David Lee Martin

Life happens. Sometimes it happens brutally fast. Others it creeps up on you and you lose sight of the ball. Either way, the reset button needs to be pressed.

Equilibrium in all things comes from centering your efforts on the one thing that matters. That one thing is relationship with Jesus Christ. This is true balance. Extreme devotion to Reality. All else is circumference.

Even creativity. Even your business, your family, your hopes and aspirations. All of it. No goal is great without Jesus at the helm. No victory sweet without His smile.

Jesus is the very meaning of life, because without Him there would be no life. By His words the universe consists. He holds all things together and when we stand before Him to give account for our life all of our boasting will fall to the floor.

No accolades will pass the pearly gates other than those that brought honor to His name. Nothing grand and glorious in the narrow eyes of men will find a plinth in His presence.

Every knee will bow. The great and the lowly, the first and the last. All will be humbled to confess, “I am not God.” Because on that great day only one name will grace the lips of kings, become the praise of paupers, and tame the tongue of the world – the name of Jesus Christ.

How will you fare when your moment arrives?

Will “good and faithful servant” be the words you’re relieved to hear? Or will, “I never knew you” shock you to the core.

No but’s and if’s will work on that day. No “tomorrow I will.” No “Give me one more chance” or “then I will change.”

There’s a time when time stops, and the future, a long eternal future without horizon, begins. Now and forever will be forged in an instant and you’ll stand in the eye of the storm.

When eternity strikes, time becomes meaningless. Where will your boasting be? How will the values that you have lived by stack up? What selfish laudations will you fly?

Be fearful.

You should be.

So should I.

All my pontification and pious declarations will count for zero when I tremble in His holy presence.

When the One I call friend casts His eye, He’ll do so as judge, not my buddy. No longer a religious side-dish added to my overflowing plate. He won’t be an option, or a favourable choice in the polls.

His glory will stretch the full span and nothing else will matter.

His light will bleach the glamor of all that seemed important bare. Nothing else will matter.

Zero, nada, nothing. Only Jesus.

We’ll discover that our tiny minds were incapable of comprehending the terrifying implications of Truth. Our apprehension of what’s real so shallow.

The tears that He wipes away will be ones of regret. That while we lived we did not make the main thing the main thing. That we made our own name the forefront, not His.

Fear deserves a strong place at the table, for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Goodness and severity belong in the same room. A gospel that does not acknowledge holiness is a lop-sided lie that leads men astray. One day we will stand before God and give account.

To live life with only the end of your nose in the frame is foolishness indeed. The universe does not orbit our selfish desires, our greedy proclamations, or our tailored list of wants.

All that exists, the ten thousand times ten thousand galaxies swirling through endless space, to the quantum slice of the tiniest atom, everything that ever was and ever will be, all are for His pleasure and praise. Rocks cry out and the heavens declare one name, and it is not yours. It is not the name of the famous or the fabled. Not the legendary or the talented. Not the rich, the clever, the wise-in-their-own-eyes, or the glamorous go-getter.

Only one name.

Jesus.

Jesus is Lord. Yesterday, today, forever.

Lord, let me live like it’s so.

I longed for the day of discovery. I knew it must be stashed somewhere, maybe hidden under a rug, or hung in a lonely closet? The awful thing was, the longer the search the more elusive the answer seemed. My hopes of ever finding my prize dripped away with every day of drudgery.

Would I ever find it?

Was I not told again and again that there is some magnificent plan at work? A destiny I was shaped to embody and gloriously fulfill?

So tell me, who has hidden or stolen it?

That’s how so many people feel, chasing dreams, looking under every stone, hoping that finally their day will come and the lottery of life will open its treasures.

We know we have a creative gift, a great and significant destiny calling us upward and onward, but life’s rough edges have worn our resolve to the bone. The idea of stepping up and stepping out used to be an exciting prospect, pregnant with hope, but today it’s just frightening. Another disappointment may be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back.

Plastered against a backdrop of screaming voices on the internet, pulling you in every direction with inflated promises and the next glistening opportunity, the bombardment can be wearing.

The grand design can be shaved thin by many devilish tools.

It comes from all directions. Satan is not choosy. If diminishing your sense of worth works, that’s his tack. If keeping you frantically chasing the next shiny object in the hope that your breakthrough is hidden behind yet another sales page he’ll plaster your life with endless opportunities to pry your credit card from its pouch until your resolve, or your bank account, runs dry.

