Creative wool-gathering

I flipped open a notebook from six years ago, filled with diagrams, creative writing, ideas, and observations. It used to be a natural part of life to jot things down "just in case," and "for some time later," as a matter of course. I was taken aback at the wide range of interests and thinking in my little grey book.

Somewhere along the way, I got tired. Routines, permissions, and parameters wore down my norm of creativity and unfettered roaming of the brain. In the process, I got smaller, constrained by boundaries, and less inclined to free range in the world and its possibilities.

When I pulled out my little book, I almost shouted aloud with glee. Somewhere, buried not too deeply, I must still think in terms of potential rather than merely toeing the line of propriety and others' expectations. I'm not out to set the world ablaze just to see an explosion, but fire might sometimes be just the thing to warm and light my corner of the world. What I hope to have learned is the possibility of producing without burning down the house. And my heart knows now that God isn't pleased when I blow out the candle he gave me because someone else fears the flame.

My notebook reminds me that no person is like another. God is pleased with us all as we live out his plan for us. He sends some of us to tend the sheep, some of us to shear them, some will gather and card the wool, and some of us spin it into cloth. Some of us even get to draw the pattern so others can cut and sew a garment. Not one effort is wasted. No specialty of education and experience can be valued above the other, although perhaps only the tailor puts her name into the finished coat.

The trick is to love our own part of the process and not put anyone else down for doing what they are called to do. After flipping through my ideas, I feel like slinging a bright red coat over my shoulder today, delighting in the color, cut, and texture. How about you? (The photo left made me laugh, too! None of my notebook covers are this noisy.)

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*Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.' You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Deuteronomy 8:17-18 NLT

*Trust in the LORD and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart's desires. Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you." Psalm 37:3–5 NEV

*For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21 NIV