Tag: creativity

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motivation

What Motivates You?

What motivates you?

What gets you going each day? Is it the news? Is it a feeling that you have to perform? Maybe you’re motivated because the rent is due. Perhaps it is just money. That can be an issue when you’re asked to volunteer for something! What motivates you?

Some of us may want to make the world a better place. Others are in survival mode and think this world is a lost cause. Some see possibility today. Others fear the new year will just be a repeat of the previous two. After all, we thought 2021 would be better than 2020, right?

How we see the world determines how we act. I have found the following verse to be a better way.

“ Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.”

Hebrews 10:24 (NLT) via BibleGateway.com

If we want the world to change, we can begin in our own sphere of influence.

  • Check on a neighbor today to see how they’re doing
  • Write an encouraging text to a family member or friend
  • Smile even if you have to wear a mask
  • Find the silver-lining in a situation
  • Offer a solution to a problem instead of complaining

What motivates you? We can take responsibility today and end 2021 on a high note. After all, it may help us start 2022 off on the right foot.

Categories
motivation

Worry Rarely Works

Worry Rarely Works

Yesterday was Charles Schulz’s birthday. He was the reason this kid would go out and get the newspaper before anyone else had the chance and he inspired me to draw cartoons. A quote attributed to him reminds me why worry rarely works.

“Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.”

Charles M. Schulz on BrainyQuote.com

The reason worry rarely works is it neutralizes faith and hope. Worry says that we don’t trust and we fear. It’s an acknowledgment that there are so many factors out of our control. If we fear our lack of control, it leads to worry. But if we rest in the hope things will be better, It can be empowering.

Worry is a waste of creativity. When we imagine the worst, what is the point of doing anything to improve the future? If we’ve done all that we can, shouldn’t we rest in the comfort that God can take it from there? Jesus had a little to say on this subject.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Matthew 6:34 (NIV) via Bible Gateway

Stay in the moment and don’t worry about tomorrow. There are things I worried about forty years ago that never came to be. And none of us could have foreseen the challenges of today. None of our worries from yesterday made a difference for today, except it may have raised our blood pressure and caused us to age a little quicker.

Besides, when did worry really work for us?

Categories
creativity

Is It Nonconformist or Not?

Quote from James Thurber: "Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?

Can somebody claim to be a nonconformist when they are doing what they feel is necessary to fit into a group of nonconformists?

I often thought of that when I took art classes, and later, worked in art departments. I loved to be creative. But it seemed to fit in, you had to have certain beliefs, dress a certain way, and behave in a certain manner. That wasn’t for me! I just wanted to create. I didn’t want to waste my creative energy on trying to fit in with this group or that.

I love Jame’s Thurber’s quote because it reminds me of that awkward feeling I had when I wasn’t quite fitting in with my art buddies, nor with my more conservative friends.

“Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?”

James Thurber

Culture ruins nonconformists. A musical band is considered a sell-out when its creativity hits the mainstream. Fashion trends are all the rage one year and totally faux pas the next. If one is wearing last year’s fashion trend, are they out of touch or are they cutting-edge nonconformists?

What is considered conformist in one group is considered shockingly out there in another. Perhaps the true gauge of who is a nonconformist is that they never quite fit in any group they are a part of. We are all unique individuals, after all.

Categories
motivation

Do you know why with certainty?

Cartoon of birds on a wire

When something happens, it’s easy to assume we know the answer to the event. But what if the “obvious answer” isn’t all that obvious? Our assumptions can deceive us, can’t they?

The little bird in my cartoon thinks he knows why his yellow friend is so large. Naturally, he must be eating some killer birdseed! But is the bird’s assumption correct? What if another factor caused the yellow bird to have some hefty prominence?

  • What if the yellow bird was an escapee from a science experiment?
  • Could the yellow bird have an overactive pituitary gland?
  • Maybe he had been on Sesame Street and birds naturally get yellow and large there
  • What if he is a she and in this species of bird, the females are larger?
  • Perhaps he is simply a different species?

Humor works because a joke or a cartoon sets us up to think in one direction, then the punchline takes us in another. It’s a bit of mental whiplash. Henny Youngman was great at it.

“If at first you don’t succeed…so much for skydiving.”

Henny Youngman

We make assumptions all the time. Could it be we shouldn’t be as certain of our assumptions as we are? Perhaps we need to be humble enough to consider there are other answers to why something is the way it is. It could lead to creativity…and perhaps a breakthrough.

Cartoon of birds on a wire
Categories
motivation

Phoenix Church Ministers Creatively

I had the opportunity to write an article for Church of God Ministries. It is about a church that found a way to minister to the community during the coronavirus pandemic.

Phoenix Church Hosts Socially Distanced Drive-in Movie
I wrote this article for Church of God Ministries.

Arcadia City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, used an inflatable screen and some electronic expertise to have a drive-in movie family night. Pastors Michael and Christy Fay were inspired by their growing family. They observed how one of their children longed for connection during the quarantine.

I love how instead of getting frustrated and upset about how the crisis has changed how we do church, they were inspired to find a solution. As we continue to experience challenges, let’s all look for ways we can reach out and help others. We can all turn negative situations into solutions that can benefit us and our communities.