Episode 58 - Creating

We were created to create.  Each of us has a purpose in this world to join God in his mission of redemption and making beauty and meaning. Karen and Brooklyn discuss our need to first create spaces in which we can relax and find peace and then to join God in making beauty. Unfortunately, the scream of our society to be consumers and to live life at breakneck speed, filling our days with things and to-dos, can deafen the call within us to slow down and create meaning. 

We encourage you to join us for this discussion and then carry on the discussion with a friend or small group!  Here are some questions to guide you:

1. Do you own hyggebukser? (Comfy pants) Are you the type of person who puts on your comfy pants as soon as you get home?
2. In your own space (home, apartment, room) do you feel at peace? Are you able to rest and create in that space, or does the space itself thwart your efforts to slow down?
3. Have you ever allowed your "space" to become an idol? What is the danger in this? How do we fight this temptation?
4. Which of these ways of filling your life do you relate to most? (Filling your life with: things, tasks/ serving, achievement, relationships, experiences, search for knowledge, numbing/escaping, micromanaging/control) Are you able to recognize that pursuit as stemming from a longing for purpose?
5. What skills do you have that could be used to create beauty or make meaning? (cooking, cleaning, decorating, gardening, painting, homemaking, writing, teaching, counseling, baking,...any skill that adds beauty or meaning to the world) Do you use those skills well? How might you better utilize those skills?
6.  How does creating things of beauty and making meaning contribute to resilience? How does consumerism (on the other end of the spectrum) make us less resilient?
7. Discuss some of the ways the world is dark and broken.  How could you, personally bring light, hope and love into those situations and partner with God in His work of redemption and beauty making?
8. Read Genesis 1:28 and Genesis 3:23. We are called to be creative, to raise children, to use the world well, and to enrich the world around us. Discuss our job description as given by God. Are we (the people of God) doing a good job at leading the way in these endeavors?