We love it when things progress without a hitch. Or a glitch. We love smooth sailing in calm water with the wind at our back.

One of my dad’s go-to expressions when facing what he sensed was inevitable was “It is what it is.” I love my dad...and I hate that phrase. The words convey a sense of insurmountable inevitability.

Humans complicate things. God simplifies.

At this point, you might feel the pull to just stick with the way things are. If you do, you’ll stay stuck. So please resist that urge and remain on this journey.

Your current system for how you create has proven itself over time. It is perfectly designed to produce the results you are experiencing.

There’s an old saying that what we feed grows. And we’ve been feeding our stuck places for too long by inadvertently nurturing our glitches.

The best way to identify your stuck places is to consider what seems insurmountable. Not for someone else, but for you. If we keep the concept of the Creativity Glitch at arm’s length, we will limit our understanding to what’s going on in the world around us or in others—but not in us.

One of the first keys to getting unstuck is believing what’s been lost can be found again. This is one of the main things Jesus is passionate about.

Even when we feel stuck creatively, God continues to create within us.

Most of my internship with Quaker Oats didn’t involve the Cap’n Crunch costume but making sales calls at grocery stores in towns and cities across Texas. It’s in that environment that I learned a second lesson on how to get unstuck.

During my college years, I was in a program that required me to secure an internship that aligned with my marketing major. It came down to two choices: Walt Disney or Quaker Oats Company.

When something goes wrong, we expect the fix will be minimal at best.

If a relationship breaks, each party wants the other to reach out or change.

There’s not just one way to be stuck in our creative pursuits.

It can be everything from experiencing no forward momentum to feeling like there are no options to—in rare cases—being totally shut down. To begin this section, take a moment to answer the following questions:

I’m always surprised when my plans don’t go as planned.

It’s on the verge of working out...but then life happens.

The first part of our journey has set the stage for what’s to come.

We’ve looked at what is compromising our creativity and identified the problem. The term Creativity Glitch will prove immensely helpful because it focuses our attention on the real issue. We haven’t lost our creativity. We don’t lack creativity. We have a glitch that is coming against our creativity.

How has our creativity gotten off track without us realizing it? If things are glitching, wouldn’t it be more obvious to notice the cues and clues?

Perhaps another analogy will be helpful. Don’t worry. There’s no doctor in this one.

Imagine your creativity as a high-speed train.

When you think of Jesus, what’s the first image that comes to mind? 

Do you see a babe in a manger, a thirty-year-old man in a robe and sandals, or the eternal Creator of everything? It’s fine to see all three, but we often miss how Christ doesn’t just care about our creativity, but is supreme over all creation.

What would you say the first glitch was after God created Eden?

Many believe it was when Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree. But it happened before that disastrous external action.

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.

The Creator’s Handbook. If I told you this ancient text from the Maker of Oceans and Stars existed, you’d likely want a copy. I would. Yet we can miss that this resource already exists. The Bible is the best resource on creativity. God is the original Creator.