What causes you to hesitate in the pursuit of your dream?

Perhaps you don’t feel there’s enough time. Or money to invest. Those are real struggles we face.

But often there’s something deeper going on within us. We don’t feel qualified. We doubt God could possibly be inviting us to pursue the very thing we love…with him.

A friend of mine starts every movie by watching the last scene first. This used to really bother me. I mean, come on. She was doing it all wrong. It ruins a story to peek at the last page or scene first. It’s like opening a Christmas present and then wrapping and placing it under the tree.

How do you tend to make big decisions?

My natural inclination is start forming a “pros and cons” list, adding up the columns to determine which outcome makes the most sense.

God regularly invites us to follow him into the great unknown. We tend to hesitate until we have an upfront, air-tight guarantee as to how it will go for us.

Instead, God offers road trips with him that come with no detailed itinerary. Often, that’s not enough for us. So we remain camped in the status quo.

I imagine our conversation with God might go something like this.

How do we get from where we are…to where we want to be?

Because no matter where we find ourselves, it seems we're not quite where we want to be. Or fully who we are meant to be.

A map would be helpful. Especially from God. In our more honest moments, we wonder why he doesn’t make our lives simpler by just telling us all we need to know, preferably before we’re facing that hard decision or challenge.

On the seventh day of Creation, we’re told that God rested. But what does that mean?

God wasn’t exhausted. He didn’t work up a sweat. He could have created every day for millions of years and never repeated himself. Every day another new creation.

We could all use a fresh start. Some days, I need more than one!

That’s why I totally resonate with this powerful request the psalmist asks God:

God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. (Psalm 51:10 MSG)

In Genesis 1 we see the Creator in his glory.

So much happens in these first six movements of creation. On the first day, God begins by speaking.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (Genesis 1:3 NIV)

The Genesis creation story is the first account of creation in Scripture. But it isn’t the only one.

Have you spent much time considering the origin of creativity?

I’m not talking about creativity as defined by humans or institutions. Creativity isn’t determined by a degree or reserved for the elite to bestow as they please. You don’t need to win an award to prove you’re creative.

What if the top creative genius in your field came to your town. Not to do interviews with the media. Not to sign copies of the latest bestselling book. But to spend time with you.

Would you clear your schedule for that? Perhaps have a few burning questions to ask?

The first way God introduces himself is as Creator. But I believe one of the favorite ways God loves to be known is as Father.

During Creation, God breathed life into Adam and soon after created Eve. Throughout Scripture, we see God as a good, adoring, attentive, boundlessly creative Father.

He creates. Then he fathers.

Most people, after achieving an unprecedented accomplishment, call it good. After all, there’s nowhere to go but down, so they stop while they’re ahead.

But not God. He is the continual Creator.

God is the uncreated Creator. He has always existed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is no time when God wasn’t. He precedes everything . . . including time.

Let’s take a moment and savor a few of the things he created from nothing.

C.S. Lewis offers this imaginary, fantastical look at the world’s creation in The Magician’s Nephew from his masterful series The Chronicles of Narnia:

Imagine being with God at the birth of our universe…a witness to the first stars, the wildflowers, the stallions, the oceans, humpback whales, ladybugs, redwood trees, snowflakes, and waterfalls.

Do these creations strike you as the works of a hesitant creator?

If you want to know a creator, all you have to do is look at what and how they create.

You don’t have to be close friends with your favorite songwriter or best-selling author to know their worldviews. Just sample their art. It reveals far more about their beliefs than they may realize.

In a contest between love and fear, I sometimes doubt love is strong enough to win. I mean, love is great. But fear plays dirty. It’s a street brawler. And love is so . . . kind. I worry that in direct combat, love may get its tail kicked. Then what?

Thankfully, Scripture reminds me my concern is unfounded. Nothing is more powerful than love.

Everything you’ve been created to do will not happen in this lifetime. That’s not a negative or a limiting statement. It’s a reminder that our creativity doesn’t end when we pass from here to everlasting life.

The world has grown cold. Now more than ever, we need stories, songs, and art that warm our souls and light the way.

And yet this kind of creativity doesn’t happen on demand. It flows from the way we choose to live.