David Lee Martin

If people really knew what they were eating, they would puke. The processed, synthetic, chemical-infused concoctions that sit with their long shelf life and low prices, beckoning unsuspecting diners to their death.

And the same is true for the diet of words and images that we allow into our front rooms, plastered on billboards, magazines, and ever-scrolling newsfeeds.

A steady drivel of death, destruction, and dripping consumerism stuffed daily through the eyes and ears steals hope and leaves society spiritually emaciated. Those words of celebrity gossip are just so darn delicious. The panic-stricken dramas playing out on the world stage are caffeine for the eyes!

And what goes in must come out.

Imbibe doubt, fear, confusion, sadness and strife, and it will show up in your living. As the Good Book says, “faith comes by hearing”.

The question then is, what are you hearing?

Feeding the fever with the same witches brew of entertainment and unchecked scrolling will not cure the disease. Gobbling up the next trend or fad will not roll away the stone.

Only a ravenous return to the Word of God is sufficient to turn the tide.

Oh, how marvelous to the taste buds the sweet truth of God’s Word is to a soul starved of reality.

“How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103 KJV)

Your choice of natural food is important, but even more so the words you choose to eat. Man doesn’t live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God. These words are eaten directly to the heart through the eyes and the ears.

Those life-giving words to live by have been recorded in the Bible, and when its pages are opened and the truths it speaks ingested health and wholeness return to the soul.

“My son (or daughter), attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” (Proverbs 4:20–22 KJV)

Eyes.

Ears.

Words and sayings.

Heart and health.

Life to those that find them.

Life to those that find them.

Life to those that find them…

Goliath is a stubborn dude. One minute he’s in the dust with his head bleeding, the next he’s back to and throwing spears at your tender heart. The creative life is not for the feeble or faint-hearted, that’s for sure. You’ll face fears, have to climb over yourself more times than you can count, and get up and dust yourself down on a regular basis.

And the greatest giants in the creative life? Not the trolls on social media. Not the critics who love to lay a one-star on your book baby. Not the complainers who want to swipe you down to size and keep you safely within the bounds of what they think is acceptable and possible.

Nope. The biggest, ugliest, most stubborn giants are the ones you carry in your own backpack.

The accumulated baggage you carry every day and pop their heads out every time to choose to step beyond the boundaries and believe you can make a difference.

These monsters started life as tiny embryos of self-doubt. The poisonous seeds sown by an ungracious teacher. The scathing comments of a parent or so-called friend. The well-meaning warnings of someone trying earnestly to save you from disappointment. After all, if you don’t take a risk you can’t lose, right?

The problem is, these innocuous seeds grow into poisonous pictures that frame a failing future. Take one step out of line and the highlight reel of your shame flashes before your eyes.

Why do we continue to allow such beastly thoughts to lodge. Why carry them from decade to decade clinging to our back and clipping our wings with their weight?

Here are some of the things these backpack bruisers like to alight upon:

1. The fact you didn’t sell as many, if any, of the products you created.
2. The pitiful number of comments or likes your social post receives.
3. The small audience engaged with your newsletter.
4. The minimal opt-ins to your offer.
5. The tiny crowd who turn up for your live virtual event or webinar.
6. The number of books that you sell after publication.
7. The fact that your name is glaringly unknown.

Or how about…

1. The fact someone else is seemingly selling truckloads of the product they created…
2. The massive engagement anyone other than you gets on their social posts…

Etc etc etc!

Giants carry a lop-sided magic mirror – you show them beauty and they point out your weakness.

In this miserly mirror, you are never enough.

Giants love to highlight how small you are or how big someone else is. That’s the tactic.

It’s the inward battle of the mind to stay faithful to your call and keep creating despite the setbacks and challenges you face along the way.

Giants want your eyes to be on the growling mountains that stand in your path. God wants your focus on His faithfulness and favor.

Paul the apostle had something to say about this comparison conundum a couple of millennia ago:

“For we dare not … compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” (2 Corinthians 10:12 KJV)

He then speaks about staying in your lane and not being distracted by what everyone else is up to:

“We, on the other hand, will not boast beyond our legitimate province and proper limit, but will keep within the limits [of our commission which] God has allotted us as our measuring line and which reaches and includes even you.” (2 Corinthians 10:13 AMP)

And how serving your chosen audience consistently and humbly leads to expansion:

“We do not boast therefore, beyond our proper limit, over other men’s labors, but we have the hope and confident expectation that as your faith continues to grow, our field among you may be greatly enlarged” (2 Corinthians 10:15 AMP)

My encouragement to you today, if you have taken the courageous step to accept your creative commission, is to keep on keeping on.

Sure, that may sound trite. It could even be called a cliché.

But the other option is no option at all.

There is no turning back. No scurrying back to the trembling crowd to hide your light under a bushel.

Drop the baggage.

Be present, be alive, be free, and keep serving and selling.

God is your creative Partner in this worthy endeavour.

And He is able!

Life has a way of bursting through the cracks and making itself known; eruptions that deny the place and right of death, applauding the Maker for His daily grace.

The inner force of LIFE shows up against the odds, proclaiming something bigger than the body you inhabit. God dwells in His people and refuses to stay silent.

