Do Not Fear Using Your Gift for God’s Glory
This season of Encouraging Christian Creatives has talked a lot about what to do with our God-given creative gifts, and it all kind of funnels into this singular idea: using these talents, abilities, and skills for God’s glory.
Now, giving one’s talents and abilities to God’s glory involves just a tiny step of faith…or, perhaps — occasionally — a very large one…
Seek First the Kingdom of God
One of the primary duties of any Christian — regardless of creative level — is to “seek first the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33). Basically, every Christian should be pursuing God’s interests, His will, and His path for their lives and His Kingdom as a whole…which sounds like a lot. And it sounds like a lot of “religiousness”. Days spent like monks and nuns meditating only on God and doing charity work all of the time.
While those things are definitely good — meditating on God and doing charity work — God also provides us with other work for His Kingdom…
Your Gifts Have Nothing to do with Your Salvation
Christian creative, I want you to listen to me very, very carefully: using your God-given gifts and God-given creativity — even for God’s Kingdom — has nothing to do with your salvation.
It cannot give you salvation. It cannot help with your salvation. Not using it won’t impact your salvation.
Just Because It’s in Your Heart Doesn’t Mean God Put it There
So, you’ve got something on your heart. That little, soft nagging of ‘this project’ or ‘this skill’ or ‘this audience’. Something that could only be supernatural within your chest pointing you in a specific direction to use your talents and abilities. Maybe you’re super duper excited about this! Maybe you’re telling everyone “Hey, God’s put this thing on my heart!” And maybe you are 100% correct! God speaks to us in a myriad of ways and a lot of times that includes putting something or someone specific on our heart.
However…
Don’t Judge Others with Different Gifts than You
The wonderful thing about how God made us all creative is that each and every one of us expresses our creativity differently. From differences in our innate talents, differences in our creative journey and the skills we’ve picked up from that, to differences in ability levels, God has created and fostered each and every one of us uniquely. And that is beautiful! Each one of us as a specific role to play in the Kingdom and God has equipped us for it!
However, while God’s design for creative variations is good and wonderful, humanity’s fallen nature often turns that blessing into friction, jealousy, and judgement…
Do Not Use Your Gift for Evil
It is really, really important that we know what it looks like to “use our gifts for evil” (hint: it doesn’t always involve maniacal laughter and mustache twirling in dark shadows of an evil lair). Then we know when to repent and how to course correct.
Give Your Gifts to the Lord
Here’s a question for you, Christian creative: have you ever given your gifts back to the Lord as an offering?
The Godly Override, Part 2: The Value of No Talent
A big, forever ongoing debate in the creative community is nature vs. nurture. Talent vs. practice. Which one is the true reason some people are insanely good at what they create? Is talent enough to get by most of the time, or do you need practice? Can you get good at something through practice alone? If you are untalented in something, does that mean you can never, ever be good at it, even with all the practice in the world?
The Godly Override, Part 1: Shift Your Gift
The next two ECC articles are going to be linked under a single concept: that of the Godly Override.
What the heck is that?!
It’s a multi-purpose term I’ve developed over the years to describe situations where we humans make diligent plans in one direction, we coordinate our lives and our careers around this or that thing…and then God steps in and goes ‘here, let’s do something different’.
God Has Ultimate Sovereignty Over Your Gift
Sometimes, one of the biggest hurdles in the Christian’s faith walk is acknowledging one, huge fact: God is sovereign.
We might struggle to accept this in a few different ways: He’s sovereign, which means He is in control of everything (both the good and the bad). He’s sovereign, which means I’m not in control. He’s sovereign, which means I’m at His mercy for whatever He chooses for me. He’s sovereign, which means I need to worship Him and accept His will. These are kind of huge things and it is understandable if we have to wrestle ourselves into a place of humility.
Do Not Idolize Your Gifts
Your gifts are amazing. Your ability to draw, to write, to tell stories, to bake, to craft, to dance, to make music, to solve complex mathematical problems, see scientific solutions, or whatever other, creative gift God has given you, is amazing. That is a true fact, because God is a good and diligent God to us and to our purpose in His Kingdom. And you should acknowledge that fact; acknowledge that your gifts are spectacular, just like the God who gave them to you.
Now, this kind of confidence comes with a very big warning: do not idolize your gifts.
It’s Okay to Enjoy Your Gifts
This may only be speaking to a few creatives out there, but as someone who has to actively fight this tendency, I suspect there are others that have felt it, too. That weird sort of emotion where you actively avoid engaging in the gifts that God has given you because, well, you enjoy them. You delight in spinning up new sentences, or weaving new tapestries, or putting pen to paper and bringing beauty into the world. You have fun with knitting needles clicking in your hand or half-finished music filling the room because you can’t wait for the next part of the project. You feel your gifts and talents are simply too much fun to actively take part of.
Your Gifts are Targets for Spiritual Warfare
Your God-given, God-nurtured gifts, talents, and abilities are a good thing, Christian. The Bible says that every good thing comes from the Lord (James 1:17). He is diligent to gives us the tools, resources, time, energy, and focus we need to complete our creative work for His Kingdom, because He loves us. And, like all good things that come from the Lord, the enemy hates them.
Diligence in Your Gifts
Here is a fun fact: a Christian being creative for the glory of God is an act of worship. That’s right, worship does not have to be singing hymns in church on Sundays! When God created us in His image, one of the things He gave us was a sense of creativity, much like what He used to speak the entire universe into existence (if on a much, much, much smaller scale). Engaging in a creative project — particularly in the specific flavor of creativity that God has directed you towards — and dedicating it to the Lord is worshipping God.
How To Tell Someone the Baby is Ugly…the Christian Way.
A scenario: Someone comes asking you to review their creative project. You immediately agree because you love helping your fellow creatives out. You take a look at this project and…you’re not sure you have anything nice to say about it……at all…how do you handle telling them their “baby is ugly” in an uplifting, Christian way?
The Mindset of An Advisor
Knowing exactly how to give feedback and why it is so important to provide healthy, honest criticism about a fellow creative’s project is key to building up the creative department of God’s Kingdom! You might not feel ready — or you might feel a little too ready — but, regardless, the ball is in your court.
The Terror of Being Known
It could be a mentor you know you need advice from, it could be a teacher trying to grade your work, it could be a beta reader helping you spy the plot holes and mistakes in your writing, or a boss at a studio trying to get the best product for their client. Whoever it is, whatever it is, the process of providing your work up to be critiqued feels a little like offering up a lamb to slaughter.
And it’s usually terrifying.
Your Craft is More Important than Your Pride
To paraphrase a quote from a famous, rather dusty book-turned-movie(s) you might be familiar with: pride is the creativity-killer.
It is an undeniable roadblock in a Christian creative’s ability to create for the Lord and grow in the gifts that He has given them. Every time a creative says “my skills are enough”, “I can do this all on my own”, “I don’t want anyone to help me with this”, “I don’t need any advice”, or “look at what I have created all under my own power”, they limit themselves.
Taking Advice From Others is Necessary
God puts people in our lives as creatives who can and will give us advice that we need to hear (crucially: even if we don’t want to hear it). He provides us with wise counsellors who can guide us in areas we are weak, lift us up when we are feeling burnout and uncreative, and teach us new skills in our craft.
Iron Sharpens Iron
One of the strongest, coolest, and most amazing tools in the arsenal of the Christian creative is the people they surround themselves with. Fellow creatives, brothers and sisters in Christ, wise older men and women, experts in their field of creativity, and — crucially — honest, merciful people to get advice, opinions, and encouragement from.