Prayers of Despair

When an artist sends up a despairing prayer, the Great Creator does hear and answer it.

As artists, when human powers fail us, we must turn to the Great Creator for help. We must “surrender” our sense of isolation and despair and open ourselves to the spiritual help we frequently experience as an unexpected inner strength. Julia Cameron Walking in This World Page 244

When we are in the midst of despair we may make a desperate call for help from God—O God help me, we may say, crying out loud in our desperation.

This prayer will be answered immediately and it is important to keep our hearts and souls open so that we can know the peace and assurance of the grace of God’s answer to our prayer.

If we make our prayer—our desperate cry to God for help, and then immediately go back to despair and anxiety about our situation, it is as if we have closed our hearts and souls to God’s inflowing grace; though we have sent up our request to God we have immediately shut up the conduit to receive the answer.

We are partners with God in both the praying of the prayer and in the receiving of the answer. We say the prayer to God; God hears the prayer. God gives the answer; we, with open hearts, minds, and souls, receive the answer.

It is like a circular flow of give and take, request and answer, speaking and hearing. God makes requests of us also. God calls us to a way of life, a way of creativity, a joyful and generous demeanour. When we respond to God’s call to us that is a form of thanksgiving and gives glory to God.

© Judith Lawrence

Trust in the Power that Created Us

Muskoka River

As we commit to our real dreams, we commit to ourselves. As we commit to ourselves, we also commit to trusting the power that created us. We are then aligning ourselves not with false gods but with the true power of the universe, the Great Creator through whose power all dreams are possible. Julia Cameron, Walking in This World Page 238

Committing ourselves to God in all areas of life makes it possible for all our dreams to become a reality. We commit to pursuing our creative dreams and, at the same time, we commit to trusting those dreams to the power of the one who created us. The Great Creator created us with those dreams instilled in our very being—the dreams we have for ourselves are the very dreams God gave to us at the time of our birth.

Canoe Ride

Sometimes we accuse ourselves of dreaming too big. This is false pride. In most cases we tend to dream too small. God has created us with amazing gifts and dreams and we barely touch the surface of what is possible for us. We doubt ourselves, our gifts, and our abilities instead of committing to and trusting in the power that created us.

Like the disciples, we are astounded by God’s promise to us, but Christ looks at us intently, deep into our soul, and says, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.” Mark 10: 27 (New Living Translation)

Trust then in what is possible with God in your life and on your side; dream big and align yourself with the Great Creator; search deep within yourself for the dream that God instilled in you at the beginning of your life on earth; take hold of that dream and turn it into a reality to the glory of God.

© Judith Lawrence

Creativity as a Spiritual Experience

Composition for Classical Guitar by Morton Lawrence

What if creativity itself is, as our creative ancestors taught us, actually a spiritual experience, a way to touch the divine and allow it to touch us?…

We are an expression of the Great Creator, and we in turn are intended to create. It is not mere ego but our divine birthright to create. Julia Cameron Walking in This World Page 231

Many of the great composers—Brahms, Beethoven, Hayden—claimed that their music came to them from the divine. As they listened to God in the quiet they claimed to hear the Creator’s music and wrote down the notes that they heard. Living a spiritual life they were open to God within their souls; they were able to touch the divine in their spiritual encounters and thus could hear the music of the Creator and write it down for others to hear God’s creative music also.

The act of creativity is a spiritual experience, a spiritual endeavour, and a spiritual expression. Whether we are writers, composers, or artists we need to be open to listen to God the creator. It is in the quiet openness to the Spirit of God that we can receive the gift of creativity in whatever form God chooses to bless us.

It is up to us to be open to God’s spiritual gift, receive that gift, and use that gift to the glory of God and for the welfare of others on this earth.

© Judith Lawrence

Inner Well of Creativity

Rivulet in Woods

As artists, we routinely tap an inner well, and that well is fed by our spiritual condition. When we have kept our spirit carefully nurtured, the creative water seems to flow easily. When our spirit is dried out with unacknowledged discouragement, our inner well runs dry. Julia Cameron Walking in This World Page 224

Our inner well is kept filled and flowing by the nurturing of the Holy Spirit. In order for this to happen we must keep ourselves in touch with the God’s word through the reading of Holy Scriptures and through prayer and contemplation in our quiet times of communication with God.

