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.
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.
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.
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.
You Got This!
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” - 2 Timothy 2:15
Alright, Christian creative, we’ve reached the end of this first season of Encouraging Christian Creatives. Hopefully you have been encouraged and have a pocketful of new tools, skills, tricks, and habits to help you navigate this creative life through a Godly lens!
Encourage Others!
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” - Hebrews 10:24-25
When was the last time you talk to a fellow creative and what did you talk about? Do you remember what the tone of the conversation was? Was it upbeat and enthusiastic, or was it full of grumbling and complaints?
Good Creative Habits for the Christian
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” - Hebrews 12:1
Practically, what does it look like to be a Christian creative? What sort of habits can we get into that would benefit our work, those around us, and bring glory and honor to God?
Perseverance!
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” - Galatians 6:9
All these encouraging tricks, rest, and theology in the world and occasionally it all boils down to a single word: perseverance.
Use the Sabbath to Worship God
“…casting all your anxieties on Him, for He cares for you…” - 1 Peter 5:7
We are often busy throughout the week with work and the various chores of life. We may only have ten or fifteen minutes to spend fully focused on God each morning or evening as we are coordinating our lives. The Sabbath, however, gives us a brilliant opportunity to give God more of our attention.
Rest Comes with Discipline
“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” - Hebrews 12:11
Rest is like any other aspect of faith: it requires discipline, self-control, and trust in God Our Father. In requires us to be disciplined to set aside time for rest. Then we have to use that discipline to guard it viciously, so that we can properly follow God’s commandment about the Sabbath.
God’s Old Testament Instructions for the Sabbath
“Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.” - Exodus 34:21
God established the Sabbath by taking a day to rest Himself, however, as He rescue the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt, He incorporated the same rest into His instructions for them. First in the Ten Commandments, then to the rest of the Levitical laws with the same premise: for six days you work, for one day you do absolutely no work whatsoever.
God Rested on the 7th Day and Made it Holy
“By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested…then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy…” Genesis 2:2-3.
Why did God rest? The Bible isn’t overtly clear about this, but it does fit in with something that God does do an awful lot: give us an example to follow.
It’s Okay to be Weary
It is okay to be weary.
We are finite in mind, body, and soul in a broken world that sometimes takes more energy out of us than we can replenish.
There Are Seasons for Everything
One of the greatest debates of our time is when to start playing Christmas music. Some people like to start before Halloween and enjoy almost three months of a Christmassy season. To some people that ridiculous and Christmas music isn’t allowed to start until November. Still others find any Christmas music before December 1st to be absolutely intolerable!
Don't Idolize Your Work
The term idol usually brings up images of carved gods and goddesses, or perhaps a golden calf, or other images of things that people worship instead of the Lord our God. In essence, we usually view idols as something that exists in the physical realm to actually kneel before and pray to.
Our Works Should Show Love to Our Neighbor
The second commandment of the entire Bible is to love one’s neighbor.
Great! That’s kind of nonspecific!
No worries, there are a lot of ways to show love!