"Our gifts are not from God to us, but from God through us to the world. When we fail to use these gifts, we suffer the same way a person accustomed to regular physical activity may feel pent up, out of sorts, and off-balance after going for several days without exercise. When we try to live without exercising our artistic gifts, we may feel restless and empty. Life lacks fullness. Something buried deep within longs to emerge...If we have neglected to develop and use the talents God has given us, we feel incomplete, unfulfilled, unfinished, even depressed...We devour books, we travel, we acquire possessions, or we busy ourselves in relationships and careers. We engage in diversions of all kinds in an attempt to find that elusive thing called fulfillment. We spend our time and money in a fruitless search to 'find ourselves' instead of finding out how God wants us to use the talents he has given us."
I have the priviledge of hanging out on a regular basis with artists of all kinds of backgrounds, ages, genders, ethnicity, skill levels, medium choices, and faiths. The subject of 'fulfillment in life' comes up almost every day, especially when it comes to our creativity. It is amazing to me at how many artists struggle with this one subject more than anything else.
"Our vocation in not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny." -Thomas Merton
I believe there is something to this idea of partnering with God in our creativity and in our lives. Partnering with God involves allowing your heart to sing the same song that the Spirit is singing and being of one heart with the Father and one mind with Christ. It is conversation in prayer with the expression of needs & wants & daring to dream. It is listening to the heart of the Father, letting go, listening to the words of Jesus, acceptance, listening to the voice of the Spirit, agreement. And it's the willingness to wait when you're to wait, and to take action when you're to take action.
"Before I can listen to God in prayer, I must fumble through the prayers of words, of willful demands, the prayers of childish 'Gimmes,' of 'Help mes,' of 'I want...' Until I tell God what I want, I have no way of knowing whether or not I truly want it. Unless I ask God for something, I do not know whether or not it is something for which I ought to ask, and I cannont add, 'But if this is not your will for me, then your will is what I want, not mine.' The prayers of words cannot be eliminated. And I must pray them daily, whether I feel like praying or not. Otherwise, when God has something to say to me, I will not know how to listen. Until I have worked through self, I will not be enabled to get out of the way.
Someone wrote, 'The principal part of faith is patience,' and this applies, too, to art of all disciplines. We must work every day whether we feel like it or not; otherwise when it comes time to get out of the way and listen to the work, we will not be able to heed it." -Madeleine L'Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art
So are we living a life fulfilled? Are we partnering with God in our creativity and in our lives and being all that we were meant to be? Or are we caught up in distractions & diversions, fears & rejections, false selves & pride? Through all the noise of the "I can't"s that scream in our ears, are we not even able to hear our own voices, let alone God's voice? These are my questions this year...for my life and for yours. Are we awake and alive in our hearts? Or are we asleep and slowly dying? What will it take for us to say YES and stop saying NO?
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