The Rules

I'm just trying to keep it all straight. There’s a lot of rules. Life is full of them, spoken and silent. Cultural norms and expectations. We like formulas because they create logical patterns. 

So we grow up in these patterns and live in them because it’s “normal.” Or because it’s “just what people do.” 

But there’s another side to the rules. The side where you realize that you’re meant to do something outside of the box of cultural norm and expectation and then you spend half your life trying to convince yourself of it and half your life trying to make it happen because the rules we’re entrenched in are surprisingly rigid. Even though we like to say that “anyone can do anything.” What we really mean is that “anyone can do anything as long as it’s logical and fits our description of normal.” 

So what happens then, to those who break the rules? I don’t know. But I’m about to find out. 

I grew up in a very specific family (nothing wrong with that, btw). My family is full of these incredibly organized, administratively gifted people. They carry planners, and live by them. They keep intense calendars and schedules and everything must fit within the planner. They’re incredible people. Most of them work in offices, in very important administrative roles, or executive roles. And it all makes perfect sense. 

So I grew up with an innate sense of that being normal. And I grew up with this idea that I must be that way too. No one told me to be that way, it’s just what everyone did. So I guess I assumed that that must be what I’m good at too. And so I lived my adult life working in administrative roles. Every job I’ve had, that’s what I did. 

Until my last administrative job. I was 25 when I realized that I’m not good at administrative work. Not even a little bit. Not only am I not good at it, but I loathe it. I don’t enjoy details. Actually I hate being hassled over details. I’m a big picture person and I KNOW that the big picture will work. Please don’t ask me to explain the details because I hate it and often see it as a waste of my time. Explaining the details makes me hate the whole idea. 

Guess what? Administrative work IS details. Details are essential to administrative work. Details are what will make or break something. In a nutshell- I am TERRIBLE at administrative work. I can do it, sure. But I chalk that up to my work ethic, not my giftings. I will always work hard. But it took me until I was 25 to realize I was working really hard at a job that I hated and wasn’t good at. 

I can’t believe that’s just how it’s supposed to be. I won’t believe that. Because I look around at the people I respect and they not only are good at their jobs, but genuinely LOVE their jobs. So, it must be possible to have a job that you are both good at and that you LOVE. 

So it started me on this journey. Trying to figure out what in the world I am good at. What I am passionate about. I’m embarrassed to say it took me 25 years to understand that creativity isn’t simply something I enjoy but it’s what I’m good at. I am a creative person. Which is a little annoying, to be honest. 

There is a stigma on creative people that creativity is nice but it’s impractical. Some people are successful as creative types, but it’s rare. And it doesn’t make any sense to pursue it. You HAVE to do the practical thing because it makes sense. 

So I try to make sense of that thought process. So you’re saying that I have to start out successful in order to validate my creativity? Ok, well, it doesn’t work like that. What if Robin Williams had never pursued acting? What if Bono had never decided to be in a band? Think of all the CREATIVE things we wouldn’t have in the world, if the creative people weren’t creative. 

I can’t be creative if it’s only contingent on success. Being creative is WHO I am. It’s as normal to me as being organized is to an administrative type. 

The point of all this, is that we HAVE to make room for creative people to be creative. I know, I know. It’s impractical. It's risky. There’s no guarantees of success or security. Well, let us determine our own success and security. Please stop putting us in boxes and demanding us to be like everyone else. Cause I lived a life where I wasn’t creative in my job and I hated it. I never stopped writing stories, and songs. I never stopped imagining all the things I wanted to do. I never stopped being creative. Because creativity is in my DNA. It’s who I am. 

And when you ask creative people to stop being creative because it doesn’t fit a box you need it to, it’s like asking us to stop breathing. Forgive the dramatics here, but it’s like dying slowly. We picture ourselves laying awake at night every day for the rest of our lives, regretting all the things we didn’t create and imagining all the things we could’ve done. 

Help us come out of our shell. Help us break “the rules.” Help us be creative. Believe in us. Believe that we can create something that matters and something that makes a difference. Give us a chance. Don’t relegate us to living someone else’s life. Don’t relegate us to sleepless nights filled with “could’ves.” 

The world is changing. I believe it needs creative people. I think the church needs creative people. Creativity allows us to express something that is in our hearts. And somehow, when we express something in our heart it often touches someone else’s heart. Interestingly, I think if you look at God's example of creativity I think you'll see that His heart was exposed in his creation. We expose our heart in our creativity. And when we love Jesus, I think we expose HIS heart in our creativity. It's a weighty thing. And we need it. Creativity matters. We need the creative people to be creative.