On the other side, it can be the drip, drip, drip of discouragement that silences the awesome creative spirit within you and causes you to crawl into a shady place – the shadow life lived through others who have made the break.

Rough words from a tactless teacher, disbelief from parents and friends, a string of failed experiments that appear to bolster the secret fears we harbor about our potential.

The list goes on.

Creativity is applauded on the one hand. The kings and queens of expression are lifted up as almost otherworldly examples of human genius. Meanwhile, on planet earth, creative aspirations are often frowned upon.

Creatives are lampooned as dreamers and folks who’ve lost touch with reality. What makes you think you can make it as an artist, an author, an actor? Why would your message be of interest to anyone beyond a tiny insignificant crowd?

Perhaps I am laying the mud on thick here. I do so for a reason. The devil is no pansy. He holds nothing back in his war against the image of the One he hates.

Satan has no power whatsoever to create anything of value. All he can do is heist the genius of God’s image-bearers and twist their inherent creativity in lamentable and destructive ways.

I urge you to pick up spiritual arms and wage war against his lies.

You are a unique and marvelous gift to humanity, and there is no other in history who can offer what you carry to the table.

Martha Graham, the pioneering dancer said:

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.”

You carry a priceless treasure on the inside. It is your creative nature. The very image and likeness of the One who made you.

Like the lost coin of Jesus parable in Luke chapter 15, it must be reclaimed.

“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!” (Luke 15:8–9 NKJV)

So many souls are lost to eternity. Many more never live their life, even though redeemed and secured. Their bright creative light is dimmed and hidden.

Don’t allow satan to keep you in the dark. Light your lamp and search incessantly until you find that spark you once carried. That missing piece that fits all else into place.

Your redemption is not just an insurance policy, it is an invitation to live fully and freely here on earth, adding value to the world through the unique expression that bears your name!

How do we find that lost coin of creativity?

I would love to be able to tell you that there is a click-finger solution to this most pressing of problems, but there’s not. For all of the easy-quick-cheap-effortless answers the marketing world wants to foist upon you, the reality is that it takes work. If it were easy, effortless, and cheap everyone would live in the luxury of fulfillment, joyously sharing their authentic self with an adoring audience.

Back here on planet earth, the process of discovery is often layered with dirt.

Excuses.

Insecurities.

Roadblocks and reasonings.

Fears and failings and feelings and fumblings.

Discovering your awesome is like digging dirt. You sometimes need to shift a lot of earth before you hit the precious vein that carries your voice to the world

The lady in the parable hunted tirelessly until. You need to do the same.

The journey can be challenging. The temptation to turn around and head back to the village with your tail between your legs will press upon you at times. Shame will sneak up on you and poke its bony finger in your face, spewing a river of “I told you so’s”.

But the prize is worth the work.

The delight is worth the digging.

Not just for you, but for the ones you will help and encourage.

There are not many devotionals that stick with me for decades but one story I read in “Streams In The Desert” by LB Cowman, has never left me.

The author relates this far better than I can, But I will try.

It pictures a small girl who finds a cocoon. Inside she can see the encased butterfly struggling to escape its woven womb. Thinking to do the exhausted creature a favor, the girl carefully slices the cocoon and waits for the beauty of the full-formed butterfly to take wing and grace the world with its wonder. Instead, the pitiful creature falls from the opening and dies, limp and helpless in her hand.

The struggle, the pressing against resistance, the pushing and straining to break the mold and finally find the full expression of its nature, is the very thing that pumps the blood into its crumpled wings and allows it to fly when finally the casing cracks.

I believe it’s the same with our personal gifts and full-formed personality. It becomes encased in layers of resistance over the years, and the playful believing child is wrapped out of sight. The dreams still call to us as we grow, but when we respond we discover that it is not easy.

Being yourself, without fear and full of faith should be a cinch, right?

I have found that it is not. It is a great quest to reclaim and rediscover your beauty and let it fly.

Harness the resistance. Let it squeeze a deeper reality from the depths of who you are as a child of the Creator. Understand that the pressing through is all part of the great Creator’s plan. That your mess and your message is often intertwined. That your journey will be the very thing that helps others to reach their destination.

Paul speaks of this in the book of Philippians:

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” (Philippians 3:12 NKJV)

Pressing forward, meaning “endeavoring earnestly to acquire”, to take hold of all that Christ has taken hold of you for.

