creative passion

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am a bit of a tinkerer. Whether it is something I have skills in, like web site design and general computer stuff, or something mechanical that I know next to nothing about, I find a sometimes unquenchable urge to tinker, to build, to create. The urge is never born with an unknown reason, many times it is to learn more about whatever it is I am tearing apart, and often it is to test the limits of my own creative spirit. However, regardless of the motivation I always find a passion in the work that some of my other pursuits might lack, and a fierce drive to complete the task. Sometimes I wonder if that creative spirit many of us have (whatever nature it takes) comes from God's image in which we were formed. Have you ever noticed the sheer joy you feel after putting in the energy, grit, and determination to finish a project? Perhaps it was the tedious fine tuning and balancing of a web site design, editing the last few pages of a manuscript, or fitting the last pieces onto a custom built motorcycle. There is just something about the creative process that feels so fulfilling.

However, that fulfilling emotion is a double-edged sword because one has to ask, are we fulfilled due to our self-congratulatory sense of pride? Are we proud of our work due to some inner need to present an outward show of our skills, perhaps even thinking we can use our work to further God's kingdom? Or are we simply proud at having created - completed an act of creation - regardless of its possible insignificance in the world at large?

Personally, I tend to fall into the two latter camps. I sometimes feel the need to utilize the gifts I have, not at random or for personal gain, but simply to share what I have if possible. However, probably more often I simply enjoy the creative process and the fruits of that labor of love. We are after all created in His image, and don't you think when God sat back and proclaimed all He had made good, 'good' carried with it a vastly more profound level of joy, satisfaction, and love than a simple nod of approval?

And in case you wondered, this all bubbled to the surface as I have been tinkering with a new template to drastically overhaul the look and feel of my blog. I figure its about time I ditched the cookie cutter template I picked from blogger's selection, even if I have moderately hacked it up for my own tastes.