Self-Help Isn’t Helpful
-An exclusive excerpt from Allen’s new book-
A North Star orients us as to where we are—so we can stay on track for where we’re headed. As we explore what it means to experience our creativity as it was intended, God is our North Star. He not only made the stars, but he made us creative. It is his design that we are after.
What won’t prove helpful is more self-help. Human advice, minus God, tends to fill our ego and starve our soul. Yet there’s something in our nature that wants to help and heal ourselves. I grew up believing God was my rescue plan when all else failed. It sounded noble but resulted in me trying to do things without God first—only to seek his rescue when things fell apart.
Self-effort is what originally got us into this quandary in Eden. God created us to create with him, but we’ve all gone our own way. Like free agents, we tap into practically any other source besides God. Best-selling authors on creativity embrace everything from an impersonal force to a mystical fairy-like muse but find it trite to believe the God of Genesis could be personally involved in our creativity. No, they draw the line at that. Unfortunately, so do many Christians.
The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land…makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race…with plenty of time and space…so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near. We live and move in him…One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created.’ Well, if we are the God-created, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it? (Acts 17:24-29 MSG)
We long for our self-made ways—which are really self-made gods. Alas, there is no muse, force, technology, or algorithm to save us. We can’t even rely on luck—because God didn’t create the universe to run on chance. God is not a force. He’s our Father. God is not a muse. He’s the Creator of everything. He doesn’t rely on luck. He is a God of intention, not coincidence. God isn’t generic. He is specific. And he created you to co-create with him. Without God, there is just self, formula, and striving.
What if creating with God became our first option? This one decision helps us break the illusion of self-help with an ever-present North Star—our Creator and Father.
(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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