Are you creative?

Over the past few years, I’ve slowly been having it going through my head, about the idea of innovation & creativity. It’s an odd topic, because as an engineer, I’m specifically trained to pick on arts-students, and anyone else who is ‘creatively-inclined’!

But I dob myself in, because I am also a musician (guitar – Classical, up to Grade 5) – and I’m thankful mum painfully insisted I do it, because I think it has made me a better engineer. Why? Because strangely enough, music and engineering are almost identical in their thinking processes (don’t quote me as a scientist – I didn’t have people’s brain-waves checked out!). Both music and engineering are governed by a number of fundamental principles & equations, yet they have to be applied in a creative way. There is no law of science that governs how they are used – its up to the uniqueness of individuals to work out how to that.

I’ve been thinking even more about creativity in the Bendigo and Australian context. You may have heard, Australia’s manufacturing operations face the threat of cheap imports, and what’s ‘worse’, the quality of items from China is improving in quality (Airbus has committed to a plan to assemble 150-seater jets – the A320 – in China, and they have been building passenger doors for their jets for years). How do we compete with this stuff? Simple. Don’t try to be the cheapest. Be something no-one can compete with – be your unique self (with your unique ideas too :) ).

But being creative seems to work against our fallen human nature. Ever noticed how obsessed we as a society are with conformity? My hairdresser the other day said “you can now wear 50s and 60s fashions now, and get away with it!” My question is – who decides what is in, and what’s out? We so often want to conform to the “accepted norm” (whatever that is) to be part of the fold.

I really believe that creativity is about leadership and boldness – a willingness to go into the ‘unknown’ and take risks. It’s a similar attitude to many of the early explorers. There is also the need for the ability to fly in the face of false-conformity – I say “false conformity” because we are not to oppose legitimate authority.

In-fact, creativity is probably the source of authority! Its interesting that Jesus is “the author and finisher (perfector)” of our faith (those who believe in & love Jesus). He is also the Supreme authority in the universe (this is not a question of what you believe – it’s a simple statement of fact, regardless of beliefs). He is also the Creator of the universe. And interesting that the first 6 letters of “authority” is the word “author”.

I strongly believe that the Church has a responsibility to ‘restore’ creativity to the place God originally intended (noticed how those who are called “creative” also exhibit much rebellion too?). And when I say ‘restore’, I also mean start to infect our cities with the creativity of Heaven. God’s invisible attributes are made clear by His creation (Romans 1: 20) – Could it be that we (The Church) need to start ushering in Godly creativity, even as part of a Holy Spirit-driven proclamation of the Gospel?

God is totally creative! Checkout the universe He made from nothing! And so perfectly too! Been made in His image, I believe man-kind has been called to be creative, but sin has stifled that (and has created conformity to this world). Looking at the Word of God, it would seem to indicate that it’s the Holy Spirit that is required to bring about that restoration in our own lives (checkout Ex 35: 30-35 and Romans 12:2).

I believe when we start living in the creativity that God intended, it will bring much blessing, even into our cities – and which will cause God to be proclaimed therein.

And I’d be interested in your thoughts – because I’m still developing mine in this area :)

God bless in Jesus name.