Episode 4 of the God at the Center of our Creativity series - Everyday Life category. Full list of topics covered on our website: jaef.foundation/problem-guide-jaef
We continue our discussion with our guest Kyra Faith Wharton - the founder of Full Faith Foward and FWDify about her vision and mission to put God at the center of our creativity in Art. Early on in her career, Kyra was often told that she had to relinquish her relationship with God to be a better artist, that her relationship with the Lord Jesus would hinder her as an artist. On the verge of walking away from her passion for art - God pulled her back and told her; you belong here because I belong here.
We talk about how to put God at the center of our creativity - in art, music, cinema and all other forms of audio and visual creativity.
Today, our world has and is still trying to eliminate God from every sphere. From abolishing prayer in public schools to censorship of the name of Jesus and Faith talk in workplaces. The moral code of Exodus chapter twenty which is the foundation for all modern civilization moral and ethical values is considered by many as archaic and no longer applicable to the desires and wants of the 21st century.
God’s guiding principles in the Bible pertaining to life and godliness - some would argue that the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end needs to update his manual. We find out the validity of this argument within the Art industry. Is it true that in order to thrive in art, music and cinema we have to leave God outside the door?
Our first guest faced this dilemma when she was often told that she had to relinquish her relationship with God to be more creative!
However, one might argue that we have seen this trick play before in the garden of Eden after God created Adam and Eve. Satan - the devil appeared to Eve and planted a seed of doubt that the reason God didn’t want Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil was that God didn’t want them to become like him, yet in the previous chapter in Genesis 1:26-28 God had clearly stated the opposite...God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...so God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them…”
Satan is using his oldest trick in the book by conviving the masses that their creativity in art, music and cinema will only blossom if they ignore the creator of man and the universe. If this is true, are we deeply satisfied with the fruit of lasciviousness? Has it been worth opening the flood gates of no restraint to usher in demons of wild imaginations and unquenchable appetites? Is losing a whole generation to mental illness, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem as a result of this worth it? Has it been worth it that we have gained the world but lost our souls?
It’s certainly foolish to believe that the creator who created offspring creators wouldn’t want them to create when at the beginning that was one of his mandates to mankind...In Genesis 1:28 “God blessed them and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion…”
Our eyes have never been satisfied with nature’s beauty and the visible elements of the galaxy. Nature and the sky above it are a daily source of soul refreshment to many. Now is the time to invite our creator and Father back into all spaces of creativity to teach us how we can create not just beautiful but soul-nourishing art, music, cinema and any other form of visual and audio creativity. Be Blessed.