a creative life requires fearlessness.

i don’t mean just music making, picture painting, tap dancing or story-telling, i mean creative living:

living a life that breathes the breath of God into others.

Is this not what Jesus did and does?

He walks about and lives in such a way that the creative design of God erupts from the creation (people, places, things…)

Creativity is light coming into darkness. It is substance coming into the void. It is peace coming into the chaos. It is love coming into fear.

There are many things to fear in the creative life.

One might think that light, substance, peace and love would always be welcome and wanted. It is not the case.

Jesus came carrying the light of the world, the very life of men, and yet, men loved the darkness.

Christ’s creativity provoked the hatred of many a man.

Why would anyone love darkness? Why would anyone love chaos or fear or void? It is a mystery. It may have something to do with familiarity. We become accustomed to our emptiness, so that when fullness comes it feels so foreign. It is contrast. It is change.

These are the very things that make for great art: contrast and change. The silence before the song, the edge of the painting, the end of the dance, the breath between words.

Art is an onslaught against monotony.

It is much safer to leave things as they are. Art is not safe. No, not safe at all. Many stones are thrown in defense of sacred darkness: the fearful emptiness passed down from generation to generation.

If we surrender to the fear, we relinquish the creative life.

The healer must risk wounds from the wounded.

The truth-teller must risk the tearing of clothes, the gnashing of teeth…

The giver must risk thanklessness, entitlement, rejection…

The creative one must risk mistake, misunderstanding, non-appreciation…

Yet we need not fear these things. We CANNOT fear these things. The moment we do, we cease to live the creative life. We resign to leave the void alone. We cease to love. No, we cannot give in to fear. There is no fear in love. And the love of God, the creative life of Christ sustains us and compels us to recreate, again and again and again.

I say these things because i am one who seeks to live a creative life and i am well acquainted with the fear. I have surrendered my light too many times to the darkness and chaos and void. God helping me, i am resolving to take up my light today and live the creative life. Join me.