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.
Good Produces Good
Do you want to produce good work? Not for your salvation, of course, but out of the love you have for your fellow man? Out of the love you have for God? Do you want to craft good stories that inspire, encourage, comfort, entertain, and feed people intellectually, spiritually, or emotionally? Do you want to offer up your gifts as a sacrifice before God, to do with what He wills?
Talent Requires Practice
God gifted you with the best talent ever. You are so incredibly good at this Creative Thing that people have been telling you since you were a child “ah, look at this! He/she is so good at this thing! They have a natural talent that is going to take him/her far!” You are the star of this Creative Thing in your social circles, unmatched, unrivaled, all without lifting a finger of effort. You are praised and loved and you felt like the sky is the limit…
…then you hit the wall.
It’s Important to Nurture Your Gift(s)
Sometimes it’s easier to say “I have a talent in this, but it’s just a hobby” or “I wish I had more time to develop this skill, but I am so busy” than it is to actually go do the thing. It’s easier to let the creativity slide than it is to build that creative skill that God has given us. Sometimes we even like to brag “Ah, yes, I have this creative talent” without actually ever exercising it or thinking about it except when we’re trying to show off.
Finding Your Gift
For some people it is easy. For others, there is a calling to create, but no clue where to even begin. For others, they have been pursuing various creative avenues, but each and every one of them has reached a dead-end. They know they are called to create, but exactly what their creative gift (whether talent or skill) feels like its trying to hide.
Being a Bezalel
The first Biblically recorded instance of a person being gifted the Holy Spirit is Bezalel. If you are unsure of who that is, you are not alone! He was no great prophet like Moses, or mighty man like Samson, and he wasn’t one of the Twelve Disciples or a member of Paul’s ministry. No, Bezalel was a craftsman.
The Tabernacle
Choosing just a few verses for this article was difficult because the Tabernacle of the Old Testament is not a tiny project. God gives incredibly clear and specific instructions on its entire design, from the protective, outer badger skins to the intricate golden lampstands. Each and every piece of this project glorifies God in some way or another through its design, function, or purpose. And it is a fantastic thing to analyze as Christian creatives!
What Do We Mean By ‘Gifts from God’?
As stated previously, this season of ECC is going to focus on the idea of gifts from God. However, there is one little piece of clarification that needs to be made before continuing: these are not spiritual gifts. The New Testament is filled with verses on spiritual gifts, such as kindness, patience, prophecy, mercy, etc., which are not what we are going to be discussing during this blog series.
Encouraging Christian Creatives, Season 2: Gifts and Talents
Hello, dear reader!
Welcome to the second season of Encouraging the Christian Creative! I am so excited to dive into this next season and pray that God will be glorified in it!