I’ve recently spent time reflecting on what life would look like if each human being was putting their hand to the work God created for them- I imagine it would look a lot like heaven. So many of us are caught up in getting ahead or getting by that we neglect to line up our days with our true purpose. We are each created to create whether it be designing bridges or researching cures for cancer or making music and when we neglect to create, we neglect God’s calling.
In the The War of Art, Steven Pressfield says,
“Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answered by action.
Do it, or don’t do it.
It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself,. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.
You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God.
Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.”
As much as I love working with families and couples and businesses, I felt fully alive when I packed up my gear and headed to Uganda and Nicaragua and Mexico to tell the stories of fatherless children. My work was an offering, the act of creating was worship and I felt like I was doing something to further the Kingdom of God.
Seeing children and communities changed because basic human needs were being met was incredible: clean water, food, medical attention, education and spiritual discipleship, all things I easily take for granted. The joy and gratitude of the people in these countries was infectious and I returned home changed.
In the past three years, I’ve had the honor of working closely with a local nonprofit which supports fatherless children around the world. For more information visit www.projecthopeworldwide.org
Here are a few of the marketing pieces I created for them.