Create!

I remember when I was 6 years old. I went to a babysitter that lived next door to my home. My two best friends went there, as well; Patty and Brenda. Poor Brenda was a year younger than Patty and I so we led her around. We may or may not have been the best leaders. Me being and only child and Patty being the youngest of older brothers we were filled with grand ideas; most of which were tried out on Brenda.

L to R Patti, Brenda and Me (great hair, right?!?!)

We taught her to play poker (with our rules.) We told her stories about all the wonderful joys life would bring to us which she gobbled up like peach cobbler in the Oklahoma Summer. She trusted us. God love her, bless her heart. NOTE: For you non-Southerners, this means she should have NEVER trusted us.

There was one time we convinced her that if she were to take cotton and wet it down with water and put it in her ears the water created a compete sound barrier. We urged her to try it. Having been sent outside to play, we were left with paper towels. So we wet them down, tore off a piece and handed it to her. She placed the wet, dripping pieces of wadded up paper in her ears. When she could still hear, we suggested they may need to be put in a little further. (Please keep in mind we were six years old.) She shoved those little wet pieces in a little further. Then Patty and I began to move our lips without sound to give her the illusion of complete noise reduction. All was fine until science kicked in. When paper dries it hardens in the form and shape it has been pushed into; the shape of her eustachian tube. And.....kind of glues itself in place. It became kind of like a little ear-shaped brick blocking sound. Oops. 

We felt horrible - after - we had to have adult intervention - and the lecture about tricking Brenda in to things that could hurt her - and the subsequent lecture about not sticking things into ears - and the final lecture on using our giant imaginations for good - not evil.

I like to think I still have that giant imagination. I love to think new things. I love to see ideas blossom into life. I have worked hard to turn this creativity toward productive activity and away from harmful activity. And I haven't sent anyone to the hospital with one yet - at least not in the last 40 years or so. I like to think I have started using these creative powers for good - not evil. 

I do have to fight forces of evil though. I have to over come the hurdle of "you can't." I have to blast through the walls of "maybe you shouldn't." I have to rally myself beyond the shouts of "let someone else do it." Brick by brick these words and phrases are stacked around me to slow me down with the intent of stopping me. 

We all have been given sound, creative minds. Our minds are meant to be used. These bricks are stacked around all of us. Do you knock them down or do you allow them to pile higher and make you a cozy little dwelling with no excitement - no life - no creativity? Do you allow people to stick paper in your ears that form into bricks that keep you from hearing all the newness of life that can be? God created us. He is the great creator. God is the author of a creative mind. We are created in His image so we are created to be creative.

Those bricks of doubt and defeat come from fear and and not from God. If we are children of God, listening to God, leaning on the understanding we have been given through Christ, then what create is good and comes in God form.

So here it is!

Listen to God

Create

Tear down walls

Hold on to those bricks to build something new!