Rediscover the Creator in YouSample

Reflection:

As we continue walking with Jesus, the internal shifts we experience cannot help but translate into external expression and opportunities to bring tangible, practical, beautiful expressions of the Kingdom of God into the world. This verse has Biblical parallels in the story of Nehemiah and the people of Judah, whose creative rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem clearly required the leading and work of the Lord. Similarly, the work of the Gospel in our lives brings an invitation for us to rebuild the real and metaphorical gateways, walls, and buildings of the communities in which we find ourselves.

In the world around us, much of what is being created is reflective of the interior lives of those creating. Fear and unprocessed pain inhibits creativity, or poisons its fruit in art, family, business, or other parts of the world with hopelessness, selfishness, despair, or thinly-disguised cynicism and fear. What human beings create externally flows out of what is happening within. This is one reason why there can be such much pain, abnormality, and brokenness depicted by and built into our modern culture.

As we experience the peace, goodness, and healing of Jesus, capacity for creative problem-solving and rebuilding is unlocked. Note the progression in this whole passage: the earlier lines proclaim freedom, comfort, healing. And then those who experience this are those who will rebuild, raise up former devastations, and repair ruins. These are all creative acts! Each of us who are believers in Jesus have experienced freedom and liberty from the sin and separation from God we were born into. Many of us (author included) have experienced freedom from addiction or other challenges, and healing from bitterness, rejection, trauma, and fear, by the work of Jesus and His wonderful Spirit.

From these ever-brightening experiences of liberty, we are invited to create. We are given the opportunity to play a role in rebuilding our families, communities, cities, businesses, while remembering that these tasks are not designed to be a heavy burden, but a light and perfectly-fitted yoke (Matthew 11:30). Imagine schools filled with teachers launching the next generation into their dreams, city and government leaders developing programs to end homelessness and help the lonely find family, Adam was invited to create in the Garden via his role as a steward. When we operate from love and creative hope in any setting, we are in small but profound ways joining with the Body of Christ in a timeless story of creating heaven on earth that is too wonderful and too incredible to fully comprehend. Take heart: because simply saying "yes" to Jesus today positions you to be part of rewriting and recreating the world around you.

Activation:

What problems in your family, your community, or in the world provoke passion or indignation within you? Are there proverbial or practical gates or walls that were broken down in your life, or around you, that the creative grace of God may be positioning you to help restore? What if part of God’s redemptive, creative goodness in your life is positioning you as an agent of change to take on these very challenges, not alone or hamstrung by pain, but as a thriving part of the Body of Christ?

You may not be in a place where that feels possible today. Healing and preparation are vital; you don’t have to rush in or take on the biggest giant at first. David experienced a lot of preparation before he approached Goliath. Instead, take five minutes today and reflect on the areas of your community, culture, or society that God has already led you toward rebuilding and restoring. Or, invite Him to show you in new ways how aspects of your journey might connect to creative opportunities to help with rebuilding. Jot down a vision for what could be possible for God to do, even if it seems unrealistic to a human mind, and what your next small step to get prepared or get involved could be. God’s plans often require more than what we can do on our own.