Creativity is a big buzzword these days. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Fourth Edition, Copyright 2009), creation is defined as (among other things), “the act of creating” and “an original product of human invention or artistic imagination.”

And so we hear and read about creative designers, creative editors, and even the creative arts. But in reality, as far as creativity goes, we are no match compared to our heavenly Father. Within six days, He created the world and the universe in just the right size and proportion. Too near to the sun, and we would have been burnt to a crisp; too far away, and we would have frozen to death. The Lord our God even designed the Earth’s gravitational pull to be just perfect – too strong and we risked colliding with other planets; too weak a force would send our planet careening out into space.

Mankind is only capable of making use of existing materials to fashion useful and beautiful and elegant works of art, fashion, utility or design. To date, no man (or woman) has been able to make something tangible out of nothing, like what God did in the Genesis account of creation.

The search for the Philosopher’s Stone, by which it was believed that basal elements could be turned into gold, has inspired many searches and legends – but no basis to date so far.

But God has created us in His image, and although we do not have His level of creative powers, He has blessed us with other forms of creation, like building beautiful and useful things and turning ideas and thoughts into forms like music, art, science, and literature. In that light, every profession – be that of architect, builder, construction worker, musician, writer, civil servant, domestic worker or even parent – fits in this frame of reference.

A well-known story bears repeating here: A man walked down the street and saw a construction site. He stopped and, in fascination, watched three men busily working. The man noticed that there was something different about the three workmen’s attitude towards the task at hand. One workman looked quite stoical; the second, a bit more enthused; while the third workman smiled and happily whistled. When the man approached each of the workmen and asked what they were doing, the man with the stoical look answered, “I’m laying bricks.” The second workman said, “I’m building a wall.” But the whistling worker proudly answered, “I’m building a cathedral!”

Same job, but a different mindset shaped the attitudes of the three men. As Oscar Wilde said, “Two men look out from the same jail bars. One sees mud, the other sees stars.” The creative impulse can be used for good and evil, sometimes both being part of the same coin. Antibiotics kill germs, but their overuse can lead to the formation of antibiotic-resistant organisms that are now becoming public health nightmares.

As the senior demon Screwtape tells his nephew Wormwood in C. S. Lewis’s famous novel, “nothing is naturally on our side; pleasure, reason, and goodwill were created by an all-powerful God to be used for his purpose and glory” and all Wormwood and his fellow tempters can hope to do is distort these goods and prod humans to fall for their deception.

But that does not mean that we ought to take a negative view towards the creative act. Had a certain Reverend Wright persisted with the view that “if the Lord wanted man to fly, He would have given him wings,” his sons, Orville and Wilbur, might never have pioneered aviation history. Similarly, if the US Patent Office still held the view that “everything that needs to be invented has been invented,” the computer and X-Ray machine may have never seen the light of day. The right step for Christians to take is to thus act as agents of God to “prod” the creative arts toward the greater glory of God.

When the builder or architect considers his latest project as more than a house or office block, but as a family’s place of security and dreams or as a dream workplace, then the stage is set for a higher standard of quality that will not only satisfy the aesthetic but also the safety and profit margin aspects. This will be a better result than if the project was just considered as one which had to be done in the shortest possible time, with little more to consider besides the fear of liquidated damages for any delays.

Similarly, when the journalist thinks of his story less as an addition to his growing portfolio, but instead considers the emotions and sensitivities of his newsmakers, the result will be a piece that still maintains factual accuracy but now also combines sensitivity and understanding. In this respect, the creative act has become “redemptive” by helping to change the negative perspective attached to journalism, and “rehabilitated” the craft.

But the double-edged nature of the creative act makes such results almost hard to attain naturally – choices must be made towards certain goals. And those choices may not always be advantageous to one’s inclinations. So it is also with the stage or movie actor who chooses to play nude roles (because more demand and money comes his or her way) gets greater financial rewards but has brought his or her creative art to a lower level as a result.

