I am convinced that my generation (generation Y, or the millenial generation) has limitless resources at their fingertips to express their creativity. While I wouldn’t say we are necessarily the most creative generation, I would say that we have the most opportunity to express our creativity. It is unprecedented.

But that only gets us so far. I have a deep conviction that so many people, especially in my generation, have a hard time accessing their creativity because of a spiritual disconnect.

We have lost sight of the powerful, mysterious creative force that created the earth out of nothing. He took chaos and brought order. He took a blank canvas/page/{enter your medium here} and brought about beauty. And he is still in this business of bringing about beauty out of chaos.

Moreover, as Scripture teaches that we are created in this wildly imaginitive being’s image, there is somethig on the inside of us that begs for creativity and creation. We can’t help it, because it’s a part of our makeup.

We jut need to learn a bit about the God in us. Perhaps we need to revisit the introduction to the story.

In the beginning, God created…

My friends, it’s a creative theology.

This is an excerpt from Christianity Today, written by the magazine’s senior managing editor, Mark Galli:

And the word of the Lord came to America, and said,

Woe to you, O consumers, who drive when you could walk, who lust for goods that must be flown and shipped from far away in oil-consuming ships of land and sea and air, whose way of life must be preserved no matter the cost to my planet or to those whose lives depend on its health…

…Blessed are those who have these truths written on their hearts, who know the promised future as a blessed present, who live with their God and their neighbor on the Garden called Earth as if the future were already so…

…And the oil spewed forth for some forty days and forty nights, for the wickedness of the people was great, and the judgment of the Lord was upon the face of the earth.

Taking on the voice of a prophet in such a straight forward style is quite the task. Galli pulls it off, and does a great job in both the 7 woes to America and the 6 subsequent blessings. I love that the piece reminds us of the constant destruction we cause, and the lives lost in the initial blast that have scarcely been mentioned.

Perhaps what I love the most about the piece is that is cuts through the snark surrounding the topic, and truly wrestles with the theology of a Creator and our creative responsibility to live in and support creation.

The oil spill is so much bigger than the cleanup check BP will have to write; it is an issue of our comfort, our spending, our lifestyle based in greed and our neglect of God’s creation. It’s an issue of the soul.

When we destroy the nature around us, we are destroying creation. When we destroy creation, we distance ourselves from our creativity…Once this process of giving up on creating takes place, it is very difficult to revive the creator inside yourself. As the creation around us goes, so goes the creation that comes out of us.

Above is an excerpt from the project I am working on entitled A Creative Theology.

And here is an image taken of the oil slick from NASA’s Terra satellite, taken last week:

Genesis 2:15 “Then the LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.”

This is the introduction to our understanding of God the Creator. He creates beautiful things, and it becomes our duty to tend and watch over it. Incredibly, He has also given us the ability to create, which becomes a part of our tending to his creation. Unfortunately, when we lose sight of the reason behind creation, bad things happen.

Heartbreaking because…It’s a Creative Theology

This short film by Sean Mullens is a beautiful account of an artist who creates with a deep sense of connection to something greater.

It seems like when you’re creating you’re in touch with that spiritual energy. And it’s all the same that the spiritual masters talk about. You’re in a place of oneness. It’s a God-like quality, I mean, what is God other than the creator?

It’s a Creative Theology

HT: Sam Duregger