We can know a lot about God and never actually know We can know a lot about God and never actually know him.

There can be a real tension between knowing your talent and finding a way to make a living from it. 

Does your art feel under attack? If that seems over the top, I’ll rephrase the question. Has your current project taken you longer and cost you more than you anticipated?

When you first discovered what you love doing, it was from a place of deep joy. There was no striving, no fear, and no need for outside validation.

There's nothing inherently good or magical about a book or a canvas or a song. Each is an empty vessel waiting to be filled.

If God stirs a desire in you to pursue something together with him, he will see it through and you will step into that destiny...as long as you relinquish all control over how long it takes, what it looks like, who gets the credit, and what it will cost.

Before you create, be curious. 
Before doing the work, spend time being in wonder.

At times we all get stuck. Which is a real problem for creatives. Because our art can’t take others somewhere new as long as we’re stuck in the status quo.

I asked God to give me a word for this summer. He did. It was SLOWER. This wouldn’t have been the word I chose for myself. But it’s exactly what I needed.

When we feel behind in life, it's usually because we’re measuring time on our clock rather than God's timetable. There is never an expiration date on the promises and dreams God gives us.

Dictators are never creative. They fear any kind of freedom because it could lessen their power. Instead, they prefer the dull weapons of control and chaos over beauty, life, and order. 

As we’ve seen in the last two readings, it’s important to ask active questions and to practice calm tenacity. But neither compares to what you can learn by being Cap’n Crunch. I speak from experience and have the photo to prove it!

As I mentioned in the previous reading, half of our class grade involved learning the art of asking active questions. The other half of our grade was based on spending a summer with a company tied to your major.  That’s how I ended up working for Quaker Oats…

During my college years, I learned far more by being part of an extra-curricular program than I did from every mandatory class combined.

When you create, you willingly pour yourself out in sacrificial ways. That’s beautiful. But you don’t want to stay empty.

“Impossible” is a word we use when our view of a problem becomes more real than our view of God.

Who or what do you turn to for validation in your creativity? Is it tied to industry approval, sales numbers, profitability, reviews, or perhaps something else?

Are you an artist when you pick up a brush and start painting, sell your first work, or once your art's in a gallery? Is a writer an author only when their book is published?

When we try to force our creativity into a predictable routine, the result is predictable creativity.

God rarely invites us into what we can do in our own strength.