Obedient Creativity?

Last night I was at a home group of my friends, Andrew and Belinda Perriman where we wrestled with the idea of new creation. What does that mean in the context of the Bible and in life today. Andrew conncected us to the echoing language of creation’s blessings and mandates thoughout Genesis. It seems that God himself has challenged mankind to be blessed, care for the earth, multiply and spread out. In the story of Genesis we see how man failed at this miserably, each time tripping over the need to make a name for itself and defying the blessings of God and in effect inviting the destruction of creations beauty and ongoing process. Each time God would start over and reitterate that promise to mankind through, Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham and though the foresight of Isiah who proclaimed Emmanuel’s coming. The new testement is also rich with the metaphoric language of creation calling us a “new creation” and foretelling of God’s city coming to reside on earth. It was a facinating concept and I am sure that I do it little justice here.

But it got me thinking. What if creatvity is the outcome of obedience? What if being made in His image is mostly reflected in our ability to trust in where He leads us and in that leading it frees us to be creative. Stagnation and hording are the enemies of creativity, because they contain what has already been. Innovation is the outcome of excellence in the basics. You become a virtuoso through hours of practice, most of which is rudementary and basic. As you hone your skills with scales and rhythms, you can take risks that produce something other and beautiful, but only after you have mastered the primary notes. Could there be a lesson in this we could learn about how we lead lives of spirituality individually and corporately. Could this more importantly outflow to rest of the world and stir something innovative, other and valuable?

What if everything boils down to this tenuous relationship between obedience and the divine other being birth in creativity? It might have us hold loosely to that which is now, and eagerly anticipate what is does not yet exsist all based upon how I live in obedience now. Then the past is nothing more than what we can learn from to move forward and not an anchor to hold us back or disqualify, because there is the cahnce for renewal, rebirth, and regeneration that comes forth within the divine spark of creativity.

So I have to ask the question, What if creativity was the ultimate outcome of obedience?