The Creative
Why?
Why this drive to create something?
You may know what I’m talking about. It’s this innate desire to make, build, improve, invent. When an athlete builds his muscles and breaks records and milestones, there is a desire, a longing, that is met with incredible satisfaction. When an engineer designs a structure and sees his finished work on display in a city skyline, the satisfaction is undeniable. When an entrepreneur faces obstacle after obstacle to get his business off the ground and sell a product that truly helps people, there’s a drive that helps him overcome the odds and succeed.
Where does this come from? Why not let someone else invent or build or design? Why do we feel the need…why do I feel the need to express some inner part of myself to the world by making something new?
The Backstory
I grew up the youngest of four kids. I had a wonderful childhood in a loving family with good friends and a Christian faith. Like many other young boys, I found out there’s another world out there to enjoy! “What world?” you ask? This wonderful world is none other than my imagination!
My parents soon discovered that I preferred spending time alone racing hot wheels, playing “cowboy,” and (of course) building Legos. I could spend hours exhausting my imagination creating movie-like worlds in my mind with nothing but different color plastic bricks that fit together. I would get lego sets for my birthday and Christmas, build them immediately, and within a week or two they would be torn apart and modified because my brain always came up with something a little better. It was wonderful! And the satisfaction and excitement I received from making something that I first saw in my head was unmatched!
The Passion
Fast-forward to 2025. Here I am as a 22-year-old living on my own. I work on staff at a church in Georgia, and I have a multitude of different responsibilities to take care of at work and home. But in all of these responsibilities, there is still nothing more satisfying to me than creating. I love deepening relationships with people, taking pictures and editing them, discovering new ways to produce videos, make teenagers interested and excited to learn about God and the Bible. Why do all these things satisfy? I believe it is mostly, if not as least partly due to my God-given purpose.
Now, whether you agree with me or not, that’s up to you. But, with learning the Bible as my foundation and knowing God as my highest pursuit, I find an undeniable connection between the Creator and my own creativity.
As recorded in Genesis 1, when God created mankind, He did something unique. He created man in His image. This means that every human being lives with the ability to know God personally and the responsibility to represent Him on this earth. God’s nature is illustrated in every moment by our own natures, and that’s exactly how God designed it to be. We each have the privilege (and responsibility) to live as walking pictures of God in everything that we do.
How does this play into creativity? First of all, if we carry within us a nature representative of God, then surely we should model His actions by our own, right? Since God is the ultimate Creator and Sustainer of all things, then it naturally follows that we, made in His image, should each be creative beings too.
God has instilled His own character into His creation so that in every corner of the world we see Him on display. When this creation falls short of His character, it faces the natural result of not abiding by His intrinsic standards. Think about it! When a famous painter creates a masterpiece, his own personality or character can be seen in the piece fully expressed even in subtle details. But if this painter is given sub-par materials or paints to work with that don’t meet his personal standard he employs in his artwork, he will likely not use it or will only use it in a very small way.
Though that illustration is undoubtedly faulty when carried to its fullest conclusion, the point still stands. God created us for a specific purpose! And each purpose He gives us involves creating something wonderful. In fact, what God is doing right now is creating a kingdom in the heart of every one of His children that is changing the world one heart at a time!
When I’m creative, I step into the realm of God’s usability. When the creative is used by the Creator, something wonderful is bound to be created!
The Problem
The dominate character trait of this world is consumption. We must consume more entertainment, consume more food, consume more money, consume more thrills, consume more pleasure, consume more comfort—consume! consume! consume! The world can’t even keep up with itself because our backwards tendency is not to create, but to only consume.
But there’s no true fulfillment in pure consumption. Don’t miss this! You were created to create, so when all you do is consume, you are effectively rendering yourself worthless and no longer usable to the Creator. Stop letting yourself only consume! While consumption is necessary to a degree, you must be creating in order to fulfill your true purpose.
The Choice
So, it comes down to this. Will you join me and choose to create something wonderful? In this world of consumption, will you make the difficult choice to learn something new, push your own boundaries, challenge your mind, and create?