Our inner well becomes dried out when we do not keep ourselves in touch with God’s word, when we neglect our times of prayer and contemplation, so allowing ourselves to become discouraged without the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Muskoka River in July

The water of life is always available to us but we have to ensure that we drink from it. God will not force it upon us but it is there for us to freely receive, fill up our cup, and drink from it.

Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations. Revelation 22: 1, 2.

Here is the source of all our creativity free to all who will accept it.

© Judith Lawrence

Times of Doubt and Drought

Snow storm in April

Creativity is a spiritual issue, and…the creative life features the same spiritual obstacles as any other spiritual path. The phrase “dark night of the soul” has gained common usage, and we think of it as it applies to the harrowing periods of doubt and drought that may come to someone on their spiritual quest.

Spiritual seekers of all stripes endure its painful ravages…artists are spiritual seekers, and we frequently suffer the dark night of the soul regarding our creative calling. Julia Cameron, Page 191, Walking in This World

At times, when artists take up the tools of their creativity they find themselves facing a period of doubt or drought in their ability to produce the next step in their current project.

Writers may be stymied in where their story should go next; oil painters may not be able to decide what colour they should choose for the next stroke of the brush; a wood carver may be unable to get the eye of the blue jay just right.

It feels as if their talent has deserted them—they are unable to interpret the next step on their spiritual path; they are facing their own dark night of the soul.

When this happens the artist can only wait until the time of doubt and drought pass them by. It is no good berating themselves for their inability to take the next step in their creativity. This is a time for the artist to stop and stare at the beauty around them; this is a time to wait upon the Creator to give them their next step; this is the time to contemplate the Creator and Giver of all things—to wait and see what wondrous gift will be given to them when the time of doubt and drought is passed.

© Judith Lawrence

Spiritual Path of Creativity

When we say that making art is an act of faith and that as we make art we pursue a spiritual path, we are not talking loosely. There is grace in our every artistic encounter. Miracles do happen. We do not plan them. We hope for them and then we are open to the creator’s mentoring hand in improving our suggestions. What looks difficult or impossible to us does not appear difficult or impossible to the Great Creator. … Creative energy is like electricity. It will flow whether we allow it to or not. Julia Cameron Walking in This World Page 154/155

As a writer, sometimes when I read over what I have written, I wonder where the thoughts or ideas for what is written on the page came from. They came, of course, from God.

I begin every day with quiet meditation and part of that time consists of journaling. When I am in the midst of authoring a manuscript for a non-fiction spiritual book this is where the words and ideas are conceived. I meditate on thoughts and words of other spiritual writers, messages given in the Bible, as well as mystical poetry or writings mainly from 14^th century mystics.

After prayer for guidance from the Lord of what he would have me say in my upcoming book, I just write in my journal, not stopping to over think anything but just writing down whatever comes into my head. Later these thoughts get transcribed into my book manuscript file on the computer.

This is the same process I use for my monthly meditations  on my website and for my weekly blog Contemplative without a Cloister.

This is where I see the “creator’s mentoring hand” and am totally in awe of the miracles God performs in my creative life.

© Judith Lawrence

Grace is Always Available

Grace is available to us always, at any stage of the creative journey.…At all levels of creative endeavour, the Great Creator is present and partnering with us.

Blue Heron, Celtic Knotwork, J. Lawrence

[T]he Great Creator always gives us strength enough and support enough and guidance enough to meet the precise creative challenges at hand. We may be overwhelmed but God is not. If we fail at Plan A, God has an endless supply of Plan B's. There is always not only a fall back position but also a net. That net is having the faith to try again. Julia Cameron Walking in This World Page 154

Whether we are creators using a paint brush, a pen, or a cooking pot we will be faced with challenges along the way. Sometimes we will feel overwhelmed by what confronts us and perhaps even think that we can’t go on—we feel it’s more than we can handle.

This is when we become aware of God’s grace given to us in abundance. God gives us strength, support, and guidance when we call out to him. We may think our chance has passed us by but if God has called us to do something there is always a way through to the end.

When I became deathly ill in November of 2010, just a few weeks before my manuscript was due in the publisher’s hands, I thought that there would be no possibility of completing that book. God, however, brought me into a fall back position and, with the cooperation of my publisher, I was able to get to the end of the book and see it published.

Partnered with the Great Creator and helped by friends and my publishing partners the work came to fulfillment. To God all things are possible.

© Judith Lawrence