All creativity requires risk. Moving forward with an idea takes a certain amount of time, resources, capital, people and leadership. There are no guarantees of success. Casting vision and hope for whatever the endeavor is helps move everything forward, but there are many challenges along the way. The temptation to give up and give in or become distracted with other things is a constant battle.
So, creativity requires initiative. It doesn’t just happen. Inspiration can happen at any given time, but developing and nurturing that inspired idea is always a choice. We hope to help students develop their inspiration at our music school in Odessa, Texas.
What is it that gives some people the sticktoitiveness to see a project through to the end? What empowers them to have the daily capacity to keep going when things get tough? When there seems to be a roadblock and no answers are apparent to solve the problems, how do they continue to look for possibilities?
The answer to these questions comes from a deep-seated awareness of the artist’s self-worth. Not the kind of self-worth that emanates from ego or pride, but one that comes from knowing he or she is loved.
When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus replied,
“The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mk. 12:29)
Notice that the implied prerequisite to loving your neighbor is that one must already love himself.
You cannot love, or risk, on behalf of others until you have a capacity inside to do so. Metaphorically, you cannot feed or clothe the destitute if you are broke. You cannot give what you do not have.
So, where does this deposit of strength come from? Is it given by friends or family? Does it come from one’s own unique giftedness or talent? Ultimately, all provision comes from God Himself – especially this internal sense of well-being.
As wonderful as we can be in our humanity, all of us still tend towards selfishness. This selfishness leads to imbalances in relationships, or another way of saying it: we become indebted to one another. Even when we violate our own convictions, we become aware of our inability for wholeness.
The only solution to the human condition, of necessity, must come from outside of humanity.
This is the power of the salvation that comes through faith in God’s gift of grace through Jesus Christ.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Eph. 2:8-10)
Faith and creativity go hand in hand. You are empowered to create by the love God has shown, and you find your place of creativity in the flow of that love. God, the creator, made us to create. He has already created the opportunities of creativity for us to enjoy. In the river of His provision, we have been given everything we need to step out into the unknown. It may be unknown to us, but God sees all possibilities. When we, in our humanity, see roadblocks, He sees the way over, under, and through.
It is His love that gives us the freedom to risk.
“And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him…as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.” (I Jn. 4:16-18)
When we step out to create, we don’t know how the project will turn out. There have been many times I don’t know what the final product will look like. I just have a sense that I’m on the right track, and that I’m making good decisions along the way. Indeed, it is a journey, a process. Many times, when writing songs, the lyrics don’t seem to make sense until I complete them. In writing compositions, as I was writing passages, I thought to myself, ‘This isn’t going to work.’ But in obedience to my imagination, I just kept moving forward. After the work was completed, I gave attention to analyzing what I had written and realized the patterns and design.
One can say that these things are somehow coming from our subconscious. Many composers admit that when creating, some material comes from their learned technique and mental skill, but most often the profound passages come from a non-analytical, intuitive sense of awareness. Our music school in Odessa, Texas strives help students develop this awareness.
Creativity is often more of a long-distance run instead of a sprint. It requires endurance to get to the finish line of a project. The ability to keep going, day after day, not knowing exactly where you are going or how it will turn out, requires a reliance on something other than one’s own talent or inspiration.
It requires faith.
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.” (Gal. 5:6)
I have heard much discourse on what ‘faith working through love’ means. To me, it is simple. When someone does something nice for you, gives you a gift, you begin to trust them. The more they show you kindness, over time, a trusting relationship is established. You trust them (or believe in them) because they have shown themselves to be trustworthy in the love they have demonstrated. We hope that the students in our music school in Odessa, Texas sense the love of our instructors have for them as they develop into successful artists.
God’s consistent goodness, shown to us in His mercy and love through Christ Jesus, is the engine that gives us a sense of well-being. From this sense of wholeness, we can then step out into long-range creative exploits.
Think of it as kinetic energy. Here’s a definition of Newton’s Cradle:
“…a device, usually made of metal, that demonstrates the principles of conservation of momentum and conservation of energy in physics with swinging spheres. When one sphere at the end is lifted and released, it strikes the stationary spheres, compressing them and thereby transmitting a pressure wave through the stationary spheres, which creates a force that pushes the last sphere upward.”
A flow of energy is transmitted through the hanging spheres. In a similar fashion, electricity flows through conductive material. However, not all materials are uniformly conductive. Among the highest rated materials for conductivity are silver, gold and copper. Those that are least conductive are wood and plastic.
As artists, it is our role to receive and transmit the flow of God’s love. The more conductive we are, the more effective we will be in our creativity. It is our choice whether or not we will be responsive to this love, if we will risk trusting the flow of creativity we sense in our hearts. The students in our music school in Odessa, Texas are encouraged to take creative risks.
All creativity is spiritual. Yet, not all things that are spiritual are helpful. Even Jesus’ disciples found themselves in a destructive flow.
“And He sent messengers on ahead of Him. And they went, and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make arrangements for Him. And they did not receive him, because He was journeying with His face toward Jerusalem. And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ But He turned and rebuked them and said, ‘You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” (Lk. 9:52-56)
There are creative endeavors that save, refresh and heal, and there are those that tear down and destroy. When creativity emanates from a relationship with a loving God, it results in a distribution of benefits for many. This kind of creativity is lasting. We believe the students in our music school in Odessa, Texas will have lasting results in their creative endeavors.
I am not asserting that Christians are the only creative people on the planet, or that creativity in mankind only began at the advent of Christianity. I am simply sharing the dynamics of creativity, as experienced by all artists, that have existed from the dawn of time. Indeed, God is at work in all of humanity and throughout human history. His creativity and inspiration can be seen through all generations.
“He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things; and He made from one blood, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist.” (Acts 17:28)
In whatever manner a creative artist receives inspiration or love, ultimately, this love comes from the creator of all things. Whether or not an artist chooses to acknowledge the origin of his or her giftedness or inner motivation, at some point, in order to risk creating, there must be a willingness to trust, to give that which is precious to others. The students in our music school in Odessa, Texas are encouraged to share with others the gifts of creativity they have developed.
It all starts from knowing and receiving God’s love. Then, from this starting point, creativity begins by planting a seed.