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.
(And, also, that is the sin of pride [which we all do!], which is arguably significant to one’s overall spiritual health than it is to their creative projects, but today we are just focusing on the creative side of things.)
Two big things happen when a person says “me, myself, and I are enough alone for xyz project”. The first is that they take the entire success or failure of the project onto themselves. The burden of whether or not a project is successful rests on if they have all of the skills, talents, and resources necessary to complete it.
Think of Bezalel trying to create the entire Tabernacle without the help of others, or the help of the Holy Spirit to guide him. Think of how impossible a task it would have been to create the dwelling place of God in the desert while in exile without His help, whether it be supernatural guidance or material and practical support. It’d be impossible. He would’ve either failed or collapsed under the pressure.
Here is the thing about projects intended for God’s kingdom: they are often beyond what one person can handle in a vacuum, requiring either the help of those around the creative or God’s wisdom itself. Pride takes the entire project and places it on the shoulders of the creative, making for an incredibly heavy yoke; “failure means you have failed yourself, your audience, and the Kingdom of God.”
The second thing that happens is that the project stops being a sacrifice for God. It stops being about His Kingdom at all. It becomes a sacrifice to the creative’s own abilities, talents, and self. Pride in one’s gifts is a type of idolatry, removing the One who provided them — you guessed it, God — from His rightful place on the creative heart. This is an exhausting place to be, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and even physically because it takes the creative from communion with the God, the very One who has blessed and continues to bless them with the ability to create. Projects that should be easy and straightforward become exhausting, confusing, and impossible without the help of either God or the resources He has provided.
In God’s perfect and good will for a creative’s gifts and their life is both strength and wisdom in addition to built-in room for failure. He is a merciful God! He understands that we are going to fail and, sometimes, fail spectacularly. That is okay! He can use even these failures for His kingdom. That is where the freedom from pride comes from; permission to fail, and the knowledge that failure is not the end.
Putting it into Action
Take some time this week to search your heart for pride (you can ask God to help!). Is there any area of your creativity that makes you go “Why, yes, I am the best. No one else can beat me in this.” or “I don’t need anyone’s help with this, whether its God or man, I can do it on my own!”? Or, perhaps, some sneakier type of pride that makes you idolize your work; putting your creative projects on the throne of your heart, as your whole identity? If you are a human that isn’t Jesus, you probably said yes to these questions in some way or another. If you didn’t say yes, I’d recommend you go through them again, just to be sure.
Once you’ve found where you are putting your pride — whether it be big, small, about the creative process itself, about your creations, or about your talents and abilities — repent to the Lord. It might not be a one-and-done process, it might take time to correct the thoughts and habits that have been there for a while, but repent. Turn your work, your talents, and your creativity over to God and let Him guide you. Set aside your “I must create alone!!” and reach out to the people He has put in your life to help. And, have grace for yourself. This is a struggle all us creatives face!
“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.”
“For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?”
