From a place of pain to...something else

I bought a few cd's from a 2007 arts conference at Willowcreek when Jennifer and I went to Chicago. One of the speakers talked to artists about how easily they are wounded by the world, and how they often create from these wounds, from their brokenness. I know this. I first began writing poetry as an adult when I dropped out of graduate school, and I was angry and hurt and confused, and therefore a poet.

The speaker said that we have to move beyond our pain in order to continue being creative. The lead singer of Relient K once wrote a song about this (Devastation and Reform), and talked about how it's like he has to get hurt or do something stupid and let God help him, and then he can write a song. It's not the healthiest cycle. Coming honestly across pain happens to us all, and it's great to turn that into something creative, but we also must be able to create from a place of praise and power, a place where we are walking with God in a blameless life. Otherwise, there's too much value in sin. God created us to be creators, in His image. His original plan doesn't even have sin in it, so there must be another way for this to work.

I think this principle of finding a place of operation apart from our sin applies to more than just how creative people work. Our whole relationship with God certainly includes a lot of messing up and Him rescuing us, but does it also end there? He is a faithful help in time of trouble, but He is also powerful and beautiful and worth knowing in other ways than just the neighborhood police officer.