The Courage to Create

Creativity.

An audacious word that can either captivate the crowd, or turn off their attention in a matter of seconds…that one word alone can cause anyone who doesn’t sing, paint, or play a musical instrument to feel like they were born on the outside looking in of a lifestyle that doesn’t seem to fit their personality type because they just weren’t “made that way”.

Well I’d like to propose to that you – yes, you – are a creative human being. Creativity is actually hardwired into your DNA whether you realise it or not – it courses through your veins and flows through your unique original makeup, because you were created by an immensely creative Creator.

Recently I felt like God used a particular season in my life to stir fresh revelation in me on the power of creativity and how that it’s lay dormant in the hearts of many, including my own – all because so many individuals haven’t realised that they, too, were created to create.

In the last few months of 2016, I grappled daily with whether or not I could possibly be chosen for the dreams coming alive in my own heart. Insecurity fueled my thought process and told me I wasn’t qualified to pursue them, and then I began to wrestle with a series of sleepless nights from an onslaught of spiritual warfare. The warfare isn’t the important part, but it’s what God spoke to me during that season that shifted my mindset and gave me a fresh new perspective on what He wants to do in this season.

My eyes were closed and my heart was pounding, not to mention my head felt like it was going to explode…and then all of a sudden I saw the face of a young girl flash across my closed eyes, and the words “Have the courage of a courageous little girl” whispered softly to my heart – softly, yet so profoundly.

I didn’t know what it meant, so I brushed it off and tucked it away (which is tempting to do when God shows us something that seemingly makes no sense). But even though I’d tucked it away, God kept pulling it back out. For weeks and weeks I just could not shake the image of a child from my mind. So many images of children and a child-like mentality just kept popping up everywhere – first it was a street art mural of a little girl, then it was finding a playlist of songs from my childhood I hadn’t listened to in years that always sparked my imagination growing up.

So many little signs and symbols would highlight themselves in my spirit, and all of a sudden I began to develop this heartfelt longing to be like a child again. To go back to the beginning and just live in reverent awe of life and all the wonders of the imagination that never ceased to captivate my heart’s attention.

To live like anything can happen – like the Creator of the universe really can move mountains and part the Red Sea to the shores of our promised land. Like the God of Angel-Armies has dreams for our lives that are so much bigger than our own, they could never be out-dreamed by any one of us. It’s so easy to forget sometimes just how BIG our God really is…a God so immensely creative that He formulates each sunrise so it’s never the same as the last…

And this is the very God who created you and me in the image of His likeness.

I realised so many of the God-given desires that I shoved away as I grew older were actually sparks of creativity implanted in me since birth to fan the flame of a creative Creator in my own unique expression of His love for the brokenness of humanity.

Because when we’re young, we don’t really have a problem running wild with our God-given imagination. We do it automatically! But often the world will taint our outlook on life with the crippling stain of insecurity as we mature, robbing us of the ability to believe the impossible in our lives and the lives of those around us.

All of a sudden I felt like God was saying He wants to do a fresh, new thing in the creative expression of His people…that He wants to actually cultivate a revival of creativity in our hearts – to take us back to the days when we never ceased to stay captivated by the wonder of life and all it has to offer. We actually have the authority to create – to activate our God-given desire to bring beauty up from the ashes, whether that’s through music, words, business, medicine, or any other sphere of influence we feel called to equip, empower and transform.

I believe He wants to unlock something prolific and visionary inside every single one of us, something that freely expresses each facet of His wondrously unique, endlessly expansive love, and it all starts with having the courage of a courageous little girl…the courage to dream, the courage to imagine, and the courage to create in a unique, original way like never before.

It can be frustratingly difficult to choose to approach the throne room of the King like a child, but this one small act of surrender births an extraordinary shift in power. When it takes everything inside of you just to grasp that long-lost childlike mindset – yet you lay yourself down before the Father with it anyway – He meets you right where you’re at and breathes life into your dreams, rekindling your confidence and confirming that what’s been stirring in your heart really can grow and develop into a breathtaking reflection of His Glory.

I believe that when we do this, Heaven begins to open up over our hearts and envelope all our fears. We become so captivated with our Creator that we realise He has placed dreams inside of us that we were put on this earth to follow. And when we chase after them at all costs, His Glory saturates itself amongst our passion – no matter what we’re passionate for.

So often we forget that the God who created puppies, atoms and the human brain actually believes in us and the creative potential He fashioned us to fulfill – so if you’re an accountant or a traveling musician, you can chase after those dreams with confidence, knowing that you were destined to pursue them by the divine power of innovation He’s placed inside of you.

At the end of the day if you feel like you’re not very creative, you’re unqualified to pursue your dreams or your imagination has simply run dry, just take a journey back to the purest form of your truest self and steep yourself in the reality of Who you were made to reflect. Revisit the carefree days of your childhood – back when anything was possible, and your only business in life was simply to create.

And that, my friend, is where the magic happens.