Creating Tension
If you are pursuing a creative life, you know a tension exists between you and the world, between you and creativity, and between you are and who you are called to be (and are striving to become in response to the call of creativity).
The tension between you and the world
I’m sure you’ve noticed it, too. The world is focused on things that can be at odds with the things upon which you are focused and where you spend your time and energy.
Your conversations with colleagues or acquaintances may at times feel bogged down in what can only be described as a drudgery mentality: this is how things are and how they will always be. To introduce an idea contrary to this perspective is to confront fears or introduce ideas others may not be ready to acknowledge or embrace.
Don’t let that stop you from living a creative life.
In fact, let it encourage you to continue your journey no matter your struggles or your fears, doubts, or uncertainties. When others who are content to be stuck where they are question the path you’ve chosen, there is more than a good chance you are moving in the right direction.
Even so, right direction and all, you will experience moments when this narrow, less-traveled path makes you wonder if you truly were created for such a journey at such a time as this.
I assure you, you are.
The tension between you and creativity
When you sense what can only be described as a tug of war between you (and who you are striving to become) and creativity, know you are in good company. And keep trusting the still, small voice of Truth leading you always onward.
We tend to put too much pressure on ourselves and, by extension, on creativity. We turn creativity into something with which we are at odds and treat it as if it were elusive and elite, when, in fact, it is something inherent. It is a part of who we are at our very core because we have been created in the image of the Creator Himself.
But rather than embrace the truth of this, and of who we are, we trudge through our days as if only a select few are endowed with the ability and freedom to live a creative life.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Friends, we are each called, and even invited, to create, to add something of beauty and wonder to the world to encourage and connect with others.
The tension between who you are and who you’re called to be
Whether or not you realize it, none of us is who we want to be. Each of us is a work in progress, and part of that work is the becoming of who we are designed and called to be. Who we are often is at odds with the person God created us to be. We sense it; it translates into a deep sense of longing for something more. Even so, we fear it.
The person God designed me to be is scary. She walks to a different drummer and sees the world through the eyes of a writer and a dreamer and a pursuer of the creative life. In other words, one who knows the world is filled with extraordinary things, extraordinary things that are deep and simple.
But we are all too willing to overcomplicate and even trivialize the simple truths as well as the sacred and the beautiful. Rather than being inspired to awe and joy and hope, we succumb quickly and easily to ridicule and scorn and criticism.
Even so, creativity calls to us like a siren. It is the part of life for which we yearn because we know it is the missing part of ourselves. It is the integral part of that person we were designed and are continually called to be, invited to be, by the Creator Himself.
But we exist within the tension, all of these tensions.
It is only when we choose to embrace the creative life that the tension finally begins to subside. At least it has for me. Yes, it’s still there and I still give in to it. But heeding the call of the Creator provides me a hope nothing else can.
Don’t fear the tension, friends. Fear a life lived without a sense of the sacred and the extraordinary. Fear a life lived without creativity, because a life lived without creativity is a life lived without a part of yourself essential to joy and wonder and inspiration.
