Making Room For Creativity-Part 4

If you are just tuning in here, we are wrapping up a series of posts on creativity and the importance of creating space in your busy life for those juices to flow. To catch up with where we are, you can click here, here, and here.

Now that you have taken control of your schedule and trimmed away the excess that was crowding your time, what is next? I'm glad you asked. Now you can allow yourself the luxury of moving about in the new "space" you have created in your days and weeks. Obviously you cannot "schedule" creative flow or determine when an inspiration will come, but it is very important to allow regular times of uncluttered freedom to explore the creative recesses of your heart. As a writer, I cannot just wait for a moment of "creative inspiration" to hit me. I have set aside regular times to just write regardless of how I feel. And it has been through this routine of being faithful to exercise my gift that I have found the sweetest inspirations. The regularity of it has proven to be a catalyst for creativity. Then, when an idea for a writing piece hits me at an inopportune moment, it is second nature to just grab that notebook I have with me at all times, and jot down my ideas and thoughts so that I can revisit this place when I have another pocket of time.

I do not have a long list of creative gifts, but many people do, so how does that highly gifted person choose where to devote this time? The answer can be found within your own heart. Where does your heart pause when it wanders through your field of deep desires? What things do you find your thoughts fixating on in moments of unrestricted mental wandering? Erwin McManus says that "When you are passionate about God, you can trust your passions." Don't be afraid to follow your heart. Because He fashioned it, what is in there is often where He wants you to invest your time and energies. In following your passions you may find that God will open doors of opportunity that you never believed possible.

I have a friend, Clay Miller, who is very gifted in video production and God recently opened a door for him to do it full time. Clay made room for that creative gift in his life and then God made a way for him to make it a career. How great to do what you love and get paid for it!

The most important thing is to make room in your life and then don't look back! Do not give guilt an audience in your life. When God is ordering your steps, you can give yourself to creativity with complete abandon and you can know that, in your most creative moments, you are reflecting the very image of the Creator God! Now don't just talk about it, be about it!