Following are thoughts on the subject of creativity, specifically from a Biblical point of view. I have been a creator of music, and many other things, my entire life. Having been in full-time Christian ministry for 37 years, and a dedicated student of scripture, I have come to see the subject of creativity as fundamentally linked with faith.
I make no apologies for a Christian-centric approach to the subject. In fact, the Christ-centered world-view may be the most beneficent support to the subject. God, as creator. Jesus, the performer of creative miracles and rich storytelling. Creativity is perhaps one of the most central themes throughout the Bible. It encourages the common man to stretch out to imagine what can be possible only through faith.
“All things are possible to him who believes.” (Mk. 9:23)
All creativity, whether in the minutia of living life on a day-to-day basis, or creativity for a business, or in raising a family, is nonetheless creativity. The arts, uniquely, put creativity on display, as an example or role model to inspire inspiration for everyday life. The arts provide a glimpse into the eternal. As we ponder and experience beauty and order, or struggle giving way to victory, through story, song, or melody, we reflect on deeper meanings of life itself. This is the ethos we seek in our Music School Odessa Texas.
I have endeavored to set forth a few ideas, in my own journey, of how creativity has exhibited itself to me, and what I have learned in the process.
Create In the Darkness
The darkness will never give light permission to shine. Nor should light seek its permission.
“The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a light dawned.” (Matt. 4:16)
“And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it.” (Jn. 1:5)
“And the earth was formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” (Gen. 1:2,3)
There is never an optimal time, place, or enough resources to start creating. If you are waiting for any of these things before you feel comfortable enough to begin the process of bringing forth something ‘out of the darkness,’ you will never start. We encourage our students in our Music School Odessa Texas to create, even if they don’t feel like doing so.
If you are seeking permission from some person or organization to give you an open door to create, this rarely happens. If it does happen (i.e. a ‘commission’) it is most always due to a track-record of past successful creativity.
In my experience, it is not only true that there is not an optimal time, place, or enough resources to inspire creativity, but also a significant ‘negative’ pressure against such activity. Sometimes, this negative pressure is so tangible, it can feel overwhelming at times.
Initiating creativity is not, however, an act of the will only. The will is involved, but it is invoked by a source of inspiration that comes from somewhere outside the realm of the natural world we live in. A world of non-creative darkness. Much like the Spirit of God initiating light from a realm above the darkness, inspiration comes from outside the realm of the natural. This is why students in our Music School Odessa Texas need constant encouragement from teachers who care enough to bring inspiration to them.
Just as putting your hand into a pale of water displaces the water, so creativity comes into the natural, displacing the darkness, pushing it aside. When taking the hand back out of the water, it resumes its original place. In the absence of creativity, the mundane routine of past shells of creativity fills the space in which new, fresh, creative exploits could have existed.
These empty tombs of structure will fill the space unless bold creativity steps in to displace it.
Waiting for historic patterns of culture to move out of the way to make room for new creativity will not likely happen.
“Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matt. 9:17)
The old systems of past creativity will not make room for new fresh innovation. Those who have been inspired and impacted by past expressions of creativity, hold in their memory these moments like ‘time-capsules.’ Moments of true inspiration touched their lives. God’s Spirit brought meaning and those touched by it rightly memorialize it in their hears. However, the temptation to close off other, newer, expressions would be a mistake. Looking for God to move the same way He moved in the past is simply not congruent with His nature. He is always doing a new thing.
“Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a road in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” (Is. 43:19)
“And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is good enough.’” (Lk. 5:39)
It is human nature to memorialize in stone moments of meaning. These moments become signposts to help us maintain meaning and foundations of truth in our lives.
Not only do those old forms draw away our attention from the new, but they also require resources that could otherwise have been given to the new. We hope to give students in our Music School Odessa Texas opportunities to step out in new creativity.
For example, how many millions of dollars have been spent to create large sanctuaries, which were birthed and built out of moments of past revival fires, only ending up becoming a burden financially to heat, cool, and maintain? Many of these situations end in financial struggle, compromise, or failure to risk, out of fear of bankruptcy. This continual focus on past structures robs any future endeavors of creativity to have the resources to get them off the ground. The creativity of the future is captured by the successes of the past. The past, however, is incapable of renewing itself. Our Music School Odessa Texas provides new ways to express creativity.
That is not to say that past structures cannot be reinvigorated, but it must be intentionally re-energized, even recycled. As leadership models discuss the bell-curve or organizations peaking, then beginning to fall; the way to keep an organization from dying is to return to the pre-peak side of the curve. This intentionality requires sacrifice. It is this kind of sacrifice that we expect in our Music School Odessa Texas.
The effort to maintain past structures must be assessed in its value of inspiration and cultural relevance. Some expressions of past creativity are best left in the past. However, some are worth saving and reusing in new creative ways.
My point is not to throw away the past, altogether, but to be open to fresh inspiration and the willingness to risk and sacrifice toward future creative exploits.
We believe students in our Music School Odessa Texas are capable of brining fresh inspiration into the world.