The Siren Song of Ease & Efficiency

A life of creative ease and efficiency! It sounds so appealing…except that’s not how God designed the process to work. 

God-given creativity doesn’t rely on past formulas or man-made rules. 

Yet there’s something in us that wants guaranteed results. Preferably with a shortcut or well-paved road to achieve success even faster. Ease and efficiency become the siren song of our desired success.

When we give into formula, we try to tame the wildness of the creative process. What was once undiscovered country becomes a paved, predictable route. Risk is replaced with rules and repetition. When that happens, the artist goes on auto-pilot. Passion gives way to predictability. And the heart grows numb. The result is predictable sameness.

Instead, God invites us to take a less-traveled path. One that requires us to trade what’s been overdone for what’s never been done. Along the way, we trade the allure of ease for the experience of creating with God. We turn from the distraction of momentary trends and efficiency of A.I. answers to explore what God is provoking in our art. Ease and efficiency, it turns out, were never the point.

This is a journey of pursuing what we love with God without any upfront guarantees other than his steadfast presence. It is where true creativity begins.

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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