An Invocation for Artists

Amen.

The video above was made by the School of Visual Art & Design at Southern Adventist University.

Here are the words:

May I remember that creativity doesn't belong to me.
It is a gift; a living thing.
I do not create it within myself.

To create my own creativity would be a paradoxical whirlpool of baloney.

Instead, let me nourish it. Let me feed it granola and fresh blueberry,
Simple truths that will help it grow up big and strong.

And when it does, let me give it a challenge worthy of its size and strength
so that it can ever continue to grow bigger and stronger.

Let me glow with confidence, but not so brightly that I blind myself or others with my own arrogance.
Instead, let me be just bright enough to see the path in front of me.

When inspiration hits me, let it hit hard enough to give me a black eye
and give me the courage to hit back.

Let me retain my own individuality, rather than donning the unique sameness that everyone else is currently wearing.

If what took a man two days to do twenty years ago,
takes me two hours to do now,
let me remember that some whippersnapper will be waiting to show me up twenty minutes from now.

Let me satisfy my hunger for accomplishment,
even if that means I don't satisfy my hunger for food.

Let me value people not by what they make, but by who they are.
Let me find my own value not in what I make, but in Who made me.

Lord, let every victory of mine be a victory of Yours.
And let every failure of mine be a victory of Yours.

There's no need to sharpen my pencils anymore.
My pencils are sharp enough.
Even the dull ones will make a mark.
What's done is done.

Now as I gaze into the gleaming horizon of the inevitable future,
allow me to sail on the wind of change,
to navigate the fathomless depth of the unknown.

Let me put hand to plow and till the fertile soil of possibility.
And as I stand on the precipice between what has been and what will be...

Whoa! Getting kind of dizzy up here!

(sigh)

God just help me live! Amen.