quote caused me to think about creativity and its source and why it rings true with me.
If you have read my blog for a while, I hope it is evident that I am a Christian. I believe in God. I believe in Jesus and that His death on the cross is what brings the reconciliation to God that we need because of our sin that separates us from Him. I believe that God is the Creator of the universe. Everything on this Earth was carefully and masterfully made by an ultimately creative Artist. From every beautifully painted flower, to every rugged mountain, to the smallest delicate butterfly, to you and me, all has been created by Him.
Genesis tells us that God created mankind in His image, after his likeness. What an honor! I truly believe that every one of us reflects God in some way, whether we know it or not, whether we believe in Him or not. We can't help it, we are made in His image. I think that different aspects of Him are shown through different personalities, talents and abilities. Guess what... I thinks that's pretty creative.
I think that God's creative nature resides within all of us. You may not be artistically inclined, but that doesn't mean that you are not creative. Maybe you are a good problem solver, maybe you are good at managing people, maybe you are good at organizing events, or crunching numbers to stretch your budget, or even organizing closets. There are so many ways that we as humans are creative.
Until fairly recently, I have sort of wrestled with my own creative nature. I have often thought "I have all of this creative ability, but what good is it? How is it impacting eternity? Why am I like this?". I thought it needed to have some grand purpose, that somehow I needed to "use my powers for the good of mankind" or something. Somehow, through all of that, I began to think that it was self indulgent to enjoy being creative. I began to think that it wasn't ok, that it was maybe a waste of time, time that had been given to me by God, time I should be spending doing nobler things.
I heard a sermon a few weeks ago that talked about just enjoying God, and that our enjoyment of Him brings Him glory. It sort of struck a bullseye with me. Its OK to enjoy being creative. Really? Suddenly a lot of things made more sense. By enjoying the creativity in my life, which is a reflection of God's nature, I'm enjoying Him. As long as I acknowledge the source, the One from which the creativity comes, it's a form of praise. I'm SUPPOSED to enjoy it. What a revelation! What freedom!
Part of our purpose here on Earth is to bring glory to God and by doing so, draw others to Him. Our time here is short and we have a lot to do while we are here. Not long ago my husband and I watched a question and answer session on Netflix with man who is a film maker. During the discussion he told about how his father died painfully and unexpectedly and how that impacted his view on life. He spoke about how it inspired him to sort of recklessly follow his dreams, because life is short. One of the things that impressed me was that he said to surround your yourself with the people who were the "why not?" type rather than the "why" type. What he meant by that was to surround yourself with people who, when you express a creative idea, say "why not do it?" instead of people who just say "why would you want to do that?".
I want to be a "why not?" kind of person. I want this blog to be a "why not?" kind of place. I want to inspire you to revel in the creativity that God has placed within you so that you can enjoy Him and glorify Him as well.
So if you are waffling about trying something new, I say to you, "Why not? What is there to lose? Try it!" Maybe you will find that it is something that you truly love and you will wonder why you waited so long. So what if you find it isn't for you? Then try something else. Keep exploring. It isn't a waste of time to find out that a certain activity isn't suited to you because you learned something about yourself that you didn't know before and you won't waste your time and energy wondering about it.
So go... do... be creative... follow what inspires you... :)
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