I love art. I love creative expression. Almost all of us have a favorite song or two (or even twenty), and many of us can think of an artist or photographer who’s work we enjoy. We watch the occasional movie on the weekend and forward emails showing how inventive kids can get with their homework answers. I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t have an appreciation for creativity in one form or another.

But I confess, sometimes the creative buzz leaves me feeling discouraged. I can get frustrated and yes, plain out jealous, when I see the amazing things that other people can do. Other people can draw or paint to photorealistic precision or with emotionally charged abstraction. There are those that can sing beautifully crafted lyrics and make music that other talented people dance to, bringing it to life in entirely new ways. And of course there are those people that come up with ideas so brilliant I can’t just marvel at the idea, but I mourn that I wasn’t the one to think it up.

I get discouraged and I start to think of creativity as something only some people have. Artists and musicians and writers, they are the creative people. The rest of us, are either pretending or just have to suck it up. “Your either born with it or not”, right?

The truth is, we are all made to create. In the bible they say that God created man in his own image. One of the principle characteristics of God is that he is a creator. We, like God, have a desire to make things. Creativity is not limited to art. We can all be creative in the things we enjoy. Creativity involves coming up with new ideas, and making steps to bring those ideas to reality. It’s a way of thinking and a lifestyle.

God desires that we help transform the world we live in, that we help bring God’s Kingdom to earth, by being creative.

This sounds wonderful and inspiring right? But this is a challenge. It’s easy to grumble. It’s easy to make mental lists of the problems around us. Think about how many of our conversation are focused on what’s wrong. A creative life is more than artistic expression on show. It’s a challenge to try and face each day, not as a day full of problems, but as opportunities for creative solutions. Creativity means not just complaining about it but thinking about possible solutions and what I can do to put them in place.

Quite often we are content to just consume. Our society is frequently termed as ‘consumerist’. We are known for spending more than we have, to get more than we need. Some of us spend too much, eat too much, watch too much television, listen to too much music (is that possible? Really? I don’t know ) Creativity should challenge us to spend less time just taking or getting from others and spend more time giving and creating. We all have the ability to think creatively and make new and exciting things happen, not only to help ourselves but to help those around us.

God — the creator, made us in his image, and put us in charge of all creation, to take care of it, to help it grow and expand. If we’ll take the time to try, I’m sure that God will continue to show us all the little ways we can choose to be creative just like he is and help bring his Kingdom on Earth.