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| I first posted this photo of me with Dr. Brown on May 19, 2009. I captioned the picture, "Dr. Brown's fingerprints will be on everything I ever write." Lots of truth to that! |
I turned in
my creative writing portfolio to Dr. Brown, and I wrote in my portfolio to her,
“I don’t like writing poetry because it’s impractical.” I explained to her that
I could spend an hour and a half trying to write a little poem, and at the end
of that time, the poem I wrote wasn’t even good. Shouldn’t I be spending that time doing other
homework or exercising or doing laundry? At least then, I would know that I had
completed an assignment or burned some calories or folded some clothes. But this? I could try for another 5 hours and
still not come up with anything good…or by some spark of imagination, I could jot
something down in 15 minutes, and it could be the best thing I write all year.
The impracticality of trying to be creative was frustrating me—my contemplative
nature and my logical nature couldn’t reconcile what was more important.
Dr. Brown made a note back to me in her cursive handwriting, “You’re right. Poetry is
impractical.” She had been
teaching creative writing classes for a few decades, and it wasn’t like I
changed her mind about anything. Her
note to me was more like a challenge: You
think writing poetry is impractical? Get over it. So is everything else that is
beautiful and inspiring.
Maybe I
like to see instant results. I like to be able to measure it and know that it
was a successful use of time. But if
that’s all I want, then all I need to do is get a brownie mix, measure
the water and vegetable oil, crack some eggs, and grab it out of the oven 32
minutes later. Bam. Successful use of
time.
But anyone
and everyone can make brownies. And I’m
glad that everyone can do it because brownies are wonderful. Brownies are comfort food, but they can’t
make me cry like a beautiful song can. They can’t make me get emotionally
involved in fake people’s lives like a good fictional book can. Brownies can’t lift my soul or make me
consider new ideas or propel me to be more compassionate or make me understand
God and the world better. Brownies can’t
help me become a better leader or strategize a way for me to help others like a well-crafted article or a poignant photograph can. You
know how much I love chocolate, but maybe making brownies isn’t the only
successful way to use my time. Maybe measuring and seeing instant results shouldn't always be my top priorities for how I spend my time.
On Sunday I
taught the elementary students about this key idea: Because God created us in His image, we also
can be creative. I wouldn’t have come up with this lesson on my own. But this is what the curriculum called for,
so we considered what we know about God.
1. He is our Creator.
2. If He created the whole universe, God must be wildly
creative. We discovered that there are 10,000 species of birds, 40,000 species
of fish, 5 million species of insects, 352,000 types of flowering plants, and
22,750 species of moss.[1]
God could have made only 10 types of birds, but instead He created 10,000! The spectacular
display of 40,000 types of fish is what makes those underwater ocean
documentaries so cool. And 352,000 types
of flowers—just what we need to bring color and beauty to our meadows and front
yards and dining tables and weddings and birthdays. Also, what really gets me is
how many types of mosses God created.
Isn’t one kind of moss sufficient? No, the Lord saw fit to create 22,750
types of mosses. God isn’t boring. He intricately created 5 million types of
insects. He must love bugs even more than my nephews do.
3. God created us in His image. He gave each of us unique
gifts to creatively use to do good works.
That’s what we learned in our memory verse: “For we are God’s handiwork, created in
Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
(Ephesians 2:10)
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| A little group project the kids did on Sunday |
In my
writing class, Dr. Brown assigned us to read Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeleine
L’Engle. I want to reread it because the first time I read it, I could not
appreciate it. I was too confused about
why or why not art was important. I
didn’t feel like an artist. I certainly didn’t dress like the artists on
campus; I dressed like a country girl who used to be an athlete (which is a
pretty accurate description of me)—t-shirts and tennis shoes every chance I
got. I wasn’t a painter or a
photographer, so why was art important to me?
Even though I didn’t appreciate that book at the time, I have always
remembered two things that Madeleine L’Engle said: Art helps bring order from
chaos, and art helps us to remember the lovely things we have forgotten.[2]
This past
January I was able to have lunch with Dr. Brown. I didn’t remind her that I had once told her
that poetry was impractical. Instead, we
caught up with the details of life since I hadn’t seen her in a few years. I told her that I was building a house and
how God had led me to buy land, and then I told her, “I think I’d like to blog
about what God has taught me on this journey.” Even though Dr. Brown is a
creative writing prof, she isn’t fluffy.
She keeps it real and tells you when you’re being cliché. So I was
curious to see what she might say about my blogging idea.
She slowly
nodded, “Yes, that could be good. You’re
in a unique position and are building your house for a unique purpose.”
I smiled.
“I’ll start the blog as soon as they break ground.”
“Oh, you
should start it sooner.”
I smiled at
her affirmation. Dr. Brown is like the
queen to me when it comes to writing. If
she thought I could and should do it, then that was all the encouragement I
needed. That was the day I decided to go for it, to be creative and
“impractical” for this season—not to try to see measurable results, but to try
to see if anything beautiful and inspiring would come of it. To bring order
from the chaos of construction loans and hard decisions. To remember the lovely things that God had
spoken to me and done for me during the last few years. #seeingtheunseen
Maybe
creativity is impractical. Maybe writing this blog isn’t a big deal. But maybe when
we’re tempted to kill creativity, we should try to imagine God as He created
the world, saying, “Hmmm…I’m going to make 352,000 types of flowers just for
the beauty of it, just so that it will make their day.”
P.S. Speaking of things that made my day...I felt super encouraged this week when one of my favorite authors/bible teachers Priscilla Shirer read my blog post and tweeted me!!
[1]
Osborn, Liz. (2014). “Total Number of
Species Estimated in the World.” http://www.currentresults.com/Environment-Facts/Plants-Animals/estimate-of-worlds-total-number-of-species.php.
[2]
L’Engle, Madeleine. (1980). Walking on
Water: Reflections on Faith and Art. New York: North Point Press.
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