Special Challenges of Creative Work

Creative work brings its own set of special challenges - especially when we're trying to sanctify all our work for the greater glory of God.

Sure, we creative folks can make our intention at the beginning of each day. We can develop all those habits that help to support and grow our spiritual life. There's no reason for us to think we can't become saints - the objective of us all if we take our spiritual life seriously.

So what's so special about creative folks that makes it so challenging here?

A good place to start may simply be personal experience. So here's a thought from personal experience: It's those thoughts that keep bubbling up, sometimes bursting our brains at the seams.

Not everyone experiences this. But creative types typically do.

These thoughts percolate according to their own schedule. They come when they want to come. And it's not always when we want to entertain them.

Is this any different than the usual challenge of distractions? Yes and no.

Distractions always weave their way into our prayer life, no matter who we are. This not only from personal experience, but also sourced from good, solid Catholic spiritual writers. They treat the subject of distraction while praying or meditating as an accepted fact for us all. They encourage us not to fret. They tell us that even if we try to get back to our prayer in the face of distraction - but the distractions keep coming - God will give us "credit," or, perhaps more accurately, merit. 

So in that sense, creative minds are part of the "Community of the Distracted." (Just made that one up.)

For creatives, though, the bubbling stuff is more than just the run of the mill distraction. It's more often something original that calls for action, or something that's related to a creation that's being worked on.

Here's an example from a musician-songwriter-producer's point of view:

You're busy at work in your "day job." Or maybe you're off from work and just sitting in the pocket of your personal life. Either way. (And, of course, off from work covers a lot of ground: special time for religious devotions, physical exercise, just being with your wife and/or children, etc.) Smack dab in the middle of whatever you're working on, whomever you're hanging with, the creative brain decides it's got some "special" idea you ought to consider. In this particular case, it could be a melody or lyric for a song, or recording technique you just realized you should apply to a production project. Whatever.

Now, these are different from the normal distractions/daydreaming that can infect the mind from time to time. These seem somehow more substantial. With the former, you work on dismissing them by getting back to your work, prayer, personal interaction, etc. With the latter, however, you need to do something. You don't want to just dismiss them. It could simply be writing something down, or it could be more substantial like needing to take time to let the initial impulse expand. And that could take up a fare amount of time. You even think you've got to break away from your current preoccupation.

Or maybe it's simply a more general "plague" of creative distraction that takes what's seeming straightforward and ordinary and overlays it with some, shall we say, "enhanced" perception. (Yes, that's a bit vague, but if you've got that creative bent, you'll know what's going on here.) That active creativity layers on something distinct on simply ordinary thoughts and distinctions. Sometimes this can be interesting, even have some value. Many times, though, it can be a bit frivolous.

In the end, though, the challenge must be met in a similar way that any distraction must be addressed. You can't afford to just let Mr. Mind go crazy and start imagining all sorts of possibilities. In a sense, this could be the key to how you respond: If you discipline the creative mind to discern what's potentially a concrete project from what's just an imagination gone wild, you're on the right track.

And if you include a prayer - maybe a quickie or maybe some calm, considered meditative moment or more - you connect with your spiritual life. You tell God you're trying to keep peace in your soul, to remain united to Him in your Interior Life. This in instead of letting your creativity take control and push God out, stage left (or right).

To really wrap this up, all you creative types, know this: Our creativity must be devoted to the True, the Good, the Beautiful. If it is, it's somehow coming from the working of the Holy Spirit. God creates. If it's not, well, there's a good chance it's the product of a self that's looking to build itself up in some way; worse, it could be the result of the machinations of You-Know-Who. 

As creators, we are God's workmen. Give all the credit for anything worthwhile that's produced as coming from God. Be relentless in this. Don't let your creativity make you think you're somehow special. It's a gift.

Sure, it comes with those special challenges. But it's a gift nonetheless. Get it under some sort of umbrella that includes God in every aspect of it, and it will serve Him and others (whoever touches the product of your creativity) well.