When Creativity is Hard

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And God saw that it was good.
- from Genesis 1:10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31

During this holiday season, God invites us to be creative and to delight in our creativity. But sometimes our creative work isn’t super-delightful.

Who hasn’t seen someone trying his or her best to make the season special but only managing to make the season miserable: frustration over getting the tree straight, spatting about the lights, fighting a grumpy teen who suddenly (or so it seems to us) no longer wants to be a part of the joyful family experience of decking the halls? How many of us have been that someone?

God can speak his creative desires and they spring into existence. We lack that power. We fall short. What we do when we fall short matters.

This Friday, look for opportunities to be gracious and open-handed. Everything you try won’t turn out “good” or “very good.” But what matters more than what we create is who we’re becoming as we create. God wants us to become more loving, gentle, winsome, compassionate, and generous as we put our creative talents to work. Sometimes, failure is our best opportunity to grow.

We don’t want you to have a house that looks perfect and relationships that are in shambles. Don’t have a melt-down argument over tree lights. They are important, but they are JUST tree lights.

Don’t sacrifice your relationships for your image of the perfect Christmas. Let your good God teach you to love the real people who are present with you this season.

Try praying this today:

God who made everything delightful and declared “It is good,”
Help me to love the people you’ve placed in my life today
To be compassionate
To be patient
To be gentle
To be kind
To be generous
To be fun
Help me to lean into Christmas in a way that blesses people around me
In Jesus’ name I pray,
Amen

1 Comment

I love this! A good reminder to major on the majors, and minor on the minors. It's hard to do, and easy to forget! Thank you for the reminder.

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