Are You Afraid to Live a Creative Life?

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." (Joseph Chilton Pearce)

I stumbled across this quote recently and thought it was a valuable one to remember.

At it's heart, creativity don't have a right or wrong. Yet, we often live as if there is. And in the process, we miss out on much of the creativity we have to offer. I know this has been true for me.

If we are always fearing that we will do something wrong, we will try to make our work conform to what others expect it to, rather than allow it to be what it really could be. When we try to conform our work to what we think are the expectations of others, we will fall well short of what it could be.

But when we let go of that fear of failing someone with our work and the expectations we think others have for us, our creativity is allowed to shine. And we produce our best work.

We serve a creative God. And He put that within us. He gave it to us to use. The ability to create things that you and I have comes from God. We need to be using it to His glory.

Using that to God's glory means we have to let go of the fear of being wrong. It holds us back from the full potential of what God has put in us.

He is Greater

I've been reading in Isaiah recently and this morning I was reminded of something important by what I read.

We serve a God Who is greater than anything that comes our way. What a great truth to build our life upon.

Takes a moment to read these verses out of Isaiah 40.

With whom, then, will you compare Good?
     To what image will you liken Him?
. . .
Do you not know?
     Have you not heard?
Has it not been told to you from the beginning?
     Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
     and its people are like grasshopper.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
     and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
. . .
To whom will you compare Me?
     Or who is My equal? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
     Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
     and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of His great power and mighty strength,
     not one of them is missing.
Why do you complain, Jacob?
     Why do you say, Israel,
My way is hidden from the Lord;
     my cause is disregarded by my God?
Do you not know?
     Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
     the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
     and His understanding no one can fathom.
                                                           Isaiah 40:18, 21-22, 25-28

Sometimes I think we just need to be reminded that our God is greater than anything we may face in life. Because life can often seem overwhelming. We need to hold onto the truth that our God is greater and because of that we will make it through whatever comes our way. We just have to hold onto Him.

The Discipline of Joy

Putting the words discipline and joy together doesn't sound right to me at first hearing. They're not two words we often put together. And, until recently, I would have argued that they don't go together.

In the last week, I've had the discipline of joy come up in two separate Bible studies, so I started thinking more about it. Putting these words together may sound strange to our human ear, but they fit.

Often, the world we live in isn't one that pushes us toward joy naturally. The reality is that life can be hard and joy can be something at the bottom of the list for us in those times.

When we begin to look at Scripture, we quickly realize that the authors of it didn't really make joy an optional thing for followers of Christ. In Philippians 4:4, Paul says this, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" 1 Thessalonians 5:16 tells us to "rejoice always."

These words coming form a man how didn't have a lot of reasons for joy from an earthly perspective. He had been beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned. Yet, Paul knew the importance of joy in the life of a follower of Christ, no matter the circumstances.

So, if joy is something so important, it is commanded in Scripture, then maybe calling it a spiritual discipline isn't so far off.

Even the Old Testament Law provides commands for celebration in the life of Israel. Celebration and joy are that important to God. Important enough that He made allowance for them in His covenant with Israel.

If joy is so important, why don't we experience more of it in our lives? Why is it so absent? And why does it often seem so elusive?

We don't experience joy because we don't make it a regular practice in our lives. We allow it to be contingent on our circumstances. If we allow it to be contingent on our circumstances, we won't have much of it in our lives.

But we also miss moments of joy in our everyday lives, because we're looking for it to be something big. We think joy and celebration should be something special and unique.

And they can be, but they don't always have to be. Maybe what we need to be looking for is the moments of joy in each day that we easily miss. Look for the little things and take a moment to find joy in them.

And then we also need to learn to set aside regular times to celebrate. Much like the times appointed in the Old Testament Law, we need to set aside times for that in our own lives. We have to take the time to celebrate what God has done and is doing with each other.

How are you doing with the discipline of joy in your life?

Are you missing the moments for joy in your everyday life?

How can you develop the practice of looking for joy in the everyday moments in life?

When was the last time you intentionally set aside time to celebrate what God has done and is doing?