If your car has ever run of gas in the middle of nowhere, you’ll never forget the feeling of being stuck with no sign of rescue and an empty tank. 

“Pursue your dreams and bad things await.” 

Deep down, our nightmares are laced with this lie. They try to hold us back from our dreams. Life may not be what you hoped for, our fears whisper, but try to break free for something better and we will cut you to shreds. 

When we feel the world closing in around us, it’s easy to go into survival mode. We tighten our grip in an effort to not lose more. 

What would you see if you could stand outside your current circumstances? Stated another way, who would you be if the world didn’t tell you who you are? 

If God weaves specific talents into each of us, the question is why? What is His motive? I believe He gives each of us a particular calling so He can then spend time with us on that unique playground. This is a way for you and God to get to know each other better as you create together. 

For much of my life, I felt like I didn’t quite fit in. No one shared my interests or understood my dreams. But then I discovered a small group of kindred spirits passionately pursuing the very things that made me come alive. In the process, my heart began to reawaken. 

Perhaps you have been told you aren’t creative so much that you’ve started to believe it.

Doing so has enormous consequences…none of which are good. It denies how the Creator made you. It diminishes your specific gifting. And it closes a door to a future shaped by what you were born to bring into existence through your unique presence and talents. 

Could the God of all Creation have placed inside us, before we were even born, a homing device that ultimately would lead us back to him? In other words, could the one thing we’re most passionate about and skilled at doing also reveal the way to more life, love, and creativity? 

Some stories offer a way to unplug from reality. Yet the better stories usher us into a deeper reality. These kinds of stories rip a seam in the atmosphere so that the unseen starts to become visible. Think of it as a portal that provides a glimpse of God and His kingdom. Much like the parables of Jesus did.

Just as explorers travel to fantastical places in search of the unknown, stories can transport us to places where we can then see our own stories more clearly. They invite us into other worlds and, in the process, offer a new way of seeing our own world. 

Explorers and adventurers understand a great truth. In order to experience the fantastic, they have to first put themselves in fantastic places. It is the same for us.

Maybe you’re incredibly driven. Or perhaps you struggle with passivity. No matter how you try and deal with life, it likely isn’t working.  At least not mostly. If it was, you wouldn’t find yourself regularly overwhelmed, exhausted, and running on empty.

Madeleine L’Engle was a brilliant writer best known for her novel A Wrinkle in Time. I love her works of fiction, yet it’s her books on art and faith that I find even more fantastical.

Is restoration a regular part of your creative process?

From my years as a publisher, speaker, and consultant to thousands of writers, I can tell you most creatives don’t make time for this.

How would you describe the state of your art? Is it thriving? Do you know its rhythm? What replenishes your creativity…or depletes it?

The Hero’s Journey refers to a story where a hero must move from the known into the unknown. The journey involves great challenges, a death and rebirth, and ultimately change or transformation.

The more you do, the more successful you’ll be.

That maxim seems true, but it’s actually a lie that erodes our identity and creativity.

The best creativity begins with what God stirs in our hearts. It is an invitation to intimately and actively pursue our gifting with the Creator.

So who needs your art? First of all, you do.

There’s amazing freedom in dismissing the illusion of a balanced life. Most days we can’t even balance our checkbooks, much less our family, work, finances, health, home, sports, rest, and creativity. It’s an overwhelming, never-ending, no-win game – like trying to keep ten plates spinning simultaneously.

The world can be hard on our dreams. What once seemed so likely, now feels partial at best. Our best-laid plans laid to rest, sacrificed for other more pressing needs.

It feels like such loss. Not just a loss of our dreams, but also of hope and heart.