For my own studies and writing, I picked up Erwin McManus’ newest book, The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life Into a Work of Art. I cracked it open yesterday, just to get a taste of what the book was saying. The first few pages definitely caught my attention.
I work at a college of creative artists, particularly in the arena of music. So the book relates a lot. However, there is a particular statement of McManus that caught my attention even more:
“I have come to realize, after over thirty years of studying human creativity, that the great divide is not between those who are artists and those who are not, but between those who understand that they are creative and those who have become convinced that they are not. The great divide is between those who understand that their very nature is that of an artist and those who remain unaware or in denial of their artisan soul.”
I’ve easily told myself in the past that I am no creative – at times, I feel like a fish-out-of-water at the music college where I serve on staff. But I’m starting to learn more and more that, though I am definitely left-brained and mechanical in my thinking, I, too, am an artist. I, too, am creative.
Those who bear the image of God are creative people because they image God himself as the Creator. Matter of fact, I appreciate that McManus goes on to make this thought-provoking statement:
“Creativity is a natural result of spirituality.”
I could not agree more! If we are, at our core, creative folk created in the image of the Creator, then as we are formed into the image of Christ, we will exhibit creativeness in all its fulness.
So, perhaps our idea of creativity is too small. I know mine has been. And I’m glad to see it expand and become more fully-orbed.
The Prodigal Thought 