We Are All Creators | Rev. Clara

Every day we create through the choices we make!

Think about that for a moment! Where we are today and who we are today are our creations. Of course (unless we have undergone some type of cosmetic procedure) we did not create the color of our skin, the natural texture of our hair, the color of our eyes, our height, shoe size and a myriad of other physical characteristics inherited at birth. What we do control is how we present those God-given qualities to the world.

 Merriam-Webster defines creator as "one who makes something new". A creator takes what is and transforms it into something new and different. One of the greatest creators was Michelangelo. The Pieta was one of his most magnificent creations. Michelangelo carved this masterpiece in less than two years, from a mere slab of marble. Of his work, Michelangelo said, "I saw the angel in the slab of marble and carved until I set it free."

 While there is much about the world around us that we cannot control, we have "absolute control" over the inner world where our thoughts and imagination reside; that inner world from which our life stories are generated, stories which impede or enhance our ability to be masterful creators.

 The weather we cannot control. The attitudes of others we can not dictate. The daily economic, political and social challenges we cannot order. What we can control is how we respond to whatever is going on around us. We can and we must control our inner world. Henry David Thoreau said, "What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny compared to what lies within us."

 Let me offer some steps for how we might be the creators God intended us to be, using the letters in the word C-R-E-A-T-O-R-S.

 C - Choose mindfully who you allow to speak into your life. Choose deliberately and wisely who you allow access to the inner world of your thoughts and imagination. Commit to be the writer, director, producer and casting director of your own life. You are your own creator! Never allow yourself to be a minor actor in someone else's screenplay. You deserve better!

 R - Recalibrate your allegiances, alliances, worldviews, self-perceptions and expectations so that they line up with your present values and intentions. If you have been living under the weighted burdens of "I should have", "I could have" or "I would have", it is time to let those false ideas go. Too many of us are yet trying to "fit in" and./or "be accepted" by institutions (even religious institutions) and individuals whose political agendas are no longer in sync with who we are, our values, and where it is we intend to go. It is time to recalibrate, cut the cords, and move on. And refuse to accept the argument that "times have changed" and you must yield to the change and conform to this "new reality". If that change or "new reality" allows you to live your best life, then accept it. If not, you have a divine mandate, as the creator of your own life, and the only one responsible for your own happiness, to cut the cord, recalibrate and move on.

 E- Engage only those persons and things which lift you higher. Refuse to be a means to someone else's end. Be clear about who you are, what you have to offer, and where it is you intend to go, and engage only those persons and institutions which contribute to your overall well-being and success. Ray C, Ram said "People will either lift you up, put you down, or keep you stagnant. Choose your company wisely,"

 A - Accept the past and affirm the present. Accepting the past is acknowledging that what happened, happened. As Dr. Phil McGraw says, "not even God can change the past". Accept that whatever choices you made yesterday reflected who you were yesterday". Celebrate that you graduated from yesterday's class, you learned enough to make different choices today, and you are in a better place. And affirm that your present is your second chance to do better and be better. Celebrate your present as an accomplishment.

 T - Transform all obstacles into opportunities. Napoleon Hill said, "Every adversity contains, at some time, a seed of equivalent opportunity".

 O - Observe to learn. One poet wrote "A wise old owl sat on an oak, the more he saw the less he spoke; the less he spoke the more he heard; Why aren't we like that wise old bird?"

 R - Receive inspiration from nature. Sometimes our worlds are so loud and so busy we miss that inspiration which only nature can provide, Perhaps we would all do well to fast from our cell phones, television, conversations and books and go fore a walk, allowing our eyes and ears to hear the voices from nature.

 S - Surrender to the grace, peace, love and mercy that only God can give. Give up the drama! Give up the "craziness"! Give up the excuses! Give up all blame and excuses and that victim mentality! Give up fear and self-doubt! Embrace the truth that you and God are one. There is no separation between you and God other than that which you crate. Surrender to the truth that love is your right, fullness of life is your destiny, and joy is your promise.