When it comes to creating art in any genre, I honestly believe
Christians should be the most innovative, groundbreaking, original, creative
people on the planet. I mean, think
about it, not only do we serve the Maker and Creator of the Universe, but His Spirit
lives inside of us! We are forgiven and
set free! We are blessed beyond
measure! We are children of the King of
Kings! And if those things really are
true, then creativity should flow from us as pure as the joy from Agustus Gloop
upon first laying eyes on Mr. Wonka’s chocolate river. But it doesn’t. Not usually.
Most of the time we become creativity pirates. I’m not talking about being inspired by
someone’s work – I mean hijacking it and passing on a less creative
version. We have an awfully bad habit of
taking things the world has made popular and “Christianizing” them. Instead of innovating, we counterfeit. We copy musical styles, we market themed
Bibles, and we rip off corporate logos and make inspirational t-shirts out of
them. And on top of that we usually
operate slightly behind the curve, creating a peculiar subculture that becomes
less and less relevant with each passing fad.
But why?
Maybe we’re lazy.
Maybe we believe we have to compete with the world – and when we think
we don’t cut it, we give up. Or maybe we
put so many self-imposed “Christian” rules
on our creativity that we kill it.
I don’t know what the reasons are or what the answer is. Maybe my entire view is flawed. Maybe what we “should be,” or “should do,”
can vary as often as popular opinion changes.
But for me…I need a bottom line.
And my bottom line is this: I create art because I enjoy it. And I enjoy it because God made me that
way. And when I do what God made me to
do, and I do it with a joyful heart, giving Him the glory...well, that’s what worship is.
In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. ~ Genesis 1:1
