Take Creative Responsibility For Your Life
“Be sure that no one takes you captive by the deceptions of men. ‘Cause you will find it to be tragic in the end.” – Jimmy Needham, Tossed By The Wind
Hello Dear Friend,
One day a young man crosses paths with a peddler on the road. In passing the young man says hello to the peddler and plans to continue on his way. But the peddler has other plans to take advantage of the young man’s pleasantries and greets him with a sly smile, his words insisting that the man stop for just a couple of minutes to take a look at what he’s selling.
The man smiles and nods in agreement and the peddler quickly unlocks his case. The man moves his hand over the knick-knacks and gadgets taking his time to look over this and that. “Sir, I’d like to help you out but to be honest there’s nothing in here that’s of any interest to me. And truth be told, even if it were, I don’t really have the money to spare.”
“Wait! Wait, wait! I have a few more things I can show you.” The peddler begs and begins unrolling some leather revealing a series of fine paint brushes that were tucked away. The young man stops with new interest as he gently picks up the brushes inspecting them.
Seeing that the young man has found something of interest the peddler uses this to his advantage “And there are these as well.” He says as he opens a bag filled with paints and turpentine. “I also have some nice canvases rolled up over here.”
Before he has realized what’s happened, the young man’s arms are full and he’s paying the peddler with the precious coins that were supposed to go towards his food for the week. “You know I just remembered,” the peddler begins as he greedily snatches the coins and counts the payment in his hand. “The pub down the way is looking for a new bar keep. I’m sure they would hire you if you are looking for a way to earn some extra wages.”
“Some steady payment would be nice. I’m a painter, an artist and I’m afraid working there would take too much of my time. Not to mention by the time my workday would be done I fear I’d have no energy left to create anything.”
“Yes, boy!” The peddler laughed, “I can see that you are a painter judging by what you just bought off of me. Don’t worry! I’m sure the job won’t take up too much of your time and it will allow you to be able to spend more money on materials – you’ll still have plenty of time to pursue your paintings. In fact I’ll bet you could work something out with the owner and set your own hours. He’s a friend of mine, the owner. Just tell him that Legion has sent you and I’m sure he’ll have some job offer for you.”
Time has passed swiftly throughout the years and the once starving young artist is now an old man. Since that day with the peddler he has always had coin in his pocket and never went hungry again. But the life didn't come without a precious cost. His easel and stretched canvases sit in a dark abandoned corner collecting dust. His paints have dried out, his brushes are brittle and his apron stained with paint, drapes over the hook longing to be worn once more. Unfortunately, he never fully explored his talent or truly understood his gifts. Over time he has watched his talent and dreams slowly drift further and further away. Sadly never knowing what his talent held and what could have been had he ignored Legion's deceitful offer.
Make Careful Exploration
As a senior in high-school I wanted to learn to play the guitar. Being left handed and attempting to learn how to play something with strings as a right hander provides an extra set of challenges. One of those extra challenges being that the right hand happens to be the hand controlling the rhythm while the left forms the chords it would have been much easier for me if the roles were reversed. I feel fairly certain that it took me slightly longer to obtain this coordinated skill until one day it happened and it was like I'd always been able to do it. Part of that credit goes towards having a good guitar teacher.
Knowing how boring it was learning the notes, frets, chords and generally how to read sheet music and tabs out of a beginner’s book, he would make it more fun and interesting by having me bring in CD’s each week that featured a song I wanted to learn to play. It only took a few months of bringing it CD’s before my teacher sighed heavily one day while trying to pick out the chords to my latest song interest before saying, “Man! You sure know how to pick them. That’s okay though. One of these days you're going to bring something in, I’m going to tell you how to play it and you’re going to say, ‘That’s it?’”
Unfortunately, I gave up playing guitar and any small fantasy I might have had of being a rock star before that day came. Yep! I’m the girl who kept bringing in music and wanting to learn songs that were being played on twelve-strings, used hammer-on’s and had me chasing frets up and down the neck while quickly switching up my fingers into a slew of gnarly-ass bar chords which made it extremely difficult for these short little fingers. I think the first chord I learned was an F-sharp and then I just continued my slow roll down the hill from there.
Fast forwarding a couple of years to when I’m attending my first semester in college. A flip of a coin had me in pursuit of becoming a graphic designer versus a professional baker. So at eight in the morning I entered into my three hour drawing class (a requirement for my degree) not being able to draw. Believe me this wasn’t for lack of trying! Both my dad and brother are artist’s and I grew up wanting to be one too but I just didn’t have it – at least that’s what I thought.
My college art teacher knew full well that my concentration was in graphic design but he made a point to tell me more than once over the course of that semester that I had it. I can still remember him saying, “If you pursued this, I mean really pursued this (meaning fine arts instead of graphic design), you could be really good. You have the eye for it. You have the talent, it’s raw but it’s there. You have it.”
Although I chose to continue my path to become a graphic designer and have been successful in making it my career, I never forgot those words from my drawing teacher. Over a decade has passed and I’ve often wondered who I could be as an artist if I would get back into drawing and push to pursue that talent currently held captive in dreamland.
Worthy of Pursuit
When I was seventeen I graduated from high school. Like most high school graduates, I was questioning what was next for me. Tons of questions kept taking turns in my mind: Should I take a year off before going to college and get a job? If I do go to college, what should I go to college for? Where should I apply? Should I become a missionary and go out on the mission field?...