Do this daily. Building habits that respect your dreams and hopes. Disciplines that lean into the person you believe yourself to be. You are willing to face the prospect of a hard climb at times, or a long dig. Your desire to write or sing or paint or dance overrides the world’s baying discouragement.

Dear creative friend, make your desire to make something beautiful a priority. Don’t back off.

Whatever your circumstances may say, whatever voices stand in your way, push through them, pressing toward your own mark, those set by the planting of God in your heart.

For me, it’s being a writer.

This post, these words, are part of my pushing the cocoon. I feel the creative juice flowing through my veins as I do. Even if hidden from the world there is a bursting beauty that will one day break out and bring something remarkable showing down.

Some days that’s easy to believe, other days not so. Sometimes it feels inevitable that the breakthrough will occur. Other days I feel more like a caterpillar curled away and reluctant to emerge.

The important thing is to keep pressing regardless of the feelings.

To recognize that there’s a unique expression only you can bring. And do all you can to transform your ideas into action.

For you, it could be words on the page each day, images painted, sketches done, instruments played, or a new song sung. Keep digging. Keep pushing.

You are special, and no one else can go deep enough to draw you out. It is a hero’s journey you alone undertake. Others may help and direct. They may even act as guides. But at the end of the day, your love and wonder is not going to be a pale reflection of someone else’s experience, it’s a glowing testimony to who God has made you, and you alone, to be.

This treasure, maybe lost for years, is reaching for your attention. It is the treasure of creativity calling to be recognized and released.

As you know, its not what you know that makes the difference, it’s what you do with what you know. Go-how, not just know-how. Being moved to action.

We must diligently apply what we know.

It is pointless to know something, and not act in accordance with that knowledge.

And the word pointless here is appropriate.

Scriptures teach:

“…the hand of the diligent maketh rich.” (Proverbs 10:4 KJV)

The word diligent in the original Hebrew essentially speaks of sharpness. It means to bestir oneself, decide and decree, determine, and to move.

I define diligence as “consistent application of what you know in one direction over time.”

To coin some phrases.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

Not slow to act, but slow in the sense that we are not in a 100-meter dash. Our lives are not lived in fits and spurts, a random string of accidental or occasional explosions of activity. Daily habitual actions stacking up over time are far more effective than infrequent eruptions of genius.

We live day by day, building line upon line, moving purposefully toward our stated goals.

Diligence and discipline arise because we bestir ourselves to move in the direction we have decreed. Our course is set not by the fickle winds of fashion, but by the gentle leading of the Holy Ghost.

He leads and directs our steps. Sometimes our pace will increase, other times the speed of implementation may be slowed as we learn new skills, but all the while, every day, forward motion is apparent, even if inch by inch.

His hand on ours allows us to overcome the tendency to start well, and never reach the end tape. The hand of the diligent under the direction of the hand of the Divine. Purposeful progress propelled by grace.

As we yield and allow the fruit of long-suffering to have its way in our lives, shaping our character and sharpening our vision, the results are remarkable.

Diligence maketh rich.

I sell stuff. Books, time, expertise, online courses. The only thing I don’t sell is out.

It wasn’t always that way. I used to sell out to the idea that selling is bad. That money is scary and evil. That marketing is tantamount to kicking down your grannie’s door and robbing her jewels.

But this simply is not true.

Selling is simply serving others in a sustainable way. Providing value in exchange for their time and money in a way that’s win-win.

Marketing is helping people make a positive decision that benefits their present and feeds their future.

When viewed from a place of fearless faith, not fearful grasping after money, exchanging value in this one of the ways we express our appreciation for the good things someone else brings to the table of the world.

Needless to say, as with most things, the beauty of exchange has been hijacked by greed and become something it was never intended to be. That’s why selling has garnered such a negative name.

People speak of dirty money, being filthy rich, and cold hard cash.

How about reframing the money conversation with more noble purpose.

Clean, wholesome exchange of warm appreciation for the labours and genius of another worthy human being. An opportunity to cheer their calling and invest in their growing contribution to humanity.

Jesus was never shy to tackle the money convo.

Earthly money is spoken of in the parables more than heaven itself. He knew how important, how alluring, and how contentious it can be. He even warned that given half a chance it can climb on the throne of a man’s heart parading itself as a god.

But He did not for a moment discount its usefulness. He did not tell people to hole up somewhere and never touch a note. He simply pointed out that the only arrangement that works is for you to be lord of your money and what it is used for, not the other way around.

