Many creatives live quiet, desperate lives where they’re just waiting …
They’re waiting until finally one day they are satisfied with the skill level they’ve mastered …
They’re waiting until finally their work is effortless and turns out looking just like they envisioned, perfect and flawless ...
They’re waiting until finally one day they can quit the job they have to do and begin the job they want to do …
They’re waiting until finally one day they don’t feel so odd and out of place in their world …
They’re waiting for that perfect opportunity, the perfect people, the perfect circumstance to appear …
They’re waiting until finally one day they’re receiving the attention and acclaim they feel they’ve earned …
They’re waiting, waiting, waiting … for lofty goals and expectations that will never come … it’s all an illusion that will never come to pass.
There’s a level of dissatisfaction that we all need. We’re designed to be dissatisfied with where we’re at so we’ll keep moving forward and keep growing and improving. That kind of dissatisfaction is healthy when it’s met with initiative that gets us off our chair and gets us to work doing what we were designed to do.
But sometimes we let it be an unhealthy kind of dissatisfaction, where we’re frustrated because we’re not where we want to be. Our work is harder to do that it ought to be. We get envious of others who are getting more clicks, views, and attention than us. We had life plans for school or work that got interrupted by health problems or family situations or circumstances we couldn’t control.
Creatives with all their intensity can go into dark places when they get frustrated and dissatisfied. It can leak into their work. Even worse, it can stop their work altogether! And that’s just criminal!
Because God created you to do your creative thing, whether it’s drawing, painting, music, writing, sculpting … whatever. He wants you to be busy doing what He created you to do.
But the world and the enemy lie to us. They say:
- If it’s not making money, it’s no good.
- If it’s not executed perfectly, it’s no good.
- If it’s not displayed in a gallery or played on the radio, or getting thousands of likes and clicks on social media, it’s no good.
- If only one person – or NO persons – saw it, heard it or experienced it, it’s no good.
And we believe the lies, get frustrated, get depressed and quit. Then we get more frustrated, more depressed … we’ve fallen into the enemy’s trap and we’ve let him win. Allow it to keep happening over and over for enough years and you’ll wind up with wasted dreams and a destroyed lifetime, which was the enemy’s goal all along.
Ultimately, only you and God know what He’s placed inside of you and what He wants you to do with it. His ways are not the world’s ways. The world measures success with dollars and accolades, but it can be hollow. And if that’s not what God had lined up for you, you can chase it, achieve it, and still wind up a failure, utterly unfulfilled.
Don’t worry if you get sidetracked by life … sometimes things get sidetracked or temporarily delayed. He’s got your path laid out and His timing is impeccable.
Tune out all that insecurity inside that nags at you constantly … it will get better and better. He won’t lay out the whole plan, He’ll only give it to you step by step, day by day. It will be unnerving for a while, but keep trusting and keep following. You won’t see where you’re going, but over time you’ll be able to look back at where you’ve been and see clearly how He’s been guiding you. That will give you the courage to trust Him even more for the next step and the next and the next …
Maybe you have goals to write an epic novel, or compose symphonies, or paint masterpieces. If they are goals He placed inside of you, trust and follow Him … it will happen. It could happen when you’re 25, or it might not happen until you’re 95!
All I know is that if you are following Him, there will definitely be times of waiting. They won’t be easy, but they won’t be frustrating times of waiting like you’ve been going through. He will use those times to grow you and develop you, and to teach you how to trust and follow Him.
And they will be times of peace and contentment, because you are right in the middle of His will. The enemy will come and try to bring with him all those nagging insecurities, but it won’t work now, because you know Who holds you and you know you are right where you’re supposed to be on your journey.
One day you will look back and will see that He either got you to your goals, or else took you down another path to something even better. But instead of frustration and emptiness, you will be fulfilled and satisfied, and you didn’t waste your time chasing and waiting for empty promises that never materialized.