Finding God in the Pencil Strokes

     All my life I've been told that I am a great artist or a great writer, but I've also been told that in order to utilize these talents, I need to use them for God. 
    I have gone through several periods of time where I've wondered how exactly to use my talents to glorify God when I really want to draw and write things that are fun, relative to this time, and something that I actually enjoy! Sometimes I think to myself, "Man, I wish I could figure out how to incorporate my faith into what I draw, and write."

    But the truth is I can! And so can you. No matter how overwhelming this life can get, and how weird it might seem to include God into the simple things that we do, it needs to be done. To be a light unto the world around us, we need to make sure that we ourselves are conducting ourselves in a way that pleases God in all that we do! This might sound cliche, or incredibly hard, and I don't deny that at times, we might feel like giving up. But the truth is, we won't be able to truly feel like we are doing the work of God if we don't involve him in everything we say and do. 

    So, how exactly do you do that? Well, for starters, let's take art for example. I LOVE drawing cats. I've grown up drawing animals, rather than humans, and I think I've become most proficient with drawing cats. How do I incorporate God, into... cats? For one, my best friend loves Jesus. she's also an artist, and she draws amazing pictures of lions, and Jesus all of the time! I can definitely draw a lion, but what about my drawing just cats? Well, I found out, that you may draw many different things, from superheroes to worms, and if you draw it unto God, and attribute your talent to Him, that is a form of glorifying God! I drew a picture once where I had a cat and behind it, a cross. To others, it might seem like just a cool design, but to me, it was involving my faith in something that I love to draw. It might be unconventional, and strange, but it's the way I show God through my work, and you can too! Find a way to include symbols of your faith, draw scenes from the Bible, or just plain do the best you can in drawing the daily things that you love to draw, and do it with the talent that God has given you.

    For writing it's a little different. Instead of drawing a simple still life bowl and apple, you are creating an intricate story, woven very carefully and crafted in such a way that others want to read your work. Putting your faith into a story might be hard for some of you, as you find trouble putting God in your fantasy worlds where nothing is real, while others find it difficult to weave God into a raw, harsh topic where there doesn't seem to be a place for this sort of hope. 

    I assure you that this is not the case. In those fantastical stories that you see out there, you can also create a fictional version of your faith within these books. I've read many authors who have Jesus directly in their book, but in different circumstances and situations. Others have a vague, 'Creator' 'Helper', and even 'redeemer' that represents God. And in still other books, God is referred to as the good King of all, the leader across the sea, the man who has a palace in the high mountains! You can find myriads of ways to put God into any story, and when you do this, you are finding a veiled way to spread the word of God, giving others truth in a form that they never thought of before. 

    For nonfiction writers writing those powerful, provoking stories full of despair and painful events, God definitely needs to fit into those stories. When a book has no hope in it, is filled with despair and unthinkable situations, then we need to make sure that we get it across people's minds that, there is hope! This hope is in Jesus, and he is the one that can truly save and restore the most broken of circumstances! We might be bruised and broken, but we definitely have hope, and we desperately need to share this with the world, and in such a way as to make your story even more powerful than it already is. 

    So get out there! Create content that will shock and uplift your readers! Find ways to show God through your artwork and the way that you live your life! because that is one of the most important things that we can offer to the world, and without God, what are our talents for?