Why Creativity is So Important
This morning I awoke to find out that Stan Lee had died. Stan Lee's stories, characters, comics, life, and creativity have played a massive role in inspiring my own creativity and pursuit of dreaming bigger.
Every time I sat to enjoy the newest Marvel movie or comic, I would become a child again. I'd look for hidden Easter eggs behind the scenes. I'd be astonished by the pages of colors, the plot twists, and the lines of dialogue that would spark a revolution of momentous imagination in my heart. His sense of amazement with people, adventures, and the goal of motivating others to think outside the box has left an imprint on my life that stirs me to encourage others to step into the joyful journey of artistry.
It is to no surprise that on the day Stan Lee passed that I feel stirred with such a passion for writing and inspiring others. As I think about the mark of creativity that Stan Lee leaves on the world, I think of one of his quotations from his book Excelsior! He writes, "Marvel is a cornucopia of fantasy, a wild idea, a swashbuckling attitude, an escape from the humdrum and prosaic. It’s a serendipitous feast for the mind, the eye, and the imagination, a literate celebration of unbridled creativity, coupled with a touch of rebellion and an insolent desire to spit in the eye of the dragon."
It is this celebration of unbridled creativity that I believe flows in each one of our veins and is in the very fabric of our DNA. I believe and know that God is Creator. I am not the Creator; I am the created. I am made in the image and likeness of this Creator (Gen. 1:26-27), which means I am creative. Creativity is part of my humanity. The way I think, the way I see, the way I talk, the way I walk, the way I live and move and have my being, it's all creative.
I am full of wild ideas and imagination beyond the restraints of limited perceptions. Just as God spoke and brought forth things into existence, including me, I can speak life into things. Just as God painted the sunrise and sunsets, I can illustrate beauty with the paint strokes of my life. Just as the Lord produced hopeful inspiration in the order of creation, I point to this order with the systems and functioning of my body.
In short, I am creative because the Creator of creativity made me that way. He formed me for relationship with Him, and in this relationship, He continues to create, redeem, and bring forth artwork out of my life (Eph. 2:8-10). He has filled me with His Presence, and the Holy Spirit inspires my being with the Creativity of the Creator.
I don't just believe it, I know it. My life is the poem of the Poet, and my heartbeat is filled with the rhythms of my Father's songs. His delight is in my eyes, and His love fills my mind with limitless imagination to walk in the fullness of His presence. His atmosphere permeates my surroundings with the activity of heaven--where colors, sounds, movement, and languages untouched (so far!) reside in the Lord's endless creativity.
He is my endless ocean of bottomless brilliance. He is my overflowing fountain of bubbly joy. He is the amazement in the child's smile and the hope in the restored person's glance. He is my creativity, He excites my imagination, and others come alive through the artwork He is displaying in my life.
Friends, you are born with creativity in your heart and mind. The more you let it out, the more the world sees the Creator and comes to recognize the gracious gift of inventiveness that can only come from the One who can resurrect life out of death.
I write this to say that Stan Lee's life spurs me to think of my Creator. I come alive when I think theologically, but all of that knowledge without a real relationship, imagination, and creative practicality means nothing. "Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies (1 Cor. 8:1)."
Albert Einstein, one of the smartest people to walk the earth, even asserts that imagination was more vital to him than knowledge. He wrote, "I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination encircles the world."
Creativity is essential to us because when we write, paint, dance, make music, and create we reveal the Creator and invite people into a connective place of relationship, inspiration, and imagination. We allow ourselves and others to dream bigger and give access for the Father to show us how much more He can do than we ask, think, or brainstorm (Eph. 3:20-21).
With this stated, I would encourage you to three things:
1. Create -- Dance, play, laugh, write, sing, and enjoy it. Try it. Then try it again. Hang out with the Creator who wants to create in and through you. Ask God how He sees you, and then paint it. Ask the Lord what He is singing over your family member, co-worker, friend, or barista, and let them know. Ask Jesus what He thinks about your situation, and then join Him in His movement of bringing freedom and hope to your life. Hand over your stress, fear, pain, happiness, and peace to the Artist and ask Him what He wants to create in your life. Simply put, be yourself, because you are creative.
2. Fail Forward -- Creativity is not always a one-time shot with no risk of messing things up. Artists don't just magically create portraits with one stroke of the brush. Musicians don't just sit down and write a full song in 15 minutes. Artwork consists of failing forward, which means that we don't look at the failures as endings but as opportunities to improve, persist, and enjoy the process. The journey and destination are both vitally important, and we can embrace the dance of moving forward because our goal is not perfection, but relationship with the Perfect One. It's not if we fail, it's when we fail that we can press into the Redeemer to take our mess and make something beautiful together. And sometimes we will find that sometimes our "failures" are only because we have dreamed too small and we need to start again with a bigger idea. Failure is not an ending; it's an opportunity.
3. Be Childlike Again -- Children are not perfectionists. Children are filled with joyful exuberance as they paint with their fingers, color outside the lines, and create games, words, dance moves, funny faces, and different accents. Children look to their Parent for resources and dive into art knowing their Parent loves them and wants to be with them and see what they will create. Children are filled with amazement at the simplest things because they see the intentionality of each creative mark in flowers, sun rays through windows, and mountaintops filled with snow, or marshmallows, or glitter. Pablo Picasso wrote, “Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.” When we merely come forth to connect with our Creator, to play with God, and enjoy the process, we will find that staying an artist as a grown-up is easier than you think. Be like a child. In doing so, you'll point to the truth of the Lord who is more fun than the world has seen or believes.
Beloved, we are creations who can create and inspire others to know the Creator. In fact, when we do so, others catch the fire of fantasy and influence of imagination. I encourage you to be who you are: creative. Step forth. Think outside the box. Dream big and then start again with even bigger dreams. Embrace the process, enjoy the details, and learn to play with God. He's far more fun than we have believed.
Creativity is important. I believe that when more create, we will have many others who, like Stan Lee, will leave a legacy when they pass that will be marked with unbridled creativity and ideas beyond convention. I hope that with legacies of creativity like these, we will point to the true Creator God who longs to create and play with His children. Here's to a generation of creatives that leave a legacy of inspiration, imagination, and immeasurably-more-living for their children's children (Prov. 13:22). Dream bigger, friends. Paint with more colors. Draw outside the lines. Think outside the box. Our God is Creator and creative, and He's ready to make some artwork. Amen.
