Can We Find Moments of Creative Inspiration In The Midst of Our Ordinary Work Flow?

Picking up from our last post, we wonder whether we can find moments of creative inspiration in the midst of our ordinary work flow. This all comes from our consideration of the work of the artist, and the role creativity plays in that work. 

We already recognized that at first blush it doesn't seem that creative inspiration would be native to just regular old work that's not in any way related to art. But we still wonder whether those little sparks that can inspire works of art might help us in our daily labor. And this specifically as a way to make our work more pleasing to God.

And isn't that really what matters most - that our work be more pleasing to God? Yes, for His Greater Glory, for sure. But is we really love God - Father, Son, Holy Spirit - doesn't the impulse to do something that would please Him make perfect sense?

Anyway, let's look at this creative inspiration thing. 

The artist can identify such moments of inspiration during the course of a day's work. The question is, can we?

Inspiration? Well, why not?

And with our starting point of tempering our work - as introduced last time - we may find time and space for the occasional moment or two of inspiration.

Remember that this idea of tempering comes from the tempering of steel (or other metals as well) to make impart hardness, consistency, resiliency, and elasticity. We could spend the rest of our time simply talking of these four characteristics imparted to steel, and apply them to our specific work. Perhaps another time. For now, just think about each. 

If our work - whatever it is - can be made hard, consistent, resilient, and elastic, can we see how that will improve the quality of it? Could it provide "free" moments when we could be receptive to some inspiration to improve our work? A down and dirty analysis:

Hardness makes things definite, firm, the opposite of flabby, willy-nilly, unfocused.

Consistency allows us to replicate the result desired over and over again. Don't we all have certain consistent actions we perform daily, in an orderly manner? If not, we should.

Resiliency is important when we are distracted by our surroundings; encounter general economic conditions that cause our business to have to adjust or change; lose our job due to changes at our company; lose all our digital work because of a technical glitch (ever happened to you?)...we could go on, but you get the point.

Elasticity allows us to be flexible, not locked in/rigid in our approach to and our attitude towards our daily work. Things come up, circumstances change, and sometimes we have to have a little "give" in our mental and emotional responses to such events. You can see how this is related to resiliency, right?

It does seem that we'd benefit from a deeper dive into these four characteristics. For now, though, just take in the basics and imagine how these could open up opportunities to step back, be recollected for a few moments, reassess what we're doing, consider fresh approaches, etc.

And you may even see how, at the very least, they can open up "spots" for us to turn our attention to God, even in the midst of our daily grind, for a quick aspiration or two, maybe even a few minutes of "conversation" to elevate our work, to sanctify it, for His Greater Glory.

As for inspiration, it can only come to us if there are such spots available from time to time.

OK, so this is a bit theoretical and rather general, even perhaps vague. But it's intended to get the wheels turning and is it does, great. 

We'll return to these themes in the near future, It seems we've uncovered fertile ground lying beneath the surface our our typically hum drum regular activities at work. 

We'll also return to more about the work of artists. That means more about the role of inspiration and how it can enrich our ordinary non-artsy work; but also how inspiration is not the only component of creativity when it comes to art. 

Lots to consider!