The Upper Room of The United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Tuesday, 1 October 2019
The Upper Room <MinistryEngagement@upperroom.org> of The United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Tuesday, 1 October 2019
“Unless we are creators we are not fully alive. ... Creativity is a way of living life, no matter our vocation or how we earn our living.” (Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water)
Resources for This Season
Coming at the end of this month is All Saints’ Day (Or All Hallows’ Day). Learn about All Saints’ Day.
Are you wondering “Why do we pray for the dead?” Learn more.
For lovers of Weavings Journal.
Co-creating with God
Beth A. Richardson
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1, RSV). And God has been creating ever since. All we need to do is open our senses to notice this ever-changing creation through sight and sound and smell, touch and taste. God is the source of all creativity, the source of our creativity. God created us, and we are co-creators with God. We co-create our lives, one day at a time in words, music, children, food, relationships, photographs, paintings, gardens, and dreams.
I come from a creative family. Mom and Dad started me in piano lessons when I was in first grade. (Dad’s mother was a music teacher.) Dad wrote and delivered a sermon every week. He played piano, ukulele, and, for a while, banjo. He was a photographer and he took up painting in his middle years.
My mom’s dad was a carpenter and a gardener. Her mom was a creative force in the kitchen. I remember Grandma using her sourdough starter in hundreds of strange and creative ways. She even figured out how to freeze dry the sourdough starter, transport it to the cabin in Colorado, and reactivate it from there. Mom loved poetry, did needlepoint, made afghans, sang, and planted gardens.
Read more...
Co-creating with God BY BETH A. RICHARDSON
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1, RSV). And God has been creating ever since. All we need to do is open our senses to notice this ever-changing creation through sight and sound and smell, touch and taste. God is the source of all creativity, the source of our creativity. God created us, and we are co-creators with God. We co-create our lives, one day at a time in words, music, children, food, relationships, photographs, paintings, gardens, and dreams.
I come from a creative family. Mom and Dad started me in piano lessons when I was in first grade. (Dad’s mother was a music teacher.) Dad wrote and delivered a sermon every week. He played piano, ukulele, and, for a while, banjo. He was a photographer and he took up painting in his middle years.
My favorite mode of creativity, these days, is taking pictures. Since I have my iPhone with me everywhere, I’m able to snap pictures of God’s creation wherever I am. Photography is one of my prayer practices as I pray with my camera.
People have said to me, “I’m not creative.” If you are like one of those folks, I challenge you to take another look and broaden your vision of creativity. Creating is not limited to the arts. Perhaps you are someone who is great at writing Excel macros or figuring out new solutions to problems. You may be someone who can calm down an irate customer on the phone or knows just what to say to a grieving family. God created you with these creative gifts.
Take some time to be creative. May you rejoice in the creativity that surrounds and fills you.
Interested in more soul care resources for spiritual leaders? Subscribe to From the Center, a monthly email newsletter from The Upper Room curated specifically for clergy and church leadership.
Beth A. Richardson serves as the director of prayer and worship life and Dean of The Upper Room Chapel.
Adapted from Alive Now, July/August 2013. Copyright © 2013 The Upper Room.
From the Academy Podcast
This month’s podcast features a conversation between Academy Podcast Host and Associate Director, Claire McKeever-Burgett, and Academy Worship Leader, Upper Room Books author, and Director of Prayer and Worship Life at The Upper Room, Beth Richardson. They talk about everything from Academy worship to spiritual formation in a divided world, church, and culture to geographical landscapes of faith to how spiritual practice informs the writing and creative processes.
Listen here.
Creating Still
Marjorie J. Thompson
Ah, God!
When I look at what your fingers fashion,
who am I?
Who are we?
Artist Supreme,
painting color, shape,
texture new each hour
as created light,
your subtle and astonishing servant,
passes over
and through each thing.
Continue reading this poem by Marjorie J. Thompson.
Creating Still
Marjorie J. Thompson
Ah, God!
