Creativity and Love

Within us all is the desire to create. The desire to express ourselves. We seek beauty. We wish we could stand upon the mountaintops and scream to all the nations the truth we know. We dance, sing, paint, write, film, speak, and move. We dream.

We want to pour out all that is in us and make something more.

But most of us never do.

We think creativity is the artist’s task. But I think a central part of our human identity is in our creativity.

It is the artist’s task to make us realize that we are all creators. Art is to be more than admired; it must inspire. In the masterworks, I see the creative spirit fully employed, pressed to the single task of creating a work greater than the worker. This creative spirit is central to all human life. I will never paint a masterpiece, but I can fully employ the creativity gifted to me in order to thrive.

I consider a life worth living to be a life following God. To follow God requires using all the creativity within us that He has given to us. Christ tells us that following God essentially comes down to loving Him, and loving other people. Simple right? Well, how do we do that? I hold that love is the ultimate creative act.

Without imagination and creativity there can be no true love. Love requires us to see that our good is tied to others’ good. To see that we gain through giving. To shift our focus outward is a work of art. Love asks us to look beyond how things are to how things might be. I think that love should not be a reactive feeling but a proactive pursuit carried out in hope. Love brings hope to reality. For the current reality is certainly not one of hope and love. We live in times of despair, angst, and outrage. We distrust our leaders; we distrust each other. I think we need not more leadership, but love. But to love in these times will take the utmost of our creative spirit. May we all imagine a world put to right and use our creative gifts to bring it about.