Reimagining Your Creative Life: A Five-Day YouVersion Plan by Sho BarakaÀpẹrẹ

The Belief That Changes Everything

After God made the cosmos, what he said about humanity is one of the most profound statements possible about our identity: “Let us make humankind in our image” (Genesis 1:26).

From the beginning, God saw us to be evidence of his existence. Then God blessed that image by stating that we are “very good.” In that simple statement, we can find our beginning and our purpose. Our heads are up, our eyes are focused, and our hearts are filled with confidence. We have been given a gift that is priceless and a world in which to use it for God’s glory for all eternity.

If only it were that easy.

Of course, it isn’t. Because of sin, the creative impulse can be cloaked in shadow. We each belong to a tribe in some capacity and from that tribe comes our story—our gold and shadow, our centering, and our creative life. Our tribal associations span the spectrum from nations to families. One of the most important questions you can ask is, What is the story of my tribe? The answer has likely defined you long before you were aware of it.

As part of our growth, we have to compare what we’ve inherited from our tribes with the stories Jesus told about humanity being redeemed. Whether you come from a conservative village or a progressive metropolis, odds are that you have assumptions about your narrative. How might those assumptions be shaping your creative life right now? How might they be imprisoning you? And most important—how do they compare with God’s image in you?

In our search for honesty, it’s possible to cultivate pessimism or even self-contempt, if we don’t go back to the true beginning of our narrative—made in the image of God. Made to help create the world. Able to be liberated and to help Jesus liberate others from the stories that confine and oppress.

The question we must ask ourselves is, How do my life and work paint what I believe about God? If we passively float through life, reacting only to the actions of others, our story is likely to be far from its full potential. But if we believe what God said about us, how we were made in the image of the Creator himself—well, wouldn’t that change everything? Wouldn’t that set us free to live our true story, our true creative life?

How do your beliefs about God and who God says you are influence your creative life?