When Less Is More

By Paul Roberts

“We have become aware that there are two forms of consciousness: one that says be yourself so you can be creative, and the other that says lose yourself so God can be creative in you.” (Henri Nouwen, Creative Ministry) 

Consider my blog post today a teaser for our podcasts for the month of February. Last year our pattern for the pods was to interview one person for an hour, each one with the same set of questions, and then break that interview down into 4 or 5 episodes.

Our plan for 2023 is to have four people interviewed in one month, all with the same theme but not necessarily the same questions. The theme this month is, more or less, a tool from our creativity toolkit that we call the Creator Connection. It is a concept I love to talk about, but also a concept in which I hesitate to be too certain or sure of myself. That’s one of the reasons why we’ll be spending time with various pastors and worship leaders, putting their thoughts under the spotlight and not my own.

This Friday you will hear from our pastor at Mountain View Congregational Church, Pastor Dave Langer. Dave gave another one of those sermons this last Sunday that made me wonder where he left the hidden camera at my house, or if he’s been sneaking in late at night and reading what I’ve written in my journal. Or maybe we have both been listening to the same Creator. His topic was the concept of self-denial in scripture.

Having finished off the book How the Bible Actually Works last week (author Peter Enns resonates with me because he’s pretty sure he’s correct, but nowhere near certainty), I started in on Nouwen’s brief work that I quoted above, only to discover that the 123 pages were going to ring even louder in my mind than Enns book did. Henri Nouwen kept filling up my theological well last week (“...self affirmation and self-emptying are not opposites because no man can give away what he does not have…”) challenging me to understand more about creativity, self-denial, and me, and then Pastor Dave made me drink some more on Sunday morning.

Then, to top it all off, Julia Cameron started in on me too. Take a gander at this excerpt from her book The Right to Write:

“I begin to worry that “I” might not be able to pull it off. In other words, my ego wakes up…No longer writing for the sake of writing, no longer happy just to splash in the pool, suddenly we think about those other people in the pool with us, whether they are faster, better, stronger, showier. In short, we begin to compete, not just create…When we insist on being great the Wall stops us. When we are willing to be humble, we wriggle our way…back to the glee of writing freely…”

Does the Creator want us to create?

Does focusing on my own creativity, my own goals, make me selfish?

How do I keep my own life healthy while pouring into the lives of others? Does creativity help me do that?

I’m pretty sure I will not have complete answers for any of those questions by the end of February. But I’m going to enjoy the labyrinthian journey along the way. Join us each Friday for another Dreams and Bones podcast!

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How is your balance of caring for yourself and serving others? Mine is always in flux. Let us know how you are doing.

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