How Spiritual Identity Fuels Creativity: Podcast with Michael P. Lovett

Michael P. Lovett invites me onto his podcast to interview me about creativity and my walk with God. Our conversation includes:

• Being an mage-bearer, identity 
• What makes you feel like “I was born to do this?”
• Leaning in to your strengths rather than always focusing on your weaknesses
• What way are you uniquely gifted?
• What way are you a “gardener”?
• Everyone has a unique way they have been designed to build the kingdom

What does the idea of being “image bearers” have to do with creativity? What parallels are there between “gardening” in Eden and being artists in our time? In this podcast interview with Michael P. Lovett, we discuss such questions and how they relate to our spiritual self (particularly as men, but I’d expect women will enjoy our conversation as well). When leaning to use our gifts is part of active worship (Rom 12:1-2), such creativity becomes part of the rule and reign of the ever-expanding Kingdom of God. It’s about Him, it’s for Him.

This allows us to be vulnerable. This allows us to fail. Because it’s not about us, it’s for God’s glory. We can let go. Create, express, build, invent, design, dream. As men in particular, we don’t have to be afraid.

I share in the podcast how this ties in to my walk with God. I briefly pass along a few of the things I gleaned from the book With by Skye Jethani. Unfortunately, we often accept these lesser postures (which the book describes) in our relationship with God because we’re afraid of the world and we want control. (I speak much more about these concepts in these Sunday lessons: “With,” Part 1; “With,” Part 2.) On the podcast, Michael and I end up talking further about suffering: God’s presence within suffering, and dealing with the unanswered questions that happen in hard times.

Bottom line: the more you know God, the more you understand your proper identity. The closer you are to Him, the more this guides and directs your life, and the many roles present in your life (including being a creative person).

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