Incarnating Mystery
Michael Card argues that a proper view of Christ is a key to creativity.
By Wendy Murray Zoba | posted 7/28/00 | posted 7/10/2000 12:00AM

2 of 2

Hearing Begets Creating
"Jesus says a man or woman speaks out of the overflow of the heart," explains Card. Creative expression is that "overflow," and if there is no overflow, there's not much to work with in the way of creative output. We need to put ourselves in a receiving posture instead of a doing posture, he says. "The best way we can show God we love him is to listen to him. That means listening to his Word and listening in prayer."This is another place where we're fighting the value system of our culture, because our culture is not a listening culture. Listening is countercultural. If Christians were known as the people who listened—not the people who only talk—it could change, in days and weeks, the place of Christians in this post-Christian era of American culture."By listening, Card says, we will hear the new song. And hearing begets creating; creating begets dying to self; dying begets living as participants in God's creative activity. In turn, we take hold of our true humanness, recover beauty, and give expression to mystery. We live in the fullness of God."God speaks through the Word of Scripture, through the silence of prayer, but also through the parable of your life"—your mystery. As it were, your log cabin.
Related Elsewhere
Christianity Today also focused on the intersection of faith and creativity in "Making Church Artist-Friendly" by Karen Beattie.Other Christianity Today resources about Docetism and the Incarnation include Books and Culture's "The Meaning of Jesus" and Christian History's "Fine-Tuning the Incarnation."Rutger's University's sociology and religion site presents a synopsis of early church teachings on the Incarnation, including both Alexandrian and Atiochene views.To read Charles Spurgeon's "The Incarnation and Birth of Christ", visit this index of sermons.
Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click
for reprint information.