Glitch in the Garden
-An exclusive excerpt from Allen’s new book-
The Creator created everything—including reality and creativity. Then he created us, infused us with his creativity, and invited us to create with him. I know. That’s hard to say—much less fathom. But here’s the point.
We were created to create with the Creator—but rarely do. So what went wrong? To put it bluntly, we left the Creator. The created tried to become the Creator.
You might be thinking, Wait, I never left God. But “we”—meaning all of humanity—did. The original glitch happened in Eden, when Adam and Eve decided to create a different future for themselves. Rather than be with God, they tried to be gods. Instead, they unleashed de-creation on creation itself.
Creation is still groaning under this weight: For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (Romans 8:22 NLT)
Adam and Eve abandoned the Creator and chose the Tree of Knowledge over the Tree of Life. They got knowledge—and lost life. After the Fall, they still believed in God. They just didn’t know how to live with him. They went from sons and daughters to orphans.
Many of us still live like orphans regardless of whether we’re introverted or extroverted, proactive or reactive. The isolation from God is an internal posture of the heart.
God gave us himself. He also gave us our creativity. We gave ourselves the Creativity Glitch. It began in the garden when Adam and Eve chose to untether from the Creator. This is the origin point of the Creativity Glitch.
I’m not diminishing knowledge. It’s good to know things. But knowledge and experience are radically different. John Eldredge says, “You teach what you know, but you reproduce who you are.” One way we reproduce who we are is through our creativity. And it always reveals who we are more than just what we know. Our goal isn’t to constantly know more. It is to become more.
If that wasn’t bad enough, there is also a thief determined to sabotage our effort to reclaim what we lost in Eden. To steal, kill, and destroy our creativity.
(From The Creativity Glitch: How to Stop Being Stuck, Find Your Groove, & Create with God. Copyright © 2026 Allen Arnold.)
This reading was crafted to encourage your pursuit of story and creativity with God. Your donation makes this crowd-funded initiative possible. You can support it via PAYPAL (or by check to Allen Arnold at PO Box 62841, Colorado Springs, CO 80962).
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