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The Importance of Being Creative During Faith Deconstruction
Making art was an important part of my healing and reconstruction process.
I didn't know this at the beginning of my deconstruction. It didn't know this consciously after I'd left the ministry and the church.
In fact, it wasn't until I published my book, The Liberation of Sophia, that I realized making art helped save me.
Let me explain.
It was the week after I left the church when I drew my first Sophia drawing. The one with the bear. Sophia Fearless.
The inspiration to draw her was unstoppable.
It was four years later when I drew my last one.
The inspiration to draw her stopped. Stopped cold!
It was when it stopped that I realized it was probably important that I did it.
Drawing Sophia every week and writing about her journey was, I concluded, a crucial part of my healing.
Cathartic!
It's strange, but when I stopped drawing Sophia, I learned how important being creative is.
Being creative just for creativity's sake! I need to get in that again. I advise people when they are going through deconstruction to be creative and discipline themselves to be creative every day.
It helps. It works!
Why?
Because now I realize that creating things does something positive for us:
- It gives us some happiness, because even while we are crashing and our world is crashing around us, that we can still create something.
- It inspires us, that even though we might feel ugly in an ugly world, there are still remarkable things of beauty to be enjoyed.
- It empowers us to know that even while everything seems to be conspiring to stop us, we will still give birth to new and wonderful things.
So, here's our exercise:
I believe everyone is a creator. Everyone is an artist.
What are you making?
What can you make?
A painting? A dance? A poem? A journal entry? A blog post? A perfect medium rare steak? An awesome daily post? A flower arrangement? An urn? A sound of a crow? A computer code? Anything!
I'd love to hear, see, and know what kind of things you guys are creating.