If you have an idea you’re imaginative.
If you take somebody else’s idea and make something out of it you’re innovative.
But if you have the idea AND make something out of it, you’re creative.
Sure, we are all creative, but like all gifts, some get more than others. And like all gifts, whatever we’ve got, we can likely improve. How creative are you?
Take this 10-question quiz (which I wrote based on research by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi):
How Creative Are You?
Please rate yourself: On a scale of 1-5 (5 is ‘I strongly see this in me,’ 1 is ‘I don’t see this in me at all’):
1. While I have a great deal of energy, I am also often quiet and at rest.
2. I tend to be smart, yet also naive at the same time.
3. I have a combination of playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.
4. I alternate between imagination and fantasy at one end, and a rooted sense of reality at the other.
5. I seem to harbor opposite tendencies on the continuum between extroversion and introversion.
6. I am remarkably humble and proud at the same time.
7. To a certain extent I escape rigid gender role stereotyping and have a tendency toward androgyny.
8. Generally, I am thought to be rebellious and independent.
9. I am very passionate about my work, yet can be extremely objective about it as well.
10. My openness and sensitivity often exposes me to suffering and pain yet also a great deal of enjoyment.
The higher your score, the more likely you are to have a greater gift of creativity.
This is important because Jesus commends creativity – and encourages us to cultivate it (more on Sunday). We do this by improving our ability to view things in new ways and different perspectives. Also, by our ability to generate new possibilities and new alternatives.
What challenge are we facing that could use a little creativity – and what might we do to be more creative? How might God's creativity more deeply flow through us?
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Reading
Luke for Everyone – NT Wright
The Message – Eugene Peterson
Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