The book of Acts wonderfully records that Jesus “showed Himself alive… with many infallible proofs.”

Other translations render this magnificent verse, “unquestionable evidences” and “convincing demonstrations” proved that death’s bid was ousted by eternity

What unquestionable evidence shows up in your day that declares, “I am alive!”

One of my lava-like eruptions are these words on the page.

They burst the crust of my day and flow hot across the keys.

Creativity is like that. Creativity is LIFE on display. Creativity is proof of the Creator at work in your heart.

Regardless of the tomb, the world would like to hide you in, whatever rock they would roll to keep you silent and ‘safe’, the LIFE within will not lay down.

Your desire to write, to sing, to serve – these are the evidences of something bigger at work.

You have a purpose and God has a plan.

As a Christian creative, and author, artist, entrepreneur, LIFE is bubbling and bursting within you, seeking expression and looking for an exit. An exit from obscurity. A way out of staying safe and silent.

The world is looking for a “convincing demonstration” that dreams can be realized. They want some proof and evidence that it’s ok to step outside the tomb.

Be the proof.

The Scriptures say “Jesus showed Himself”.

Maybe it’s time for you to do the same!

You don’t live in a vacuum. The world is swirling around you, looking for direction. What will you do? Join the maelstrom or choose to make your mark?

Staying on course during troublesome times is not always easy. You may feel that your voice is lost in the noise. But don’t quit speaking, don’t stop declaring. Most folks lurk in the shadows, listening for a note of hope, never daring to show their personality above the parapet.

It is only when another bold soul steps onto the field that courage rises.

The world with its swaggering bravado, shouts, “Thus far and no more”.

It lauds itself as the king of acceptance, tolerating any voice that wants to speak. So long as it says what the world wants to hear.

Renegade voices are silenced. Told to calm down. Quietly pressured by the words, “Who are you to make a difference?” Whispered with disdain.

Those voices that resist? The ones who stand up and say, “I’m ready to be counted, and what I say will count!” pierce the dark shroud of political correctness, and bring real meat to the table.

Your presence is requested.

The invitation has been sent to every special soul.

Creatives are being called to count and kick against the grey.

Some things are black and white, night and day, yes or no. These are the things you need to say. Not for politics, not for fame or fortune, but for the future of the ones who will hear your voice.

“Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].” (Romans 12:2 AMP)

Emboldened by your decision to stand up, stand out, and say what’s in your heart, they too will squirm free of satan’s grip. His slimy fingers will lose their hold, and Kingdom voices will rise in synchrony, shaping a new view of how things should be.

There will be no hiding in days to come, no sneaking in the shadows, hoping no one notices. Everything, the secrets of men’s hearts, squeezed into the light for all to see.

Learn the vicious art of authenticity. Vicious, that is, to the sensibilities of those who would silence your service.

The gentle art of real. Living open and vulnerable on the pages of history. A history only you can write.

Your living words populate the pages of the day with every breath you take, and your generosity feeds more hearts than you will ever know.

Others look to you, and your “yes” to yourself is the permission they need to step from the storm and begin to speak themselves.

This, my dear creative brother and sister, is a symphony. You are an instrument in the hand of the Maker. Go make something. Say something. Sing something. Let your genuine be heard.

What happens when you fall off the horse? When all of those well-intentioned and passionate pronouncements of how you believe things are going to be go belly up?

There are two options; stay in the dust and eat dirt, or stand up, brush yourself down, and take another step. Even if the bruises of disappointment still sting when you do, another step is always the best way forward.

Life is not linear. We don’t see the beginning from the end, and the seeming diversions we are thrown into can befuddle our brain and challenge our reason. But history shows, even the Joseph in the pit, Daniel with the lions, and three boys in the fire moments, are prime times for the fourth Man to step into the fray and lift you to places you never before imagined possible.

Easy to say when you’re out of the lion’s den or sat on the Egyptian throne, I know, but these men had to walk their way there through stingingly difficult circumstances. Mary, the mother of Jesus, accepted her high call to carry God’s Son, not with stars in her eyes, fully understanding people would brand her a loose lady and maybe even lose her fiancé. The Scriptures even talk about how her heart would be pierced (Luke 2:35) so let’s not look with rose-tinted goggles at our pioneering forefathers and mothers in the faith.

My call is not nearly as exalted as theirs, something I thank God for, but nevertheless, we, you and I, have our own peculiar pathway to walk. There will be days when you’ll sing and rejoice in the overt goodness of God, and others when you’ll be dragged through the dirt and feel like giving up.

Now, the word of faith man I was raised to be, chokes on that last sentence. It irks me that I cannot sustain living on the peaks, but I have to admit, I have learned just as much if not more in the valleys, and I would not trade them for anything.

Sometimes the depths are where you dig deepest, and discover God in ways you never have chosen to explore had you not been led there.

Whatever tests you face, your King is able.

Whatever the day brings, He is with you to carry you through to victory.

We may not see the end, the fulfilment, the celestial city over the brow of the hill, but He does.

Let courage fill your heart today, and take your next courageous step.

Jesus is with you!