The tools in the creative acts do not by themselves have any positive or negative value – that is only seen in the final result of their use. So it is critical that Christians do their best in putting such tools to good use for the Kingdom of God. Journalists and writers whose main focus is putting ideas and observations in print can therefore do this by using their talents in writing articles that bring glory to God and encourage His people, e.g., writing in church newsletters or arguing the case for the existence of God. One potent example is that of Lee Stroebel, who used his skills as a journalist to craft well-thought arguments supporting the existence of Jesus Christ and why He is the Savior of the world.

Perhaps the strongest examples for the putting of such creative artistry to use for God and His Kingdom have come from musicians like Lenny LeBlanc and Amy Grant, two artistes well-known in the fields of Christian and popular music. Both of them have been positive role models in their fields, writing and singing songs that are good examples to their audiences and that bring glory to God too.

But man’s creativity is not limited to the starting point of ideas and thought. Creativity also has the power to repair the damaged man and woman by transforming their mental and physical being. Take the prosthetics designer who lovingly and painstakingly crafts a prosthesis for a disabled or handicapped person, taking into account the person’s body structure, limb length, etc. The designer’s efforts show the extent he or she is willing to strive towards making the disabled person’s life easier, instead of harder. That is a form of “re-creation.” The architect who designs a hospital, taking into account the needs of the patients who will be warded there, also takes part in this process of “re-creation.” But here lies a major difference. Without the power of Jesus Christ, the creative act is limited in scope. Such limited creative power may be able to transform the physical and mental aspects of our lives, but the spiritual lies outside its reach. For only the creative power of Jesus Christ can transform us. Take the examples from the Bible – Jesus gave new life to the mentally ill man in the region of the Gerasenes; He healed many who were blind; He set free those controlled by evil.

God can take any person and recreate him or her. God can take any adulterated life and remake it. In the words of Paul, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor 5:17), i.e., our lives will be totally transformed. This is the power of Jesus Christ, and it is still available to us. Without that power, our spiritual beings become dry and lifeless. But God, who breathed life into Adam and Eve, can and wants to breathe new life into us when we ask Him. When His power is infused in our music, dance and drama, His spirit connects with the spirits of the people in the audience and brings them to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Black American scientist George Washington Carver was one example of what the power of Jesus could do to one life. During his lifetime, this son of slaves reputedly discovered three hundred uses for peanuts and hundreds more for soybeans, pecans and sweet potatoes, and also obtained three patents between 1925 and 1927. But Carver, who became a Christian when he was 10 years old, said many times, that his faith in Jesus was the only mechanism by which he could effectively pursue and perform the art of science. To Carver, God and science were both areas of interest, not warring ideas in his mind. He matured in his faith by placing his understanding of God firmly in the Bible. In attempts to teach his students, he defaulted first and foremost to making the name of Christ known. Carver taught that knowledge of God through the Bible and devotion to Jesus was paramount to what he could teach them pedagogically through numbers and formulas.

Or how about C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, the writers whose novels and fictional creations helped bring across the love and saving grace of God in ways no other medium could? Lewis’s novels like The Screwtape Letters, made the wiles of the Devil come alive, while Tolkien’s Middle-Earth tales, especially The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, is a well-crafted, subtle tale of Christ’s redemptive work in our lives.

That was what God did with the lives of three men whose hearts were surrendered to Him. We can do no less if we also surrender our lives to the living God. How can we be sure that we are agents of God’s creativity to the world? The following steps can help:

(a) Ensure that your mind is saturated with God’s Word daily.
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Ps 119:105).

(b) Commit your work and talents to God daily.
“Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this” (Ps 37:5).

(c) Ensure that you feed your mind with what is pure and beautiful and pleasing in God’s sight.
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things” (Phil 4:8).

(d) Be focused on your work and do not be distracted or “double-minded” (Jam 1:8).

