You’re more creative than you might feel or think.
Trust me. I'm a creative, and sometimes I struggle to be enough. I know how it is: You scroll through social media and Pinterest and it feels like everyone was created with 10 times more ingenuity than you. You wonder, How is everyone so amazingly playful, intentional, color-coordinated, light-filled, mess-proof, delightfully-messy, time-laden, beauty-finding, detail-specific, and incredibly good at making food look so much more delicious than what’s on your plate? Even her grilled cheese looks extra….gooey.
There’s no room to be creative because everything’s already been done and thought of and painted and lettered and plated and photographed and seen and done.
There’s no room for me, you say.
But here’s the truth, friend:
There is nothing new under the sun; it HAS all been done before.
But, there’s never been another YOU.
There’s no room to be another her, or them, or him, or that.
There’s plenty of room to be YOU.
And maybe you feel stuck for the same reason that I do sometimes:
Trying to get ahead and be better than someone else flat wipes me out and zaps any and all creative energy. Do you know the feeling?
How can I paint a masterpiece? I may not.
How can I think of something no one has ever thought of before? I won’t.
How can I get to the finish line before someone else? I can’t outrun everyone, and I don’t want to.
But we each have longings to make, create, declare, and profess. We have something we want to say with what we have. How do we stop comparing and start creating?
Why don't we begin here:
When we stop trying to say, “Look at me! I'm the best!” we end up with the freedom to welcome, rather than chase….receive, rather than react…make for the joy of it, rather than to measure up.
So much of becoming who our Creator made us to be begins when we recognize that all that we have is given not gotten. Gratitude and humility before Christ ignites creativity because we don't have to prove how amazing we are in the light of how amazing He IS.
We don't have to be impressive...just impressions of Christ.
And so, let’s circle back once again to this that we know, but so often forget:
We are the created, made to reflect the Creator. Our endless spinning is not just comparison and getting ahead…it’s the creation trying to find it’s worth. But He says it clearly to us in Isaiah: You are Mine. (Isaiah 43:1) We can rest easy because our value is beyond measure and has nothing to do with how unique we can make ourselves; He's already declared us, each, His own.
So, friend, don’t waste your day…
replicating what someone else has composed,
wishing you could be as creative as another,
chasing a viewpoint that is not your own,
dancing to another’s playlist,
or groaning when someone else tells their story beautifully.
There’s room for you to be YOU...and you're the only one who can tell your story.
Maybe it means you don’t follow everyone who you admire. Maybe it means you only follow those who cause you to keep your focus on an audience of One. Maybe it means you learn something new. Maybe it means you stop saying “I can’t.” Maybe it means you find inspiration from something not made by another human being. These are good places to start.
Our good Father is a brilliant Creator: He makes no person twice. So go and make the most of your one precious life, your one unique story, your one set of hands, your only set of eyes, and follow the Lord with the one set of feet that were made to keep in step….only with Him.
I'm cheering you on...and persevering along with you, friend.
*If this subject strikes a chord...I wrote about reflecting His creativity back at the birth of the Shoppe in 2013, and creating in a comparison world back in 2014.
Because of grace,
