Reclaim Your Creative Spirit by Patrice Fagnant-MacArthurWhen we first encounter God in Bible, He is immersed in act of creation. It is an act that provides pleasure and self-satisfaction. "God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good." (Gen 1:31) We who are made in God's image are also meant to create, to co-create with God. We are His instruments here on Earth. God's ideas take shape in our ideas and become work of our hands.
It sometimes seems as though world is divided into two camps - those who are "creative" and those who are not. Nothing could be further from truth. We are all born with innate creative ability. Young children automatically create. They do not need to be shown how to express themselves creatively. They build with blocks, scribble with crayons, explore with clay and paint, sing and dance with glee, and they do so with both abandon and determination. It is an act of joy. While having a definite purpose in mind, they create purely to create. The results have a freshness and spontaneity to them that many adults attempt to capture in their own creative endeavors.
At some point, however, we begin to attempt a more realistic approach to our creative projects. We begin to feel that there is a "right" way for our pictures to look, our songs to sound, our dance steps to be. Perhaps some well-meaning adult told us to color in lines, or we simply began to observe other adult's creativity at work. Regardless, we begin to judge our work, and decide it doesn't measure up to our own or other's expectations. We forget joy of creating and instead focus on outcome.
It is possible, however, to reclaim that lost joy and nurture creativity within us. Julia Cameron in "The Artist's Way" (G.P. Putnam's Sons) tells us that "when we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to creator's creativity within us and our lives." She goes on to say that we must give ourselves permission to be bad at our creative endeavors, because fear of being bad is often only thing keeping us from being good. We need to send our inner judge away for duration and allow ourselves to be beginners, to create for pure joy of creating. Cameron emphasizes fact that we alone do not do creating. God works through us. As she states in artist's prayer: "Great Creator, I will take care of quantity. You take care of quality." We must open ourselves up to flow that is within us.