Creators, what you do matters. And it needs to be experienced by others. Start there. Go back there. Your gifts are not meant to live in isolation. Your gifts are not just for you. Your gifts are for the common good. For us! As you share them, things locked are unlocked and opened.
This is not just self-promotion. This is not simply networking. There is something much deeper going on here. There is an exchange in the depths happening. Your vulnerable expression might just be the key moment for someone, jarring loose those ancient doors. Are you willing?
Your ideas are necessarily connective. That’s their purpose. That’s literally why they exist. They connect you (internally), others to themselves (also internally), and in the same shared experience of taking in your work they connect people relationally (externally).
That is why we call it magic.
Your creations are like a fire. They bring heat. Light. And sometimes they burn down old things to produce renewed soil. And likewise they connect. They lure people together. To sit. Reflect. Wonder. Imagine. And to find themselves positively distracted into a fresh perspective of life.
Not everyone will like your work. Not everyone will get it. Not all will be lured by it. Some will say it is bad. Counterfeit. Too much. Too little. That people don’t like your work does not discredit you. It may be the opposite. Even Jesus had haters. Move on and find your people.
Doing anything public invites critique, especially today. Welcome it. Prepare now to love those who hate your work. Bless those who do nothing but wreak havoc on it. Those who do not understand it will criticize it. And the better your work, the more intensely this will be so.
Expect it. Disarm it. Love wins. And wisdom is vindicated by all her children. Hate only sounds convincing to the hateful. It comes from hurting. So we pray for realization for them. As we delete their comments. Block future ones. Whatever. We move on. We keep moving on.
Don’t get stuck. Harsh critique may sound like your fears. They may say exactly what you’ve said to yourself (“too this…too that…”). That does not make it somehow true. It makes it easy. Obvious. It’s like dismissing cake for being sweet. They missed the mark, not you!
Creators are caught in the crossfire. We create out of an instinctual drive to create. On our own terms. Yet most of what we create is not only for ourselves. We are called to share it. And things get much less simple when we invite others into our own private world.
Our intimate space goes into public space. We are bound to lose quality in the translation. But that is a risk we simply have to take. The odds are against us. The cost is too high. But if our work is truly called by God, it will bless. It will bring value. It will find a home inside others.
A farmer does not sow seed only where he knows it will work. Certainly there is deliberateness, a “science” behind the sowing, but there is always some sense of randomness. Scattering. There is always some genuine risk in planting, not knowing exactly what will come of the seed.
Yet we are called to plant. To sow the seeds of life. To let out the precious things that were brought to us. To shout from the mountain tops things only whispered in our ears. That is the deal. That is what we are called to pursue. That is why we create!
