Create: Stop Making Excuses and Start Making Stuff

by Stephen Altrogge

Some of you artsy painter types like to wear pants that are spattered in paint. It shows the watching world (or at least those who are interested in your pants) that you are an artist. But you’ve got nothing on God. God is the master Creator. His pants are spattered with planets and galaxies.

It brings God pleasure when I work with excellence too, because I am imitating him.

We let our pride and our so called self-image keep us from using our God-given talents and abilities. We care more about bringing honor to ourselves than bringing honor to God.

We’ll never have the guts to stick our necks out and possibly look silly. Because other people might disapprove of us. They might think that our painting or speech or novel or spreadsheet or organizational blog or hand sewn shirt is pretty lame. And that would sting. We would feel bad about ourselves, which would then lead to us eating a complete bag of Oreos in one sitting.

If someone doesn’t like something we create, who cares? If someone doesn’t “approve” of us and our creativity, does it really matter? We have full acceptance in Christ and that should be enough for us.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Our identity is rooted in Christ. This is what separates Christian creatives from non-Christian creatives. Our identity is not rooted in what we create it’s rooted in Christ. Our identity is wrapped up in the One who created us, not the things that we create. Our acceptance doesn’t come from our friends or coworkers or fellow artists, it comes from Christ.

You won’t be able to write a hymn better than “Amazing Grace”, but you can write a hymn about how amazing grace has transformed your life. God has given you unique gifts, and he wants you to use those gifts to bless other people. Quit trying to have the perfect idea.

God expects you to use your creative gifts to bring him honor. He doesn’t want you to leave them in the toolbox to rust and rot away. He wants you to get busy creating and making and blessing others with your gifts.

Oh wait, let me guess. You need to do more research before you can really get started on your project. You don’t have all the information needed to finish the project. That may be true, but do you have enough information to start the project? Sometimes the need to do more research is just an excuse for not getting started.

Be at peace with being lousy for a while. Chesterton once said that anything worth doing was worth doing badly. He was right. Only an insufferable egoist expects to be brilliant first time out.[i]

But if you’re going to pursue creativity, you’ve got to be okay with being lousy. You’ve got to be okay with stinking it up for a while. Maybe a long while.

Ira Glass, producer of the radio show This American Life, says: What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story.

It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.[ii]

If your identity is found in Christ, you can be okay with terrible first efforts. And second efforts. And third efforts. Don’t let your initial results discourage you. Stick with it. Sharpen your skills. Pray that God will help you grow in whatever creative endeavor you are pursuing. God loves to reward hard work and diligence.

I challenge you to be okay with being okay.

The great preacher Charles Spurgeon said: A journey of a thousand miles is begun with a step. Beware of despising small beginnings. Some men never arrive at usefulness because they are not satisfied to begin in a small way, and proceed by a step at a time.[iv]

Author E.L. Doctorow said, “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”[v]

How can you set up your schedule in order to take advantage of short periods of time?

It is just pebble by pebble by pebble by pebble. I write one sentence until I am happy with it until I go on to the next one and write that one until I am happy with it. And I look at my paragraph and if I am not happy with that I'll write the paragraph until I'm happy with it and then I go on this way.[xii]

Proverbs 13:4 says, “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.”

I challenge you to not give up. Don’t let laziness sabotage your project. Don’t crave being creative, actually be creative.

In Proverbs 12:15 it says, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”

The fool is convinced that his creative work is flawless. A beautiful gem of artistic glory. His song is perfect just the way it is. No changes necessary. It’s already a masterpiece, ready to be unleashed upon the adoring masses. If someone suggests a change or criticizes the song, the fool fights back. He defends his song like it’s his first born child. He tries to help his criticizer better understand the song and feel the depths of passion that inhabit the song. He doesn’t want to hear criticism. He’s right in his own eyes. The wise creative person, on the other hands, hoards criticism and suggestions. She knows that the first draft of her blog post is going to be pretty lame, so she asks for feedback. For input. For criticism. No sentence is sacred, no word is untouchable. It’s all on the workbench, waiting to be shaped and cut, trimmed and molded. The wise creative person asks for the input and help of others.

You have to have that rare combination of thick skin and tender heart. Most writers get it backwards and have a tender skin and a thick heart. This means that criticism gets a spectacular reaction but no substantive changes. The writer and his friends have the addition of a little more drama for their lives, which they probably didn’t need, but nothing gets accomplished. Rather, when someone offers criticism, there should be very little drama and an eager and substantive desire to learn from the criticisms.[xiii]

Don’t be a drama queen (or king) when it comes to receiving criticism. Take it like a man. Receive it as a blessing from God to make your creative work better. Don’t get defensive or go into silent mode. Don’t try to keep explaining why you did something a particular way. Don’t make obscure references to art theory. Listen, take notes, push back a little where necessary. Criticism really is a blessing.

Proverbs 27:6 says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” If your friends really care about you, they’ll tell you when your song stinks. They won’t let you go on believing that you’ve just written the next “Stairway To Heaven”. They’ll give it to you straight up with no dilution. But you’ve got to make sure they feel comfortable delivering the criticism. Ask them about specific words or lines or sentences. “How does this strike you?” Or, “Do you think that this line works here, or should I put it somewhere else?” Sometimes we have to draw criticism out of people, especially if they’re our friends. They don’t want to hurt our feelings. They don’t want to discourage our efforts. Our job is to make sure that they feel comfortable picking at every little piece of our creative work.

Do you want God to bless your creative work? I do! I don’t want God opposing my creative work, I want him to bless it. How do we secure that blessing? By being humble. By seeking out the opinions of others and listening to those opinions.

QUESTION: Do you ask others to give you feedback on your creative projects?

If I want to write songs I need to listen to a ton of music. And I do. I listen to music constantly. In the car, at home, at work, while I’m jogging, while I’m playing with my girls. Music is a constant in my life.

Stephen King says, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others; read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”[xvi]