What Are We Doing: Life of Creativity

Are you a project person? Has the pandemic turned you into a project person? 

 

Project people amaze me! I am not one of them. My dad is! He loves moving from one project to the next. He works efficiently. For example, we both need to repaint our respective houses. Guess who is almost done with their project and who has barely started? 

 

I’m not even going to answer that. I know you know.

 

As a little girl, I remember following my mom through the craft store. The oversized books of sewing patterns on slanted counter spaces fascinated me. Each space had an empty stool inviting me to sit and stare at the sewing patterns ready and waiting for creation. 

 

My mom flipped through books actually looking to create: Halloween costumes for her kids, matching mother-daughter Easter dresses, Sunday best, or Christmas Eve dresses. 

 

On the other hand, I snuck down to the patterns of fancy gowns. I wanted to sit in that stool. That space. The one with dresses that looked like my Barbie’s ballgowns.

 

I did not for a second dream of creating a dress. I, for all the seconds, dreamed of wearing that created dress. 

 

As I got older, each summer, my mom took me to that same sewing section of the craft store. A little more reluctantly I sat down. She told me, “Pick a project to work on!” 

 

The mystery and magic fell away. I had to choose. I had to put work behind the creation. I chose simple things like oversized flannel pajama pants. Who could mess those up? Boy, was I wrong!

 

I knew she had motives. If I wanted to lounge all day in pajama pants I had to make them first. She knew that would take me forever! 

 

No doubt, she needed me busy to help keep her sanity. However, at the heart of it, she wanted to teach me. That sewing project held skills and lessons that would last a lifetime. The project is more than a project. It’s an experience. It’s a creative outlet. It’s a process. It’s an object lesson.

 

I see many of my friends’ kids “picking” projects to work on. I also see my adult friends naturally picking projects too. Universally, we recognize the need to create. It keeps our brains busy and our personal meltdowns at bay. 

 

Suddenly, people are filling old sketchbooks, painting pictures, writing songs, learning guitar chords, building with legos, fishing with new spinners, creating makeup tutorials, building bookshelves, fixing cars, redecorating rooms, and planting gardens. They’re taking on new projects, or hobbies long-forgotten. 

 

Do you notice how projects have a God-given quality beyond the brain, body, and emotions?

 

Creative projects provide a way for God to speak to our souls. Projects give God a moment to teach us.

 

In the Old Testament, God says to Jeremiah, “Go down at once to the potter’s house; there I will reveal My words to you.”  – Jeremiah 18:2

 

Jeremiah goes down to the potter’s house. This potter worked away at the wheel making a jar out of clay.

 

This project was art AND work.

 

This project was beautiful AND practical.

 

In this creative space, Jeremiah learns more about God. He observes the craft, creativity, and process.

 

The creative process provides an insight our spiritual eyes often miss. 

 

Jeremiah watches the potter shape this clay into a jar. He watches the potter take cues from the flaws found in the clay. He watches the potter shift his creative vision. The potter reshapes the clay into a different jar, perhaps for a different purpose or use. The potter does not toss the clay out and find better clay. No, he makes something beautiful and purposeful, flaws and all. 

 

This visual unlocks a connection for Jeremiah. The potter is to God as the clay is to us. We are God’s creation. Jeremiah sees this relationship with fresh eyes. He walks away with a whole new insight to teach the people.

 

When we actively witness the creative process, we actively witness a holy moment! 

 

God is using the project to teach us in the process. Are we slowing down long enough to witness God in the process?

 

Each time I took on a sewing project I know the Lord whispered something to my heart. Usually, it was a repeated lesson of, “Brooke, it’s ok to not be perfect.” 

 

I can’t tell you the number of times I cried over a broken sewing machine or a tangled mess of thread I had no idea how to undo. I finished the pajama pants and hated them. They were not cute compared to my friends’ patterned pajama pants from Limited Too or American Eagle. 

 

Yes, this comparison thinking brought out an even deeper layer of lessons God whispered to me – honestly he still does. 

 

So here we are in 2020. What pandemic project are you starting? 

 

Better yet, slow down. Observe the process.

 

What lesson is God whispering to you in the creative process of this pandemic project?

 

For me, the process of repainting my house will get real. Tears may come. My dad will 100% be done with his project well before I start on mine. That’s ok. I am trusting God has some things to whisper my way as I steadily work on my project at my pace. 

 

Lord, let me be here for it. Let me be here to listen to what you want to reveal in the creative process! Let me take that lesson and live it. I want to be that clay jar used for a purpose beyond my imagination.