This is a quote from author Frankey Schaeffer's book "Addicted to Mediocrity".

I read this last week and it may just have changed my life about how I think of my creative gifts and started me in a new direction.

Perhaps it can help you if you have ever wondered what to do, waited for recognition, or doubted if you will ever "make it" with your talents.

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And now a word to my fellow artists and those employed or hoping to be employed in some professional capacity in the arts, field of expression and communications, and also to those who, while living in different professions, have artistic and creative urges and interests personally (therefore, I trust, everyone).

"The world has had many kings," said his contemporary Aretino, "But only one Michelangelo."

Do not be discouraged. History is on your side. God has given you a talent. You are important to him and live in the court of God, not the court of men. You cannot wait for the Sanhedrin's approval.

By expressing yourself as an artist and by expressing those talents God has given you, you are praising him. Whether what you express is "religious" or "secular", as a Christian you are praising him. Everything is his.

The church's attitude toward the arts, the narrow-mindedness of it, the demand for slogans and justification, the utilitarianism, the programs, the guilt-ridden view of all life is unchristian, unbiblical, ungodly, and wrong. Do not let this suppress you, as a member of this generation of creative people, the way it has suppressed so many in the recent past. You must press on.

Remember that as a creative person, the important thing is to create.

Who see what you make, where it goes and what it does is a secondary consideration; the first is to exercise the talent God has given you.

You cannot expect too much too soon. It is the lifelong body of work that counts. It is that body of work whose expression means something and changes cultures in which we live in terms of bearing fruit. One individual work cannot say everything.

Your work will vary, one day to express something rather important to you personally and perhaps less important to the world around you, perhaps another time to wrestle with a weighty issue.

There is no right or wrong method. There is no Christian or unchristian subject matter (except for the area of art work or expression that would deliberately have as its primary purpose to lead people away from the truth).

You are tremendously free, you are the most free, for you have from on which to build your freedom, you know who you are, you know where your talent comes from, you know that you and your talent will live forever.

You know that God has placed worth on you; you know creativity, unlike so many things in the fallen world, did not come from the Fall, but was something there when God before he created, with him when he created, and that he has given to man as his creature. It will be there in the new heavens and the new earth.

Your creative talent, exercised and worked on in this life, is something you will take with you. Unlike money, or spiritual slogans, it is eternal.

Produce, produce, produce. Create, create, create. Work, work, work. This is what we must do as Christians in the arts, with or without the support of the church, we are to exercise our God-given talent, praise him through it, enjoy it, bear fruit in the age in which we live.

It is a worthwhile fight, and more than a fight it is an enjoyment of a good and gracious gift from our heavenly Father, freely given, to be enjoyed, practiced, and treasured.

When you get discouraged as a Christian in the arts, consider the heritage in which you stand. Bathe in the knowledge that for centuries Christians have practiced and nurtured the arts with faithfulness, and that now you carry this torch forward. Take courage from this. Take courage from the creativity and beauty of God's world around us. Take courage from the creativity of other people.

If any single group of people are in tune with God himself, certainly it is those Christians who enjoy, practice or simply appreciate creativity."

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Wow, if that doesn't hit you where you live in some area as a creative person, nothing will.

Makes you just want to go create the art YOU know God made you for doesn't it?

Well, then go do it! Quit waiting for the approval of the church, your friends, or your spouse, and just do it.

Forget money! Forget iTunes! Forget the narrow parameters of what the secular and church marketplace will "allow" to be presented to the world.

God gave you this gift, and this more than anything we have besides our devotion for God is what we will work on this this life, and take and use for ETERNITY!

Huge huh?

What an idea to think the Creator have us this gift, and that it is a pure and eternal gift.

Get busy folks. I know I will be!

Have a great week!

EC
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Eric Copeland is a producing, producing, producing and also creating, creating, creating. His company Creative Soul revels in their creativity and can help you develop yours. Check them out at http://www.CreativeSoulOnline.com, and also the artists they've helped create at http://www.CreativeSoulRecords.com