When I look at what your fingers fashion,
who am I?
Who are we?
Artist Supreme,
painting color, shape,
texture new each hour
as created light,
your subtle and astonishing servant,
passes over
and through each thing.
You alone have power
to create ex nihilo afresh,
Yet you give us power
to become your own
sons and daughters,
creative joy imprinted
on our souls in the indelible
ink of your love.
For you love inspired beauty
and share what you love
with whom you love.
Ah, God!
How my soul thirsts
for beauty!
How my heart opens
to the pulse of your fullness
when I drink
in the wonder,
the wonder,
your fingerprints everywhere.
I touch them,
let their curving, tender lines guide
my hands that add
tentative strokes to your canvas.
Can it be true,
you want to create
through us?
You are creating still, and we
frail creatures wrought
by your heart’s caress,
bear now the threads of your
unfolding handiwork.
Ah, God!
Can it be right to crave
such beauty
when people shrivel, starve.
seeking only simple life?
Are we not bidden to the labor of artless
unadorned virtue?
Oh, my child!
Do you not see?
It is in darkness you must
gain the eye for beauty.
How shall you know the delight
of goodness but as it shines
against hardened hearts?
How feel the joy
of light except as it sparkles
through the shadowed land?
It is here in this world
of fearful gloom
that my creation will continue to burst
forth from the tomb.
And you, dear heart,
let it burst from your soul,
spirit mirroring my glory.
From Weavings: A Journal for the Christian Spiritual Life, March/April 2002 (Vol. 17, No. 2). Copyright © 2001 by The Upper Room.
A Spiritual Practice: Creativity
Karla M. Kincannon
A Spiritual Practice: Creativity
Karla M. Kincannon
Creativity is so much more than art making. It is a tool for navigating through everyday experiences to find the sacred in each God-given moment. Those who believe they lack creativity have relegated it to remote regions of their life, burying it under the need for security, approval, and control. However, like love, which is stronger than death, creativity does not die; it simply waits to be unearthed and set free. …
Attentiveness
One important practice necessary for a rich spiritual life is attentiveness. Attentiveness, a key component for discernment, makes it possible to decipher what God is doing in our lives. We first must listen for God and watch for God’s actions in our lives and community in order to be able to discern God’s ways.
Listening and watching are two skills critical to the creative process. I listen for inspiration and to the quiet voice within me that needs expression. I watch the world around me, observing details and subtleties that are overlooked when I am in a hurry. An art teacher once told me that I needed to slow down my eye in order to see all the details in the landscape I was drawing. The same advice applies to noticing God’s presence in the world. When we hurry through life, our experience of God is like the blurred scenery observed from the window of a speeding train. We may know God is there, but we cannot discern what the Divine is doing.
Practicing attentiveness requires that we watch for God the way we would look at a flower through a magnifying lens; every detail comes into sharp focus. Attentiveness requires that we slow down and notice.
The following exercises are designed to assist you in slowing down to see the details. Notice God’s abiding presence in your life and in the world around you.
May the Spirit guide you in your search for God and in your experience of your own creativity.
Seeing the Things of God
Take a prayerful walk and photograph evidence of God’s presence at work in the world. Where do you see God’s creativity at play? Make a written record of what you photograph.
Later on, look again at the photos. Notice any elements that you didn’t intend to be there. Notice what is missing. Don’t criticize your work; simply notice. What surprises you? Often the Holy One’s message comes through to us most clearly in the surprises. In your journal, write about the experience of looking for God’s creativity at play in the world.
Waking Up
We are most open to the creative energies early in the morning before we get distracted by our thoughts and the pressures of the day. Once we become preoccupied with the day’s duties, the creative channels close up unless we intentionally reopen them. In my experience, when I awaken without an alarm, I am an open vessel for God’s creativity to flow through me. Many of my best insights come first thing in the morning even before I open my eyes. I have the habit of keeping a notepad by my bed in order to record the precious gem of a thought that soon evaporates when my feet touch the floor. In order to access the Creator’s creativity within you, try this experiment. On a day when you do not need to set the alarm, before you move, stretch, think, or get out of bed, simply notice. Notice your first image, thought, or feeling. This very passive exercise trains you to receive a divine encounter. It teaches waiting with an open mind and a receptive heart.
