Desiring God: Make God Look Great. Create.

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A very good article about human creativity. For the full text click on the article heading just below.

Make God Look Great. Create.

Desiring God Blog

Original

Creativity.

You've either got it, or you don't, right? You're right-brained or left-brained, into art or into computer science, a painter or a mathematician. Creative folks do creative things, like paint, write, and walk barefoot through the woods. Non-creative folks do non-creative things, like make spreadsheets and money.

Wrong.

Everyone is creative. Creativity is hardwired into our DNA by God himself. All of us were made to be creative people. Creative juices run hot through our veins. All of us have an irresistible, divinely-inspired impulse to create, organize, and fashion.

We see this clearly in Genesis 1:27, which says:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

...........

But creativity is hard work. It takes work to create a poem or garden or car engine or piece of furniture. It requires killing our laziness and working faithfully over extended periods of time. It requires a willingness to receive criticism with humility. It requires sweat and elbow grease. It requires diligence and faithfulness. It's easier to not make anything at all. To be a consumer. To suffocate the creative gifts that God has given us.

John Piper writes,

If you are God, your work is to create out of nothing. If you are not God, but like God — that is, if you are human — your work is to take what God has made and shape it and use it to make him look great. (Don't Waste Your Life, 139)

That's why I wrote the ebook Create: Stop Making Excuses and Start Making Stuff. It's meant to be a divine kick in the pants, of sorts. It's meant to inspire you and motivate you to use your creative gifts for the glory of God. To help you stop making excuses and start using your gifts.

You have creative gifts. You are a gifted musician or mechanic or teacher or dancer or woodworker or organizer or landscaper or quilter or preacher, and God wants you to use your gifts for his glory. He doesn't want you to waste them or hoard them. He wants you to use them to benefit those around you and to bring him honor. He wants you to steward your gifts, not waste them.

Your church needs your creative gifts. Your family needs your creative gifts. Your friends need your creative gifts. You have gifts that no one else has. We need your gifts.

So stop making excuses and start making stuff for the glory of God!
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Stephen Altrogge's ebook Create: Stop Making Excuses and Start Making Stuff is currently available in Kindle and PDF formats.

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