Discover Your Creative DNA
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You were created to create.
Within each of us lies a wellspring of potential, ideas, and dreams waiting to be brought into existence. These visions, when realized, have the power to shape new realities and transform the world around us.
Philosopher and theologian Dallas Willard once wrote that if you are seated in a room, everything you see probably owes its existence to the ideas of one or more persons.
Take the aviation industry, for example, which for centuries, was once just a mere possibility in the minds of many brilliant individuals, including Leonardo da Vinci. Then, in 1903, the Wright Brothers created a powered flying machine and actually flew it. When they did, a plethora of new realities began to come into being.
We continue to see this revolution today, with entire economies that revolve around the airline industry. These expanding worlds were birthed from a singular idea.
When God created us in His image, He placed in our DNA this open-ended opportunity to bring new futures into being.
Ludwig van Beethoven understood this innate call to birth his internal ideas into the artistic realities that ultimately made him a musical icon. In 1802, when he was thirty-one years old, Beethoven journaled thoughts now referred to as the Heiligenstadt Testament. He was experiencing the onset of deafness, which grew progressively worse until he was totally unable to hear. In his journal, he expressed his endless struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts caused by the loss of his hearing. In his lament, however, he concluded: “It seemed impossible to depart this world until I had brought forth all the things I felt inspired to create.” His music was one reason that caused him to live.
We must understand the implications of the truth that we are created to create — each and every one of us has a reservoir of futures inside us waiting to be pulled to the surface.
Futures that will not happen unless we create them. Futures for which we are accountable.
Yet, the realization of these futures rests upon our willingness to engage in the act of creation. While we may feel inspired by God, we are also entrusted with the freedom to decide whether to manifest these visions into reality.It’s this simple: it can and will come to pass if we cooperate with God in its creation, but if we refuse, those potential futures will be abandoned.
It's crucial to grasp the significance of our role as co-creators with God.
We are not mere bystanders in the unfolding of history but active participants in the ongoing work of creation. We all have the capacity to shape new trajectories and pioneer innovative pathways to create new futures.
Take a moment. Reflect on your participation in God’s creative activity. Look down the road thirty, forty, or fifty years. What futures exist because of you? What futures are inside you at this very moment? What sort of ideas do you have brewing in your mind that can significantly contribute to the worlds of business, politics, and social reform?
Rembrandt could have decided whether or not to paint. Bach could have decided whether or not to write and play music. Do you have a book in you that needs to be written? Do you have a philanthropic idea that you can’t keep inside anymore? Do you have a ministry you just must begin? What is inside you, shouting to get into reality? What are you so desperate to create that it motivates you to live?