So what is your big idea? If it is focused on giving glory to God, and He is in the plans, it cannot fail. See what God did with Carver, Lewis, and Tolkien. We can do no less with God on our side. May God bless us as we commit our work and lives to His continuous “re-creation” for His redemptive purposes.

Arulnathan John works for Singapore Press Holdings, and worships at Acts Centre, a daughter congregation under St Andrew’s Cathedral. He loves to read, go to the movies and the theatre, chat on the Internet and keep his mind open to new experiences.

The New International Version of the Bible has been referenced.

The human species is a creative lot. Our abilities to construct, invent, analyze and synthesize, extrapolate and envision, are all creative endeavors. While animals eat the potato, we can cut it, dip it in paint and make prints with it. A series of black dots can be assigned a sequence, joined and become a meaningful picture. Creativity is inherent to us. From the daily grind of trying to survive the mundane, to the boardroom challenge of overcoming strategic odds, we are using our creative abilities. It is just that we have such a narrow definition of it that most of us dismiss ourselves as being creative.

To be creative is not the same as being artistic or being handy with crafts. The creative ability is more basic and available to all of us.

Sometimes I wonder what our world will be like when we truly appreciate and celebrate the creative glory in each one of us. I remember how I lost any love for creating beauty and celebrating colors when my primary school teacher criticized my clumsy efforts. Thankfully, the watercolor palette lured me to put brush to paper; and so for a short window of two years I created little homemade cards for all my well-wishing needs.

Perhaps there would be much more diversity, variety, and possibilities – but we are afraid; for we prefer the safety of conformity and the comfort of the predictable most of the time. After all, the safety of the familiar probably ensures a better rate of survival. But when we look within our hearts, we want much more than mere survival. We want to thrive and soar. Somewhere in the depths of our being is a longing as old as time – to pull out the energies and forces within us and place them outside so we can all look at it and take pause; so we can hope again, imagine, dream, and build.

The force for creativity

If being creative is to reach in and surface what is within us so as to enliven, enrich, and embolden living; then necessarily, it begins with what lies within our inner worlds. For the Christian, the little trickle is traced to an artesian well found in God Himself.

As we grasp and grapple with the vicissitudes of life, both the creative outlet and the creative immersion into the deep and the dark represent soul efforts to find meaning and power to transcend. The beautiful picture taken, the sincere poem, and the languid love song are all exclamations seeking to reach light, freedom, and vindication. We are a people in need of a meta-narrative.

For the Christian, life as a gift is a journey of discovery and refinement. There is more than meets the eye. Truth is greater than the sum total of our limited experience. The framework we use is eternity and personality. In anchoring to The Person of God who designed the human complex, we begin to perceive and interpret life out of a deeper ground of being. In relating to life and time with an eternal perspective, we are led to ask deep questions that challenge our motives and desires.

This interplay of our being and becoming throws up as many creative variations of life as there are of us. At the same time, our diversity does not end up in total isolation for our hearts long for the same universal themes of truth, beauty, love, and justice.

Indeed every culture and age throws up art and artisans, artists and dreamers. Those of us who do not consider ourselves among their ranks nonetheless love to follow them. They are the pied pipers whose sound and music we love. They are often prophetic, visionary, and powerful.

But that does not mean everything can pass off as creative forms that help us rise above ourselves. Many years ago an eager artist was slammed for snipping his pubic hair in what he considered performance art. Most of us failed to see how that enriched our lives.

Good art points to God’s splendor, beauty, and magnificence. Good art often carries the force of a moral vision. Good art lifts us beyond our narrow horizons and makes us see further, look deeper, and hunger longer. We are the poorer as a church and as a people when we fail to encourage and nurture creativity in each of us, and the creative arts as a vocation.