As a post graduate I was constantly being asked what was next for me to which I’d respond with a I’m not exactly sure yet or a I’m still trying to figure that out and would quickly change the subject. One day I was being asked that question for what felt like the hundredth time from the dad to a friend of mine. After I gave my usual response he said something that has stuck with me: Hey, that’s okay. Find a dream worth pursuing. And when you’ve figured out what that dream is, don’t be afraid to work for it. Because if you aren’t willing to work for it, all that dream can ever be is a fantasy.
“Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.” – Galatians 6:4-5, MSG
A couple days after I was given that bit of wisdom – to take the time to figure out what my dream was and what I was willing to work for, I had a prophecy spoken over me. I won’t go into the full prophecy and all the details but the cliff notes version and the way the prophecy began was this: “God has called you to the nations…”
I can still remember being sixteen discussing my future with my dad during a car ride home telling him that I didn’t care how much money I made, I cared about how many souls I could touch.
Anything Is Possible
There are times when the daily tasks begin to feel overwhelming and I easily forget about all the days I spent carefully exploring who I was, the work entrusted to me and the journey I fought so hard to take. It’s true, I can’t say that I’ve ever had the opportunity to work in some far off distant land serving overseas as missionary.
“Remember who you are!” – Mufasa (James Earl Jones), The Lion King
It took many years before I realized that even though my story hasn’t unfolded quite like I expected or even exactly like I wanted it to I can say that my work has gone all over the world and in a way I have already fulfilled the prophecy that was spoken over me all those years ago.
My most fulfilling job to date was almost 10 years ago. I was working as a type-setter and staring at foreign languages all day every week day. I had the tedious task of switching out English words with various languages like Bengali, Mandarin and Arabic just to name a few, into children’s discipleship workbook and leadership training guides. There were times when my brain would hurt from staring at a bunch of characters (squiggles) I couldn’t read and didn’t understand all day to make sure that everything was copying over correctly. What kept me going was the spiritual fulfillment I got from my job. I could see the big picture coming out of my daily tasks, I was helping to produce a 12-Lesson ministry material that would allow children to learn about Bible stories, everyday heroes, God and Jesus and how He saved them. Through this discipleship program they would have the ability to learn it all in their native tongue and upon completion of this program they would take part in a graduation ceremony and receive a New Testament Bible also in their native tongue – what job could be more spiritually fulfilling than that?
The Hook Of Deceit
“I remember in the days of old, doesn’t seem that long ago. It was, ‘Jonny you won’t be nothing unless you do what you’re told.’ Study medicine or study law and please put away the guitar. The best you’ll ever be is a local star at the local bar. But I went and did it anyway, family helping all the way. Now I’m here today, 5 records later so see you can hear me say … ‘Don’t let ‘em tell you can’t be anything you wanna be. Don’t be deceived. Anything’s possible.’” – Jonny Lang, Anything’s Possible
Like the artist mentioned at the beginning of this letter it’s easy to get lost in the daily grind. We’ve grown tired and we’ve grown bitter because we are not living a fulfilled life. We aren’t using the talents entrusted to us or the passions strategically placed within us. We fell for the hook of deceit. Isn’t that just the way?
Satan is a clever little bugger he pays very close attention to you, your words and your actions. Be careful what you reveal to him and be careful what you feed him since he’s so eager to use it against you. The Bible says that he comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). He knows that if you ever were to actually achieve that God given dream planted inside of you it would mean more destruction for him. So he does his best to take it. But he’s crafty about it, slowly he moves in and works to get your guard down then once he’s done that he’ll start chiseling away at that dream.
The sneaky leech continues to show up at his opportune time taking more and more of your dream little by little in hopes that you won’t even notice until its gone. That’s how he does it. He breaks away one piece of your dream at a time so it goes little by little – not in one grand notion. Until one day you look back remembering your dream and realize that all you ever allowed it to become was a fantasy.
Satan will twist you and turn you and spin you into a web of deceit. He’ll trap you deeper and farther away from your dream and your purpose until you stop looking at the big picture because you’ve zeroed in on your present situation. Instead of walking through a temporary valley of trials and hardships you decide to give up another piece of your dream for immediate relief.
But what he doesn’t want you to realize is that the solution is temporary and you gave another part of yourself away for a few fleeting moments of comfort. “Oh you’re stuck in a hard place! That’s tough. Don’t worry!” He’ll hiss. “I can get you out of this mess and it won’t even cost you anything just a little piece of that dream. It’s so little you won’t even miss it.”
He's right, often times we're so busy living our lives that we don’t miss our dream until the day when God comes asking us: "What did you do with your talents? What did you do with that dream I gave you?"
Point Of Impact
The starving artist's don't know how their creations will move and inspire others. Writer's don't see that their words might be the encouragement someone else is clinging to. Musician's will never understand how much joy their instruments can give to the world or how one song could help bring a person out of depression. The high school "science nerds" and "math geeks" don't realize they are on the verge of a greatness that will shift the course of everything. Those high-school kids who are good at debate don't fully grasp that they could conduct speech's that hold the power to influence the change in individuals, people groups and nations. The list of talents and possibilities goes on and on so you fill in the blank of how it could pertain to you.
We can’t fully imagine how God can and will use the gifts and talents that He’s entrusted to us. You’re dream isn’t just for you. Though your talents help to give you a full life they aren’t solely for you. God has purposefully placed things inside of you that He intended for you to use and to share with the whole world.
With love,
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