The challenge is to draw on the past but not be bound by it” p. 20.

Tragedy has a cruel way of ripping off the masks of self-sufficiency and self-satisfaction. It yells in the streets, “No! Everything is not A-okay!” It cracks apart our airtight theologies about God having everything under control. It forces us to get real and really struggle with the big questions of life. It cautions us that this life journey we are on is not easily comprehended with a few sermon points but demands a lifetime of wisdom to even begin to fathom.

Is there something in your spirit that keeps telling you it should be different: more interesting, more engaging, more creative, more profound? Does your prayer life feel like you’re eating the same food over and over every day – mixing the same ingredients but hoping for a new, more enticing dish?

I realized there really is a natural interplay between my spirituality and my creativity. When I enter into a spirit of prayer, I can cultivate a receptive space and actually ask God for creative ideas that will enhance my my praying. Then these creative practices allow me to enter into the spiritual space even more quickly and deeply. The result is a spiraling effect leading to ever-expanding dimensions, encompassing both deeper spirituality and heightened creativity.

Creativity and spirituality function on the same side of the brain. If that is true, it is quite reasonable and natural for them to function together. The prophets and mystics we're obviously aware of this connection. p. 23.

You can be assured, though, that prayer is unbounded, undetermined, and untethered. We may end a certain series of spoken words, but the spirit of the prayer stays with us, walks out the door, and down the street with us. At any moment of the day, we can pop back into that same spirit with just a pause on a bridge, the thought of a friend, or the whispered word, “thanks.

Tragedy has a cruel way of ripping off the masks of self-sufficiency and self-satisfaction. It yells in the streets, "No! Everything is not A-okay!" It cracks apart our airtight theologies about God having everything under control. It forces us to get real and really struggle with the big questions of life. It cautions us that this life journey we are on is not easily comprehended with a few sermon points but demands a lifetime of wisdom to even begin to fathom.

Is there something in your spirit that keeps telling you it should be different: more interesting, more engaging, more creative, more profound? Does your prayer life feel like you're eating the same food over and over every day - mixing the same ingredients but hoping for a new, more enticing dish?

The challenge is to draw on the past but not be bound by it" p. 20

It was as if God had become not only the object of my praise and thanksgiving but my creative partner as well.