Where Does Inspiration Come From?
What inspires you? Where do you get your ideas, your creative thoughts, your inventive insights, your sudden “a-ha” moments? Socrates believed that inspiration was something quite outside of ourselves, and the true artist was simply an empty vessel from which the “muse” poured through. As artists of faith, we do believe that God is our inspiration. But we also believe that—as He made us in His creative image—we have the ability to create independent of Him (creativity being one aspect of free will). So where does your inspiration come from? Where does the human being find their doing?
I’d like to suggest that there are at least four avenues that inspire us.
Creation. God’s creation constantly speaks to us of His glory. The stars in the sky, the purple mountains and the blue oceans, even just laying on blades of grass on a sunny day. Psalm 19 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth.”
As humans, we are drawn to the beauty of creation, which is a fingerprint of God’s glory. And this is by design. He placed that longing for His glory deep within us, like a spiritual compass that always points north. This is why we take walks in the woods or look up at the night sky or pick flowers. And this is why artists paint landscapes and sing songs to the stars and arrange daisies in vases.
Our art is also influenced by His creation in other ways. Color, light, sound, taste, temperature—these are all aspects of creation. The way the bow strokes the violin string, the feel of the brush on the canvas, the way the light strikes an object, the way a steak sizzles on a grill—these are all aspects of how God’s creation can inspire us.
In his book, Voicing Creation’s Praise, Jeremy Begbie states, “The Christian faith presents us with a vision of created existence possessing its own latent orderliness and meaning, and that a crucial part of human creativity is to be attentive to that inherent order, to discover it and bring it to light.”
Culture. We live in a world that is inspired. Culture is the sea in which we human beings swim. So we are inevitably influenced by the music we listen to, the movies we watch, the books we read, the clothes our peers wear. I’ve been personally influenced by many artists, from Steely Dan to King David. Culture has many voices that speak into us in powerfully sublime ways. If you’ve ever been to a museum, or quoted a movie scene, or looked up a YouTube “how-to” video, you’ve inevitably been inspired by culture.
The danger, of course, is that we are inspired by the wrong things. We are constantly bombarded by the disingenuous agendas of social media, of news media (both left and right), of a culture that is fueled by sex, money, and power. As such, artists of faith should find inspiration in speaking against injustice, depravity, and wrongdoing.
Personal Expression. Because God made us in His creative image, we have the capacity to express our distinct individuality simply by human being and human doing. Just like no two snowflakes are alike, no two roses are alike, we have the very special gift of individual expression. Of course, we know that our art is dependent on our practice, our technique, our experience, our intuition, and our sensibilities. So our personal expressions are dependent on our ability to steward our talents and skills.
I’ve had the privilege of working with aspiring songwriters, helping them coax a great song from a good one. Sometimes I will suggest a chord substitution or voicing that I know they’ve never used before. And it will lift the song from the ordinary. A songwriter cannot write a song greater than their musicality. Nor can a dancer dance better than they are physically equipped, nor a writer write beyond their vocabulary. As we be and do this thing called art, we have the obligation to steward our craft, so that we can give our best to God and to the world.
The Spirit of God. Of course, as Christ followers, we believe that the Source of inspiration is ultimately the Holy Spirit. But more specifically, sometimes He will actually give us ideas and words and images that He wants incarnated into the world—be it in a painting or sculpture or song or film. There is a prophetic aspect to what we do as creatives, and we must carefully pay attention to that calling—not to abuse it and not to ignore it either.
A word about this. I’ve seen a tendency, mostly in charismatic circles, to use the label “prophetic art” when referring to art made by Christians. But I don’t believe art is necessarily prophetic if created by someone who follows Jesus. I know many Christian commercial artists who make lots of amazing art—for advertisements, for movies, for jingles, for commission, and for themselves. I caution artists of faith not to use the term “prophetic art” too loosely.
I want to leave you with a quote from a book called Creator Spirit by Steven Guthrie. I think it is a beautifully stated way to see ourselves as humans and creatives:
“God created us as human beings to live in right relationship with the rest of the created world. This is part of what it means to be made in the image of God. The Spirit’s work of restoring our humanity, then, includes restoring us to right relationship with the physical world. We were made to inhabit God’s creation and to be both receivers and givers to the world he has created. So we fulfill an important dimension of our vocation as human beings when we receive the gifts of creation and culture. We also fulfill an important dimension of our human vocation as we give of ourselves, shaping and adding to the material world and the world of culture. As the artist attends carefully to the gifts of the natural world and the social world, and as he actively responds, returning his own gifts to others, he becomes a participant in the grace-filled cosmos described in Psalm 104; he joins in the great chain of giving set in motion by God.”
As artists of faith, our vocation of creation is a part of God’s great plan for humanity and the universe. Inspiration is an invitation to join him in the creative process. Like a child playing in the sandbox with her father, we are invited to be both receiver and giver of the divine Beauty.
[Finding yourself with writer’s block or in need of inspiration? Check out the blogpost, “100 Things Creatives Can Do With Their Time,” which I wrote during the pandemic. Banner photo by Anh Duy on Unsplash. Inset photo by Shayna Douglas on Unsplash.]
