Creating from a place of rest
Rest is not the enemy of creativity. Rest is the amplifier of creativity.
-Jon Acuff
It’s easy in our society to get caught up in hustle culture. Even calling our off days “lazy days” and feeling guilty for not being productive during free time after a week of hard work. It’s always go go go, put in the work. Blood, sweat and tears, to be the best.
That attitude translated into my art. I would see what others were posting on their social media and felt like my art didn’t measure up. That it wasn’t marketable. So I would research what is trending and plan how to recreate it so I can make money. I was terrified at the thought of selling my own work, because it’s different. And I would probably charge a lot more. I would spend hours figuring out how to make art that was cheaper and quite frankly, not me at all. It was stressful. I wasn’t made to create out of a place of striving.
It wasn’t until I made it a point to paint from a place of stillness in my heart that it became life giving. Painting because I want to. Painting because I get to. Not worried about who will buy it, or if people will even like it. I started creating again as a way to reconnect with God. No agenda, no end goal. I would wait until my heart settled down and I could lay to rest my worries about the day, then begin.
That’s how the Psalms watercolor series happened. Once a week, I set aside a day to intentionally sabbath and unplug. I was reading the Psalms and meditating on them, and watercolored what I was experiencing as I read the first few chapters. It changed how I viewed my art. Now, I try to only create from that same place of rest, where I’m doing it from an overflow of the things that God is teaching me about.
Here’s a few albums I listen to when I create that help me create from a place of rest:
Love Secrets - John Mark Pantana
Twenty Four - Jonathan Ogden
Peace - Bethel Music
Forever Amen - Steffany Gretzinger
You can rest, beloved. There’s nothing you have to prove. He is already pleased with you. That’s the good news of the Gospel: Jesus paid it all, and you get to wear His perfection. We are covered in His righteousness and are deemed holy and acceptable because of the finished work of the cross. You can celebrate, as you rest in His presence. He has done it all. Now, we get to bask and take delight in Him forever and ever in perfect communion.
He is the prize. He is the end goal. And when we find Him, we are fully satisfied and the quaking of anxiety and proving ourselves fades away.
You can rest.