When you awaken this way, record in your journal your first creative thoughts or images.
Divine Surprises
I love pleasant surprises. I love giving them and receiving them. ... I think God must love surprises too, because our Creator breaks into my hectically scheduled day with a spectacular sunset or an unexpected gesture of kindness from a stranger. When we least expect it, the Divine Lover quietly shows us the power of love.
Using colorful markers, write several pages of your inner thoughts in your journal. It does not matter what you write. Simply write what you hear yourself thinking. As you write, feel free to switch colors frequently if you like. The colors can help express your interior life. You do not have to write on lined paper or even make the letters all the same size. If images come to mind, draw them in your journal. Let the form and content come from within. The trick is to listen to the inner voice.
Sometimes divine surprises happen in the writing; sometimes they happen following the writing. Sometimes there are no surprises, just a clearing of our inner thoughts. When you finish, look back over the pages. Are there any divine surprises?
Adapted from Creativity and Divine Surprise: Finding the Place of Your Resurrection by Karla M. Kincannon. Copyright © 2005 by the author. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books.
Advent is just around the corner. Need help deciding which book is right for you? Take this quiz from Upper Room Books to find out: UpperRoomBooks.com/quiz
Next Month: GRATITUDE
The Upper Room
P.O. Box 340004
Nashville, Tennessee 37203-0004, United States
UpperRoom.org
Copyright © 2019 The Upper Room, All rights reserved.
UpperRoom.org
Our mailing address is:
The Upper Room
1908 Grand Avenue
Resources for This Season
Coming at the end of this month is All Saints’ Day (Or All Hallows’ Day). Learn about All Saints’ Day.
Are you wondering “Why do we pray for the dead?” Learn more.
For lovers of Weavings Journal.
Beth A. Richardson
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1, RSV). And God has been creating ever since. All we need to do is open our senses to notice this ever-changing creation through sight and sound and smell, touch and taste. God is the source of all creativity, the source of our creativity. God created us, and we are co-creators with God. We co-create our lives, one day at a time in words, music, children, food, relationships, photographs, paintings, gardens, and dreams.
I come from a creative family. Mom and Dad started me in piano lessons when I was in first grade. (Dad’s mother was a music teacher.) Dad wrote and delivered a sermon every week. He played piano, ukulele, and, for a while, banjo. He was a photographer and he took up painting in his middle years.
My mom’s dad was a carpenter and a gardener. Her mom was a creative force in the kitchen. I remember Grandma using her sourdough starter in hundreds of strange and creative ways. She even figured out how to freeze dry the sourdough starter, transport it to the cabin in Colorado, and reactivate it from there. Mom loved poetry, did needlepoint, made afghans, sang, and planted gardens.
Read more...
Co-creating with God BY BETH A. RICHARDSON
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1, RSV). And God has been creating ever since. All we need to do is open our senses to notice this ever-changing creation through sight and sound and smell, touch and taste. God is the source of all creativity, the source of our creativity. God created us, and we are co-creators with God. We co-create our lives, one day at a time in words, music, children, food, relationships, photographs, paintings, gardens, and dreams.
I come from a creative family. Mom and Dad started me in piano lessons when I was in first grade. (Dad’s mother was a music teacher.) Dad wrote and delivered a sermon every week. He played piano, ukulele, and, for a while, banjo. He was a photographer and he took up painting in his middle years.
My mom’s dad was a carpenter and a gardener. Her mom was a creative force in the kitchen. I remember Grandma using her sourdough starter in hundreds of strange and creative ways. She even figured out how to freeze dry the sourdough starter, transport it to the cabin in Colorado, and reactivate it from there. Mom loved poetry, did needlepoint, made afghans, sang, and planted gardens. 
