Two Practices for Nurturing Creativity

Creativity: How do we nurture it? How do we foster it? How do we pursue it, and if our creativity has run dry, how do we recover it? These were the questions I explored while on sabbatical. Now that I’m back, there are two practices that I have continued that have been oh so helpful.

The starting point is simple. As Christians we are made in the image of the Creator God, and as we pursue a life with him, his presence at work in us leads us into creative pursuits in every aspect of life. Creativity is for artists, and it’s also for entrepreneurs. I am a musician, and I am also a creative problem solver. The following have been a help to me, and they just may be a help to you. Incidentally, they both come from Julia Cameron’s work on creative rehabilitation in The Artist’s Way.

1. Morning Pages: The Pen-tastic Morning Ritual

Picture this: You’re in your PJs, hair standing on end in most directions, clutching a coffee cup the size of a small planet. It’s the ungodly hour of dawn, and you’re sitting at the kitchen table, scribbling away like a mad scientist. You’re not writing the next great novel; you’re venting, ranting and musing in your trusty journal. This, friend, is the magic of Morning Pages.

Julia Cameron encourages us to start our day by scribbling down three pages of whatever is buzzing in our brains. It’s like cleaning out the cobwebs of your mind, making room for fresh ideas. It’s meant to be a free-flowing stream of consciousness.

What I found to be surprising (though on reflection it was no surprise), is that this ritual of Morning Pages has become an incredible prayer practice where I am regularly offering all that I am thinking about and feeling to the Lord in prayer through my pen.

2. The Artist Date: Playing With an Idea

I was skeptical of this one as I didn’t like how the words “artist date” sounded. This practice is much more than it sounds. It’s all about choosing an intentional hour a week where you try something new in an attempt to see if it may be an outlet of creative inspiration.

For example, being married to someone who teaches introductory watercolor classes, I asked Rachel to teach me how to paint. I’ve often admired painters and how they capture life on canvas but had never thought about trying it myself. So, having used the term “play with an idea” so often in conversation, I decided to play with the idea of painting quite literally. For an hour or so as my brush moved, I realized that what was going on in my heart was linked to what I was doing with my hands.

You see, previously I would have said I’m terrible at art and there is no point in trying. But the Morning Pages practice had somehow powered down my inner critical voice so that I was free to try something new. Was the art I was making stellar? No. But the work the Lord was doing in my heart as I painted was priceless. I realized that as I moved watercolor paint across the canvas, I was becoming at peace with myself.

Peace isn’t just an end to hostility but so much more. It is the full healing presence of God in a situation that reconciles opposing forces. As I paint, God goes to work in my heart. As I create an hour a week, the presence of God, in a mysterious creative way, mends my heart.

Through the use of these practices, I have come to realize that the Lord has planted desires in our hearts so that as we pursue them, we might encounter Jesus by his Spirit in those very same pursuits. I am by no means an authority on the subject of creativity. As a novice, however, being led by the Lord who created the Heavens and the Earth, I am learning how to be led by him in a new way so that as I behold Jesus I may become more like him.