Be creative (2)
2021-03-05Philippians 2:13 NLT
We’ll only have good ideas if we value ideas. We also need to accept that not all our ideas will be good ones, and not allow ourselves to be discouraged if we come up with a hundred bad ideas before we hit on a good one. When we’re thinking creatively, we need to:
1) Explore every option. Exploring a multitude of possibilities helps to stimulate our imagination, and imagination is vital to creativity. Albert Einstein said, ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.’ That’s because imagination looks for new ways to put our knowledge to work.
2) Welcome ambiguity. Creative people need to get comfortable with uncertainty. They see all kinds of inconsistencies and gaps in life, and they enjoy exploring those gaps or using their imagination to fill them in. When we find an unmet need, we can either decide that nothing can be done about it, or pray and look for a way to meet that need (see Philippians 4:19).
3) Celebrate the offbeat. Creativity explores off the beaten track. To nurture creativity, we must be willing to put up with originality and oddness.
4) Be unafraid of failure. Creativity requires a willingness to be wrong sometimes. It can mean going out on a limb, knowing that limbs often break. The key is to not be afraid to try something new and different – even if it goes wrong, we can learn so much from our mistakes.
Creative people know these things and still keep searching for new ideas. They refuse to let the ideas that don’t work prevent them from coming up with ones that do.