Creativity and the Creator Blog Series: Part 2

More Than A Theory

For you formed my inward parts; you wove me in my mother’s womb (Ps 139:13 NASB).
 
Fade in: Interior–Christian Hospital Delivery Room
 
A baby’s first cry pierces the air. A cheer rises from the family and medical staff. The doctor confirms, “Yep, he’s got all his toes and fingers. Congratulations, you’re the proud parents of a healthy boy. Don’t break him now.” Laughs all around.
The proud father decries, “I can’t wait to teach him to be the next Michael Jordan.” The mother says, “No, he’s going to be president.” The father, more realistic, “No, I’ll make him a partner in the business. He’ll love it.” And so it begins.
 
Year after year, studies try to explain the continuing generational exodus of young people leaving the church. All too common reasons given include that the church is judgmental (87 percent), old fashioned (78 percent), too involved with church politics (75 percent) and the list goes on. Some statistics show that as high as 92 percent of Christian teenagers will leave the church and abandon their faith by their 20th birthday, and more than half of these never return.1 But rarely does any survey actually define the undercurrent causing the systemic drift, taking us all off course. Could it be that these reasons are really red herrings that keep us from getting to the heart of the matter?
 
A Biblical sidebar: For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb (Ps. 139:13 NRSV), and God, who set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace…(Gal 1:15 NRSV). We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us (Rm 12:6 NRSV). Do we really believe these precepts? Or do we think they just make for great poetic prose? Are they a salient part of the Master Plan or is the Master Plan just about finality at the end of time? How important are these precepts in the big scheme of life?
 
How-to books hit the New York Times best seller list by the dozens every year, most recommending surefire ways of finding your path to happiness. This would certainly seem to indicate an insatiable desire to quench the thirst of a large sector of society that leads unfulfilled lives. After all, how many of us are actually living a life where our giftedness is being utilized?

Do you know your area of giftedness? Was your dream nurtured? Or did it get squashed by parents, church family, or the educational system? Questions, questions, questions. Any sporting coach worth his salt after seeing his team fall into a pattern of mistakes will say, “We’ve got to get back to the basic fundamentals of the game.” In the spiritual context that doesn’t mean the good old time religion of 150 years ago; try Genesis 1.
 
The Creator created us all in His image equally. Yes, equally. An imperfect world doesn’t change this divine core principal. If anything less were true, it would then make the Master Plan a fraud, and it would nullify what King David, the Apostle Paul, and Jesus Christ described as how we are to live. Our Creator intentionally and unabashedly infused in us His most core characteristic—a creative spirit driven by love.
 
1 Barna Group, http://www.barna.org/topics/faith-spirituality, (November 4, 2009).

Creativity and the Creator Blog Series: Part 1

The Thing Of It Is

In the Beginning…
there was Creativity
emanating from the Creator
…as constant today as in the Beginning.

 
He didn’t stop with our creation. He can’t.
 
It’s a core attribute of His very being, driven by His infinite love.
 
When God created us in His image, He genetically infused us with His own creativity.
 
The very first thing God asked Adam to do required creativity. Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name (Gn. 2:19 NIV). That one phrase, to see what he would name them, tells us much about the nature of God and the nature of human beings created in His image.
 
God told Moses, See, I have called by name Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: and I have filled him with divine spirit, with ability, intelligence, and knowledge in every kind of craft, to devise artistic designs (Ex. 31:2-4 NRSV).
 
Our Creator has endowed each of us with different facets of His creative spirit for a specific purpose. Like a prism, His white light passes through us giving each of us a unique color. A dimension of His creative spirit is given to us to devise artistic designs, whether they be with paint on canvas, through the lens of a camera, sounds, words or ideas. And He presents opportunities to see how we will use our creative spirit to honor Him and serve others. Our purpose is not hidden in some dark shrouded mystery. The Creator expects us to create using His divine spirit, taking the leap from knowledge and ability to devising artistic designs that serve others and bring honor to Him.
 
This genetic infusion of God’s creative spirit is the foundation of the enigmatic miracle that happens every time we create using the unique skill set that the Creator provides. At that inspired moment, the Spirit of God enables our creative spirit to take the idea, a concept without form, create an original and unique path from within, and then manifest it outwardly. The Creator must take great pleasure watching creatures He made in His image creatively express themselves through the gifts He placed in each one of them. He delights to see what (we) will create through this collaborative process.

Shae's Work With NGO 3Angels Nepal

Human trafficking (HT) occurs all over the world. HT can be slavery, forced labor, or prostitution. Those on the front lines indicate published statistics are too low. No one knows the true numbers of people, especially women and children, around the globe, who are trafficked every year. 
 
In Nepal, most people live on about $3 a day, according to Rajendra Gautam, founder of 3Angels Nepal. In the rural villages, children—especially girls—are not well educated. Many times instead of attending school, girls must work in the fields and are often considered to be a burden to their families. Women’s rights are almost nonexistent in this country where hunger and poverty are more widespread than freedom or education.
 
After the recent government revolution and war in Nepal, many families, in an attempt to protect their children from the violent front, sent them away with family “friends” who promised to find jobs or education for them in Kathmandu or India. Families are tricked by potential husbands offering “secure” futures for their daughters. But in many cases, these girls end up in Indian brothels, with no idea of what is happening to them until it is too late.

Lack of education and awareness fuel the trafficking industry. The caste system also represses the ability of Nepali men and women to find jobs outside the prostitution and trafficking industries. To combat this multibillion-dollar industry, NGOs like Shae and 3Angels Nepal work at the borders, in the villages, and in counseling centers in Nepal to provide prevention, rescue, and rehabilitation to trafficked women and children.
 
Shae works in partnership with the in-country NGO 3Angels Nepal to continue their programs through message media promoted around the world. By sharing stories of rescued and empowered women and girls, Shae hopes to increase awareness about the horrible reality of HT in Nepal and what is being done to overcome it.
 
Shae has a special project to provide creative education and expression to women and children in Nepal. By encouraging creativity as therapy for those who have never been allowed to express themselves, Shae offers an outlet of hope. Shae’s projects in Nepal include documentary films, photography, and mentorship for artists who are passionate about causes like HT.