create

breathe in...

I'm all sorts of nervous writing this. I've gone back and forth in my head saying things along these lines-

Me: I should start a blog

Also me: but wait, I would need a catchy title like all the other people...

Me: but you're not a bad writer, that could make up for your lack of a catchy title...

Also me: but no one has ever said you are a good writer either...

Me: well, except for mom...(thanks mom)

All that to say, I read something this morning that challenged me to type these words out and share them with you (thank you for a million things, Shauna Niequist, but especially for these words).

(In regards to putting away "productivity" in order to create)

"The world doesn't need another band, per se. It doesn't, strictly speaking, need another book or another photograph or another album. The general world population will survive without one more stage production and one more gallery showing.

This is the thing, though: you might not. We create because we were made to create, having been made in the image of God, whose first role was Creator. He was and is a million different things, but in the beginning, he was a creator. That means something for us, I think. We were made to be the things that he is: forgivers, redeemers, second chance-givers, truth tellers, hope-bringers. And we were certainly, absolutely, made to be creators." {Bittersweet, pg. 160}

I know there are millions of blogs, millions of thoughts that are all waving there little internet hands and calling you over, and I've struggled for the longest time with why I would want to join them, but this morning I recognized it. I recognized why myself and so many others would take the time and the energy to wrestle with words and layouts, clay and calligraphy pens.

It's because we were made to create.

We have this thing inside of us that eats at us to produce something from nothing...to produce stories and songs and art from jumbled phrases and thoughts inside of us.

So often I have pushed this desire to create away- out of fear that no one would appreciate it, or fear that I would be doing it for the wrong reasons (a.k.a. for people to appreciate it), or because I simply don't have enough time.

But, I was made in my maker's image.

I want to create.

I want to form something with my own hands, my own mind that wasn't there before.

Therefore, I am making this small space on the intewebs to engage you, and engage my own mind and God-given creativity. .

It may be jumbled words at times. It may be half-thoughts and things that you cannot relate to.

But I'm going to do it.

I'm going to put aside the laundry for an hour, put aside my run and my job searching, and I am going to create.

Not to garner more "likes," but simply because I have to do it.

I have to create.

And I think that you do too.

breathe out...

What are some things that you want to create? How can you engage your God-given creativity?