Humility’s Cry

Very simply put, the highest call of God upon His image bearers is to co-create kingdom artifacts that demonstrate the fulfillment of the Lord’s prayer, “Thy kingdom come and Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” God created humankind and put us in a garden, but we read in Revelation that the destination we are sojourning towards is a city, the Heavenly Jerusalem. This is amazing because a city is a hub of human culture! Ken Myers defines culture as “what human beings make of the world - in both senses.” In other words, it is the physical creations we “make” and how we “make sense” of what they mean. An example of this would be a business. This is a physical creation that most often consists of an office, a product, a staff and a business plan. A business has many physical, material dimensions to it, but it also has deep meaning woven into as well. Perhaps the owner has a passion for the poor and so seeks to employ many underprivileged people into the organization. Perhaps then a culture is being created where the rich and the poor exist in the same workplace learning from and working alongside one another. This is highly valuable but very difficult to quantify or calculate. This is a microcosm of culture. It is both the material creations we produce as well as the immaterial, and sometimes intangible meanings that are attached to the creations.

God began the creation process when He spoke “Let there be light” but He did not complete it. He placed us in a garden and then gave us authority to co-create our world hand in hand with Him. He is a Father who delights in empowering His children to do great things. He has plans and dreams for our lives. He wants us to build on top of the foundation He has laid. He has purpose assigned to our lives and it is fulfilled in the mandate to create! We have been given the creative faculty of the imagination in order to create artifacts that literally change the world. However, our highest call is not fulfilled in simply creating good things- good things can be created by anyone- we are made to create “God things”. These are Divine-human creations birthed from communion with God Himself.

This word, communion, is defined as the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings. God jealousy desires this type of intimate connection with each one of us (James 5:4). In the mystery of communion with God something happens within a man or woman that unlocks supernatural power. Creature and Creator become united in a bond that results in a creative explosion of Kingdom fruitfulness (John 15). “God things” are created that begin to transform the world. We begin living in such a way that people observe us and are left saying, “Only God! Only God could do that, or create that, or know that!” There is literally no end to what this can look like! The world is desperately in need of families, books, media, businesses, governmental strategies, educational models, and churches that leave people exclaiming “Only God!” God is the creative genius of the ages and He has uniquely designed you in such a way that the partnership of your life with His will result in the most incredible, kingdom artifacts the world could imagine.

The truth is that we were born to create these artifacts out of the place of intimate communion with Jesus. When we do this, we are bringing His world into ours. God has a way of doing business, a way of governing, a way of parenting, a way of teaching, a way of doing everything- and the world is longing to see what that is! God is a genius, and so everything He does works really, really well! He is the answer to every problem known to man, and we have access to these answers only in the place of communion.

The big hiccup in all of this is sin. The fall of humankind corrupted this design and alienated humanity from God. We rebelled and chose this. In the vacuum that resulted the mandate to create the kingdom of God on earth was forfeited and our original design forgotten. In His great love, God sent Jesus to purchase the redemption of humanity in His blood. This redemption is comprehensive. Jesus did not just come to save us from sin, He came to reinstate the kingdom mandate and make a way for humankind to once again fulfill our destiny on earth. The cross is central to all of this. That is why a book on creativity must be linked to humility. The greatest act of humility ever demonstrated was the surrender of Jesus Christ to the cross of Calvary. His death is what opened the door for humanity to enter back into communion with the Father and receive hope once again of fulfilling our creative purpose on Earth.

This is the mandate and destiny of every human being. This is not a theory to me but something that’s becoming my reality. What is to follow is not a “how-to” on doing amazing things with God but a depiction of painful, costly lessons that prepared the way for God to bear profound fruit through my life. I pray to God that this creation you have in your hands will awaken things dormant within you and be an instrument through which His creative force flows mightily. The world is waiting for what you have to give.