Being a Co-Author

Do you ever feel like that? That you’re just being a co-author? When you’re in the flow, when you become unconscious of time and fully absorbed in the task, when it seems easy and natural to create. The ideas or words or music or images just come. Inspired. Easy. Does it feel like it’s more than yourself, that it’s really something or someone greater doing the work?

I think it’s those times that most of us long for and strive for. But they seems so difficult to reach, so rare to come. Staring at an empty page, or being more absorbed in distractions seems a far more common experience.

If we believe in God, it’s easy to assume that he just wants us to do stuff for Him. That he lays down the rules for us to obey. As if he wants servants who just do whatever he commands, and that the Bible is the rule book to be followed.

Which makes no sense to me. If the Bible is a rule book then it’s the most bizarre rule book ever written. It’s an epic, of love and hate. It’s violent and confusing and frustrating and inspiring. It’s stories, it’s joy and pain and car chases (ok, chariots).

I don’t think God wants us to do stuff for Him. He wants us to learn and grow. A speaker recently used the analogy of changing the brakes on his car with his young kids. He doesn’t actually need his kids to help. They won’t make the process any quicker or better. He definitely doesn’t want them to do the job for him. He wants them to learn a little, and have a shared experience together.

God wants us be get involved in what He’s doing, but not because he somehow needs our help.

Not that belief in God in necessary for inspiration or creative flow of course. But if you do believe that he’s around and interested, seeing if he wants to make something with you is probably a good place to start.