I was asked that question last week for the second time in my life. The first time was last year, when I wrote some more verses to a song that others had been stuck on for ages. The words felt like they spilt out of my head while I drove to Oporto for a chicken wrap (!)
This time I wrote a page describing the heart of our future creative arts team. Once again, it spilt out of my heart and into my laptop.
I couldn’t answer how it happened. It just… did.
But I’ve asked that question of others before and the answer of, I just do, it just happened is SO frustrating! Just tell me your ways!! 🙂 So I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and here’s how things ‘just happen’ for me…
It happens rarely, but I think there are two conditions that have to be right to produce those moments where everything comes together and the magic happens..
The first is using a structure as a home base
Simply, this allows me to focus on the content, not how to put it together. It’s a foundation, it can always be tweaked or I could disregard the structure once I’ve got what I need. But it helps me get started. It feels like I’m colouring in, the structure gives me the lines, I bring the rest of what goes on the page.
With the song, the 4 lines people had been trying to develop had been treated like a chorus. They were trying to write verses in a traditional pop format. I looked at the song and saw the first stanza of a hymn. It’s all about perspective!
What’s a traditional structure of a hymn? Well, the first and last line are often very similar (if not the same) and the stanzas move through the story of the Christian experience:
- I was lost, God saved me
- God is in control, no matter what
- I struggle sometimes, but God sanctifies me
- When I lose hope, I remember I have eternal hope
With the vision statement, a session at Arrow Leadership taught me that true Christian vision is discerned from God, not created out of nothing. So an understanding of God is crucial and your basis point. From there, it grows…
- A vision of God (who is He?)
- A vision of Self (who am I?)
- A vision of the world (what was, what is, what is to come?)
- A vision of Kingdom (what is God doing?)
I had so much rumbling in my heart about creative arts. My thoughts were scattered, wild, illogical, untamed and ultimately, not useful… confusing. This structure allows me to pull things out of the fog in my heart and create something I could share with others. So powerful.
So look for structures that serve you and your purpose!
The second this is that everything in you can be drawn upon
How did you write Oh eternal saving grace, wrapped in sin, now your embrace? Free forever, free in Jesus?
Where did this line come from? And though there is nothing we do to deserve it, He rescues us from every hell we could throw ourselves into.
Where did this image come from? We are a (sometimes wild, but always beautiful) kaleidescope, moved by His Spirit, allowing His light to shine through us.
The truth is, I see myself as an integrated person. Every experience, every lesson learned, every moment is something I try to hold and remember. I keep the eyes of my heart open at all times, drawing in inspiration, letting it sit and grow in my heart and when it’s finally time, allowing it to come out and help me write things like this.
So the line about being wrapped in sin, now your embrace? A personal vision from God when I was 16. Where I stood in the foyer of the throne room of heaven, feeling so dirty and unworthy. Jesus walked off the throne, he unwrapped the blackness of sin from me, and wrapped his arms around me.
The one about rescuing us? My understanding of hell, from a systematic theology class in 2006, as being a place totally devoid of God. The darkest of places. Hell isn’t just a firey place, it’s somewhere devoid of beauty, rightness etc etc. A place where where we become our own god and lose all that He is.
The image of the kaleidescope came just before writing the creative arts vision. I was watching the wind whip up the surface of a lake I was watching, every little wave kicked up and the sun shone through them, creating a thousand points of light. Beautiful. I felt God show me that even you can’t see the Spirit moving, you can see the light it brings the world when people rise to meet God, commit to letting him shine in and through them. A call for our team. The kaleidescope is something I’ve always loved from a visual perspective, and is easier to say quickly than that moment by the lake.
Clare Gageler 