I’m a creative dabbler. I like music, writing, photography, drawing cartoons, gardening, and carpentry, among other things. The act of creating—a poem, a cartoon, a set of stairs, or a musical piece—feeds my spirit. My favorite mode of creativity, these days, is taking pictures. Since I have my iPhone with me everywhere, I’m able to snap pictures of God’s creation wherever I am. Photography is one of my prayer practices as I pray with my camera.
People have said to me, “I’m not creative.” If you are like one of those folks, I challenge you to take another look and broaden your vision of creativity. Creating is not limited to the arts. Perhaps you are someone who is great at writing Excel macros or figuring out new solutions to problems. You may be someone who can calm down an irate customer on the phone or knows just what to say to a grieving family. God created you with these creative gifts.
Take some time to be creative. May you rejoice in the creativity that surrounds and fills you.
Interested in more soul care resources for spiritual leaders? Subscribe to From the Center, a monthly email newsletter from The Upper Room curated specifically for clergy and church leadership.
Beth A. Richardson serves as the director of prayer and worship life and Dean of The Upper Room Chapel.
Adapted from Alive Now, July/August 2013. Copyright © 2013 The Upper Room.
From the Academy Podcast
Listen here.
Creating Still
Marjorie J. Thompson
When I look at what your fingers fashion,
who am I?
Who are we?
Artist Supreme,
painting color, shape,
texture new each hour
as created light,
your subtle and astonishing servant,
passes over
and through each thing.
Continue reading this poem by Marjorie J. Thompson.
Creating Still
Ah, God!
When I look at what your fingers fashion,
who am I?
Who are we?
Artist Supreme,
painting color, shape,
texture new each hour
as created light,
your subtle and astonishing servant,
passes over
and through each thing.
You alone have power
to create ex nihilo afresh,
Yet you give us power
to become your own
sons and daughters,
creative joy imprinted
on our souls in the indelible
ink of your love.
For you love inspired beauty
and share what you love
with whom you love.
Ah, God!
How my soul thirsts
for beauty!
How my heart opens
to the pulse of your fullness
when I drink
in the wonder,
the wonder,
your fingerprints everywhere.
I touch them,
let their curving, tender lines guide
my hands that add
tentative strokes to your canvas.
Can it be true,
you want to create
through us?
You are creating still, and we
frail creatures wrought
by your heart’s caress,
bear now the threads of your
unfolding handiwork.
Ah, God!
Can it be right to crave
such beauty
when people shrivel, starve.
seeking only simple life?
Are we not bidden to the labor of artless
unadorned virtue?
Oh, my child!
Do you not see?
It is in darkness you must
gain the eye for beauty.
How shall you know the delight
of goodness but as it shines
against hardened hearts?
How feel the joy
of light except as it sparkles
through the shadowed land?
It is here in this world
of fearful gloom
that my creation will continue to burst
forth from the tomb.
And you, dear heart,
let it burst from your soul,
spirit mirroring my glory.
From Weavings: A Journal for the Christian Spiritual Life, March/April 2002 (Vol. 17, No. 2). Copyright © 2001 by The Upper Room.
A Spiritual Practice: Creativity
Karla M. Kincannon
Creativity is so much more than art making. It is a tool for navigating through everyday experiences to find the sacred in each God-given moment. Those who believe they lack creativity have relegated it to remote regions of their life, burying it under the need for security, approval, and control. However, like love, which is stronger than death, creativity does not die; it simply waits to be unearthed and set free.
Discover four ways to practice creativity from Karla M. Kincannon's book, Creativity and Divine Surprise.A Spiritual Practice: Creativity
Karla M. Kincannon
Creativity is so much more than art making. It is a tool for navigating through everyday experiences to find the sacred in each God-given moment. Those who believe they lack creativity have relegated it to remote regions of their life, burying it under the need for security, approval, and control. However, like love, which is stronger than death, creativity does not die; it simply waits to be unearthed and set free. …
Attentiveness
One important practice necessary for a rich spiritual life is attentiveness. Attentiveness, a key component for discernment, makes it possible to decipher what God is doing in our lives. We first must listen for God and watch for God’s actions in our lives and community in order to be able to discern God’s ways.