My favorite encounter is the one where the Pharisees came to him with a coin.

“Should we pay our taxes?” They challenged

“Whose likeness does that tiny piece of metal bare?” He asked.

“Caesar.”

“Then give to Ceasar what belongs to him…”

“…And as for you, give to God the thing that carries His image and likeness.”

God created you in His image.

You are worth far more than a mountain of those Caesar-bearing coins. Give yourself to Him, and to His call on your life. Follow Him closely and passionately, trusting Him for every step. Give generously of your gifts, personality, and talents to others.

Don’t shy away from recognizing your worthiness to Him, and you’re worth to others.

Selling is simply recognizing your worth, and authentically delivering value to the marketplace where others have the freedom and opportunity to appreciate your contribution in tangible ways.

What are you worth? I can’t place a number on that, because there would not be enough zeros to string on the end. Your freedom and opportunity to contribute cost more than we can ever comprehend, but the price was paid, and your life was redeemed. You were released from a thankless taskmaster and employed by the King.

The question is, what will you now do with that freedom?

Will you stay hidden in the shadows? That would be a great shame.

My suggestion? Step out, don’t sell out.

Don’t sell out to the lie that you have nothing of worth to share or exchange. Don’t diminish your worthiness thinking your contribution should always be free. Sell and serve with integrity, and learn to ask confidently for an appropriate and profitable compensation for the value that you’ve spent your life to cultivate.

I don’t sell a book. I exchange the lifetime of learning it cost me to learn what I placed on the pages.

I don’t sell a 3-hour long online course. I exchange my expertise, purchased with hundreds of hours of diligent investment and accumulated thousands of dollars, for a price far lower than the leverage it will provide for the purchaser.

I don’t sell my time. I share my life, the whole of me present and attentive. For me to be the person I am today has been costly, so I’m a worthy investment for my clients. It would be far more expensive for them to live my life over and arrive at the same place. They too bring their life and attention to the table and we all receive the benefit.

Step out. Don’t be afraid to sell.

But never sell one thing… out!

People buy from people. People buy from those they know, like, and trust. We are in the people business.

Everyone sharing their worth and bringing their unique value to the world’s table is in the people business.

A large slice of the prosperity pie is knowing who your people are. Who is that you are called to reach and whose life are you equipped to change for the better?

Let me encourage you to dig into this question.

Whether you’re an aspiring author, a would-be course creator, a blogging influencer or affiliate marketer, there will always be a crowd that you resonate with.

Believe me when I say, trying to reach everyone everywhere leads nowhere. In seeking to serve anyone you connect with no one.

The more precise you can be here the better, without getting anal. And don’t make your market demographic or psychographic research purely philosophical. Make it real.

These are YOUR people. The people YOU are designed to help, bless, and benefit.

The Bible talks about apostles. The word literally means a “sent one” or “one who is sent”.

In a very real way, you have an apostolic call to go out (even if virtually) and find the people to whom you’ve been sent by God to bless.

In response to this ongoing question my current answer, once all the steam, fluff, and market lingo has been boiled away is…

“I help creative Christians share their message online, so they can generate income and a lifestyle that fits with their personality and passion.”

The next question is, how do you serve those fine folks?

Often our answer to the who question will touch on this, as mine does above.

Go deeper now into the what. What is the methodology you use to help them?

Having a clear idea about what you do and how you help will not only clarify to your customers or prospects why they should work with you, it will also crystallize your own understanding of just how valuable what you bring to others really is.

Most of the time you’ll find your heart message and mission has a method hidden right in front of your nose.

Sometimes we are so close to what we do and how we do it we don’t see it straight away. We just do what we do, and don’t take the time to step back and consider the underlying transferable principles and processes that we have applied to generate the success we experience in a given arena.

Like with you who, take time to think about this how. With respect to helping you’re who, what do you do, and how do you do it?

Here’s where my prayers and observations of my own way of working have led me so far…

“I help creative Christians share their message online through a framework based on 5 core principles; faith, inspiration, education, application, and celebration. Taken together and put into practical daily action these principles remove roadblocks and transform ideas into real products, platforms, and publications that can change the world!”

Maybe you are one of my peeps?

Take a look at https://www.davidleemartin.net/cca-membership – this remarkable membership sets you on a year-long discovery of your own special brand of awesome and hand on gets you putting all of that inner wealth out to the world in ways that could quite literally change the world!