Reclaim Your Creative Inheritance
Abiding Movements: Introduction
Born as a Creative
Dying as a Consumer
You were born to create.
To contribute to the Story of society.
You were made to shape culture.
To bring your ideas, concepts, and creations into the light of the world.
But you were told another story.
Someone taught you that a creative/abundant life was not in the cards for you.
Somewhere along the way you believed that you weren’t going to make the cut.
That your voice was hollow and your vision was weak.
You were born to create,
but you settled for a life of consumption instead.
Why do we look to Instagram as a source of inspiration?
Why do we ask ChatGPT to write our first drafts?
Why do we measure our creative confidence against our subscriber count?
We were made in the Image of Our Creator God and told to live creative lives, but we sold our birthright and spent our inheritance on a lie instead.
A lie that tells us our core purpose is to take, not to make.
We lost our creative nature when we cut ourselves off from the Source of Creation.
Discovering how to abide in our Creator is the key to unlock our creative inheritance.
After pursuing this practice for a large portion of my life, I believe the art of living in God’s Presence can be summed up into 3 Abiding Movements.
3 motions of the soul that keep us calmly settled in the Reality of GOD and awaken our creative nature within.
3 postures of the heart that enable us to live inspired, generative, and abundant lives.
Although the Abiding Movements often flow in and out of each other, it is helpful to look at them in a specific order to get our bearings.
I. Awareness
You Create What You See
The first movement towards an abiding life is awareness.
Almost every Christian mystic across the ages agrees that the doorway to a deeper level of being is to change your way of seeing.
Not your physical eyes, but the eyes of your heart.
The art of awareness is an awakening of our spiritual senses to the GOD WHO IS HERE and NOW.
In The Bible, this is the meaning behind the Name Emmanuel: GOD WITH US.
Awareness is the opening of our spiritual perception to The Great Emmanuel.
As we grow in our awareness of GOD, our perception of space starts to change too.
We begin to view the world as a beautiful and enchanted place that is rich with GOD’s Presence.
Awareness teaches us that GOD is waiting to be found in the water we swim in, the air we breathe, and the earth we walk upon.
“In Him we live and move and have our being” -Acts 17:28
It took me years to truly appreciate this link, but the creativity that flows out of us is directly tied to that which flows into us—through the doorway of awareness.
The idea of having “good taste” is all about focusing one’s awareness.
As a Musician: You know what a good song is because you’ve heard good music.
As a Writer: You know what good writing is because you’ve read good books.
As a Chef: You know what a good dish is because you’ve tasted good food.
As a Christian: You know what the Good Life is because you know it’s Maker.
When we focus our awareness on abiding in The God of Creation, we tap into a fountain of inspiration that runs much deeper than market trends…
Our creative output truly becomes original instead of reductive, because it brings expression to realities that no eye has seen nor ear ever heard.
The consumer mind trusts what it can see that has worked in the past.
The creative mind trusts what it cannot see, but which it knows nonetheless.
As our awareness blooms, finding more and more of GOD’s Presence in all of Creation, we also begin to wake up to the fact that GOD really likes us too.
Awareness reveals the existence of GOD in everything, but it also exposes us to the nature of GOD as One which is overflowing with loving desire for us.
This discovery propels us into the second Abiding Movement and a deeper connection with our own creative soul.
II. Affection
You Create What You Love
Affection is the ground where lovers meet and intimacy is shared.
A place where the desire of The Lover melts together with the desire of the beloved.
As we open up to the galaxy of GOD’s infinite Affection towards us, our passions begin to revolve around this New and Greater Center of Gravity.
It is at this point that our desire to experience total Union with GOD becomes central in our lives—above every other goal or pursuit.
The soul which desires Union above all else, no longer looks to any person, status, or achievement to define its worth—it has rediscovered its origin and final resting place in Divine Affection—created and destined as the beloved of GOD.
The Abiding Movement of Affection produces a cascade of positive benefits in the creative soul.
With the fundamental need for loving connection satisfied, the soul no longer looks elsewhere for its ultimate fulfillment.
In practice, this means that your creative work can now exist on its own two feet, detached from the heartstrings of your central identity.
Your creative work can simply be what you do, no longer defining who you are.
Creativity can now flow out of Affection, instead of constantly pursuing of it.
Whereas before you sought to receive affection for things you made, now you make things out of the affection you have already received.
Your creative work becomes generative instead of consumptive.
Made to bless and not to take.
III. Abandonment
You Create What You Sacrifice
With our Awareness of GOD illuminated in Creation and our Affection for GOD inflamed by His Love, we come to find that there is still one dimension within ourselves where we haven’t experienced His Presence yet.
It is at this point that we are reaching the deepest threshold in the abiding life.
A final Abiding Movement in our soul.
The Cross of Abandonment.
It is one thing to see someone (Awareness), and another thing to love someone (Affection), but the ultimate act of abiding is to die for them (Abandonment).
This is what The Cross of Christ reveals:
God is completely Aware of us.
God is overflowing with Affection for us.
And that God is totally Abandoned towards us.
The Cross then becomes the ultimate expression of all 3 Abiding Movements in a singular moment.
It sings the eternal words:
GOD IS THE ONE WHO SEES YOU
GOD IS THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU
GOD HAS BECOME FULLY OPEN TO YOU
As we approach this ultimate center in our soul, wanting more than anything to abide in Union with God, we realize that the only way to have it fully is to let go of ourselves completely.
“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will find it.” -Jesus in Matthew 16:25
This act of abandoning ourselves into The Hands of GOD explodes out into our lives leading to deeper levels of affection, deeper levels of awareness, and returns again to deepen our level of abandonment.
All of life becomes one continuous dance of abiding movement.
Expanding and Deepening our experience of God’s Presence.
Now here is the amazing connection between the Abiding Life and the Creative Life.
What are creatives constantly looking for?
Inspiration: it is found through practicing the art of Awareness.
Authenticity: it is found at the heart of our Affection.
Freedom: it is found at The Cross of Abandonment
There is much more to say on each of the Abiding Movements and how they affect our creative callings, so let’s take them one at a time in the next few articles going forward.
For now, it is enough to ask ourselves on this week leading into Easter Sunday:
Have I seen The One Who Has Seen me?
Have I fallen in love with The One Who Loves me?
Have I opened myself to The One Who was Opened on The Cross for me?
abide
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This is so beautiful and eloquently written. I love how you’ve captured the ebb and flow of abiding in Jesus, how one movement moves into the next and flows into the creative life. There’s still so much in this post I need to sit with and ponder. Look forward to hearing more of your thoughts on these concepts!
Praying all abiders have a joyful and happy Easter! Jesus is Alive!🙏🕊🙌