Creating Wholeness
Do you consider yourself a creative person?
I ask this sincerely, though I’m biased in my belief that all of us are born with creative gifts of one form or another.
I’ve never liked the concept of talent shows because a) apparently I’m grumpy? And b) they favor the performing arts over every other myriad form of creativity. Playing instruments, dancing, riding a unicycle, singing—all are terrific gifts. But what about people who bake, or DIY their own house projects, or garden, or create lesson plans for teaching children or teens, or plan large family or charity events, or run businesses, or design a home environment to help children thrive, or create goodwill among people by treating them with kindness and compassion, or find creative solutions to problems with technology, or create mental harmony by running or practicing yoga, or write about the real things of life and post it all on the internet?
What about those talents?
The things we create daily may not be featured in a talent show, but they ARE creative in nature. This leads me to another personal bias: I see human creativity as an innate part of our eternal souls—as an inborn yearning to become like and return to our Heavenly Parents. We all just want to go home to those who know us best.
I was recently reading about the concept of entropy, which broadly refers to the second law of thermodynamics, which basically says that all matter is in a constant state of degradation, chaos, deterioration.
It’s life in a mortal world, guys, and it is, by definition, a mess.
If the world is always, inevitably, inexorably trending toward randomness, disorder, and a state of breaking down, my own life experience compels me to see the spiritual practices of faith and hope, of charity and creativity, as efforts working in opposition to entropy.
When we study Jesus’s life and try to pattern our attitudes and behaviors after His, we are creating something new. Essentially, we are re-creating ourselves–our spiritual, inner, real selves—by choosing obedience and casting off the natural woman in exchange for a closeness with divinity.
When we go to the temple, we learn about the order and purpose of human life. When we engage in creative pursuits, we observe and produce meaningful, beautiful, useful things. When we attempt to align ourselves with God, we push back against entropy in a journey toward balance.
I’ve personally found that when I am fully engaged in the intentional spiritual practices of living the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I am seeking equilibrium. And while there are times I can’t exactly tackle it and pin it down, balance doesn’t completely elude me.
I’ve written before about homeostasis, which could be described as an individual’s inner quest for harmony. One of my recent, related epiphanies is that social media makes a consumer of me. When I’m scrolling, I’m in a mindless state of consumption, which seems to be the opposite of creation. This finding hasn’t caused me to entirely shun social media, but it has made think about whether it fortifies, or in subtle ways, wounds my spiritual health. The best part of this exercise is that it puts me solidly in charge of me, my phone, and the internet. Listen up, lads. I am the captain now.
When I am teaching undergraduates, or working with my son on his occupational therapy homework, or reading about how Jesus treated people, or listening to someone who is currently being beaten up by the universe (stupid entropy), I find myself being creative.
It is this kind of creativity that Henry B. Eyring says is motivated by “a feeling of love,” including “the love of a Creator who expects His children to become like Him—to create and to build.”
Attempts at creating and producing tap into our inward divinity, and they invite the restorative balance afforded by the Savior.
All good things come from Jesus Christ. Here’s the hidden gem that’s revealed itself to me: when we are building up each other, our gifts, our spiritual selves—we can find wholeness.
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