Listening and watching are two skills critical to the creative process. I listen for inspiration and to the quiet voice within me that needs expression. I watch the world around me, observing details and subtleties that are overlooked when I am in a hurry. An art teacher once told me that I needed to slow down my eye in order to see all the details in the landscape I was drawing. The same advice applies to noticing God’s presence in the world. When we hurry through life, our experience of God is like the blurred scenery observed from the window of a speeding train. We may know God is there, but we cannot discern what the Divine is doing.
Practicing attentiveness requires that we watch for God the way we would look at a flower through a magnifying lens; every detail comes into sharp focus. Attentiveness requires that we slow down and notice.
The following exercises are designed to assist you in slowing down to see the details. Notice God’s abiding presence in your life and in the world around you.
May the Spirit guide you in your search for God and in your experience of your own creativity.
Seeing the Things of God
Take a prayerful walk and photograph evidence of God’s presence at work in the world. Where do you see God’s creativity at play? Make a written record of what you photograph.
Later on, look again at the photos. Notice any elements that you didn’t intend to be there. Notice what is missing. Don’t criticize your work; simply notice. What surprises you? Often the Holy One’s message comes through to us most clearly in the surprises. In your journal, write about the experience of looking for God’s creativity at play in the world.
Waking Up
We are most open to the creative energies early in the morning before we get distracted by our thoughts and the pressures of the day. Once we become preoccupied with the day’s duties, the creative channels close up unless we intentionally reopen them. In my experience, when I awaken without an alarm, I am an open vessel for God’s creativity to flow through me. Many of my best insights come first thing in the morning even before I open my eyes. I have the habit of keeping a notepad by my bed in order to record the precious gem of a thought that soon evaporates when my feet touch the floor. In order to access the Creator’s creativity within you, try this experiment. On a day when you do not need to set the alarm, before you move, stretch, think, or get out of bed, simply notice. Notice your first image, thought, or feeling. This very passive exercise trains you to receive a divine encounter. It teaches waiting with an open mind and a receptive heart.
When you awaken this way, record in your journal your first creative thoughts or images.
Divine Surprises
I love pleasant surprises. I love giving them and receiving them. ... I think God must love surprises too, because our Creator breaks into my hectically scheduled day with a spectacular sunset or an unexpected gesture of kindness from a stranger. When we least expect it, the Divine Lover quietly shows us the power of love.
Using colorful markers, write several pages of your inner thoughts in your journal. It does not matter what you write. Simply write what you hear yourself thinking. As you write, feel free to switch colors frequently if you like. The colors can help express your interior life. You do not have to write on lined paper or even make the letters all the same size. If images come to mind, draw them in your journal. Let the form and content come from within. The trick is to listen to the inner voice.
Sometimes divine surprises happen in the writing; sometimes they happen following the writing. Sometimes there are no surprises, just a clearing of our inner thoughts. When you finish, look back over the pages. Are there any divine surprises?
Adapted from Creativity and Divine Surprise: Finding the Place of Your Resurrection by Karla M. Kincannon. Copyright © 2005 by the author. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books.
Next Month: GRATITUDE
The Upper Room
P.O. Box 340004
Nashville, Tennessee 37203-0004, United States
UpperRoom.org
Copyright © 2019 The Upper Room, All rights reserved.
UpperRoom.org
Our mailing address is:
The Upper Room
1908 Grand Avenue
Nashville, Tennessee 37212, United States
Pray with us.
Submit a prayer request or visit The Upper Room Prayer Wall.
Pray with us.
Submit a prayer request or visit The Upper Room Prayer Wall.
*******
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