Building Creative Space

Do you believe you’re creative? Think on the question a bit. Let it roll around in your head until it reaches your heart. Many people believe the lie that since they do not hold a delicate paint brush, tell stories, or have a Pinterest worthy home, they are not creative. I say we are not creative because we have lost our heart.

In Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

We are to guard our hearts because they are the wellspring of life. According to www.merriam-webster.com, wellspring is defined “as a source of continual supply.” God is the source of our heart and our continual supply.

When I haven’t guarded my heart, my creativity has grown quiet. I stare at a blank computer screen or an empty page of my journal and nothing comes to mind on what to put down for my next blog post or the next chapter of my book.

I feel the door of my creativity slamming shut and I’m pulling on the door handle with all my strength to get it open again. When I force the door back open, I find the walls of my mental creative space closing in on me again because I haven’t taken the time to guard my heart or in other words protect my heart from the lies of the enemy.

What if I took my creativity crisis to God instead of forcing it into a preconceived mold?  There  in the space of being quiet and still with God, creativity is refueled and re-birthed. I believe we are all, at our hearts, creative, however, we need to connect with God, the inventor of creativity.

Are you wondering yet how many times I could get the word “created” or “creative” into this blog post? Yeah, me too! Forgive me, as I use it a few more times.

God is so creative He has made each one of us with our own unique gifts, talents and abilities. No one is exactly like anyone else! God is so masterful, even each snowflake is different a snowflake! How much more important to God are you than the snowflake that melts in the sun?

If we have lost our creativity, the spark of life which generates our ideas, no matter if it’s for painting, writing music, developing a spreadsheet to show profit and losses, or even finding a better way to organize our homes, God is the author of the idea.  He builds our creative space  and capacity. What do we need to build this creative space with God? Here are three ideas:

1. Go for a walk. This doesn’t mean putting your headphones on and ignoring the stuff going on around you. No, I’m talking about going for a walk with God. Stroll around your neighborhood or get on a trail and listen to what God is trying to tell you. He has a message unique for you. Just listen. It could be communicating love in the warmth of the sun, the singing of the birds or the colors of the vegetation as you walk. See, we can’t be creative without being filled with the love of God. He’s always showing us and pouring His love into us. We only have to listen.
   
2. Write it down. Pull out a pen and paper. There is something amazing about putting pen to paper as opposed to fingertips to a keyboard. Pick up a journal or spiral bound notebook  for this exercise to keep what you hear all in one place. Trust me, you’ll want to do this exercise more than once. Write down how God made you feel loved. How did He show you that you are cherished and blessed? If you didn’t feel it on the walk, sit quietly for a few minutes and ask God to fill the creative spaces by filling the hollow places in our soul.
3. Repeat. Just like with the shampoo bottle, we need to rinse and repeat. We need to walk, write, and repeat to ensure we have our creative space filled with His love so we can create what we were born to do.

How do you nurture your creative space? Share it in the comments below to generate ideas for others?