Shine Like Stars

Looking around the church at the moment, I see signs of incredible creativity, but at the same time we often short-change ourselves. We lose out on the vast inheritance we have as children of the Creator. If it follows that God is the true source of all creativity, the ultimate dreamer , and that we are not just made in the image of our Creator, but also adopted through Christ into his family, reflecting the nature of our Father, then it follows that we should burn with bright, Spirit-fuelled creativity. We should be exploding with art, bringing beauty and calling order out of chaos. What’s holding us back? I wonder if, on the one hand, we hide ourselves in mediocrity, afraid to share our ideas for fear people will shoot them down. But the opposite is true: “Whereas material goods are diminished by sharing, the spiritual treasuries of knowledge and beauty, of poetry, music and the rest, by being shared are not diminished but increased.” [Kathleen Raine, The Land Unknown] We’re called to create in community: just as God involved Adam in the first creation, we who are in Christ, the second Adam, are called to be involved in the new creation: remaking, rethinking and renewing the world around us. We need to encourage a culture that births creativity and does not settle for the status quo. The second thing that often holds us back is pride. Ego chokes true, God-anointed creativity and leaves us with a hollow shell of what could have been. I love the famous exhortation to humility that US President Ronald Regan had mounted on his desk in the White House: ‘There’s no limit to what you can achieve as long as you don’t mind who gets the credit’. Let’s push for a cultural shift in our churches towards a season of dangerous, risky, brave creativity, while striving to be clothed in real humility. Let’s shine like stars in the universe as we hold out the word of life. [Phil 2:15]