The fact is we need our creative energies to understand and overcome. From the little daily things, to exploring new ways of meaningful and God-honoring worship, to deep community, empathy and outreach, God has made us each creative, and has endowed us each with gifts we can use to shape the world and redeem what may otherwise be lost or given over to destruction. It takes vision and creative commitment to break cycles of lousy downward patterns of pain and mistrust. It takes the same to see beyond a sick body, a hope deferred, and a love lost. In anchoring ourselves to a larger narrative and drawing our vision for life from it we can rise again, find redemption, and turn around to strengthen our brothers.

Indeed shapers of our world were often misunderstood as underachievers, non-conformists, and even destined for the failure slush pile. But yet, Winston Churchill, prophet-preacher A.W. Tozer, and Mother Teresa opened our hearts, minds, and eyes to possibilities we would never entertain or consider but for their creative, unabashed, reckless hope in what is greater, further, and better.

Creative engagement with a God-loved world

As long as we think that creativity is limited to drama scripts, video story boards and dance, etc., our ability to live and engage our world will be limited.

French sociologist-theologian Jacques Ellul cautions us that the usual two approaches Christians tend to take towards the world: spiritualization (which neglects material realities) or capitulation (which adopts one of the world’s options that seem to harmonize with Christianity) will fail us. In order to witness to the world, we need creative engagement. This means we are to offer meaning and direction to the world. It is a call to creative, bold leadership. Where the world is spinning on its own axis, we call it to pause and consider the weightier issues of life. We offer the message of hope and the arms of welcome. This may have been done via pounding the pulpit; but much more than oratory is required in today’s world.

But lest we think of all this as action, it really begins with our posture and presence in the world. Ellul calls it a style of life, an attitude, a special mode of existence. It is to be able to be in the world and yet not be held by it. One of the ways this shows up is in our community. Did not Jesus say the world would recognize us as being distinctive by how we love one another? Presence and community as witness relies less on programs then on being; which means we need to rely on the Spirit. It was the creative genius of the Holy Spirit that hovered over the face of the deep and brought forth life, order, beauty, and pleasure to God. It is when the Spirit is fully alive in us that the life of Christ given to us can arise and shine forth. Scripture’s promises about our new state of being in Christ is so astounding we can barely take it in:
“…It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me…” (Gal 2:20, ESV);
“…you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is…” (Rom 12:2);
“The spiritual man makes judgments about all things… we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:15-16).

But O, how we love the familiar, and prefer to stick with what works. We are such a Do-ing people that we cannot imagine that the power of our witness begins by laying hold of God’s Word to us and about us. We keep trying to change our world while refusing to let God change us to be His agents of creative witness.

The other impediment to creative engagement is our amorous affair with success. We adore success – which leads us by the nose to keep doing what has worked.

A specific call

Creative engagement is particularly difficult for those who feel a calling to the creative life. In the last two years, I have not taken on a formal pastoral office as I felt led to learn to write; to apply my creative energies on words. In a very limited way, as I took on a new lifestyle, I begin to feel for those who are called to a vocation of artistic expression. People think we are not making the most of our lives; we have no proper titles, no office, and no regular paychecks. It is also a lonely and often painful place to be. Art creation requires much soul searching, listening, and endless rounds of improving. Very few share the artists’ perspectives or else consider them a luxurious, superfluous, non-essential add-on to more bread and butter issues.

But when I consider how my writing is seeking to connect with Truth and with a very real peopled world, I take courage again; for my meta-narrative tells me the people, the world, and I matter – for eternity.

Rev Jenni Ho-Huan came to faith in Christ, grew and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church. God has taken her on several creative turns in the journey including marrying a Methodist minister, becoming a stay-home mom, and embarking on a writing ministry. She currently partners her husband Dr Philip Huan in their ministry to the wider body of Christ (www.churchlife-resources.org). Together with their wonderful children, they worship at RiverLife Church where Philip is a pastor.

The New International Version of the Bible has been referenced unless otherwise stated.

References:
Ellul, Jacques. The Presence of the Kingdom. Colorado Springs: Helmers and Howard, 1989.