Brandon Clements

You know what I love to do?

A lot of things, but I won’t bore you with all of them at the moment.

But the one thing tonight is that I love to write.

It could be a passion. It could be a calling. It could be just something that keeps me sane. Who knows. But I do know one thing. I think God knits us all together in special and awe-inspiring ways, and He gives to each of us avenues of self-expression. Ways to process what is going on in our lives and our minds. To make sense of a mess, to communicate the incommunicable. Language is a tricky and burdensome thing, to be sure, because there is a weight, an emotion to life that just can’t ride out on the backs of words, whether spoken or written.

But it does help. Of that I’m sure. Even though I can’t always get everything out, I can feel the relief of just putting myself on paper.

I think that’s the value and God-ordained purpose for art. To express the inexpressible and keep us all out of the loony bin of self-imprisonment.

God’s given you a gift. A gift that’s ultimately for Him, but also for yourself and for the world.

Maybe it’s writing, like me. Put yourself on paper then.

Maybe it’s music. Put yourself in a song or melody.

Maybe it’s drawing or painting. Put yourself there.

Maybe it’s cooking. Put yourself there.

Maybe it’s sewing or photography or dancing.

Maybe it’s the most random thing that no one would ever think of. But it’s you, and you feel it. Unmistakably.

Put yourself there.

Serve our relentless God through your gift, and know Him better through the joy of creative interaction.

Give yourself that gift of expression that calms your soul and makes you feel the breath of God on your neck.

And give all of you to others–all of the unknowable and inexpressible parts that can only be expressed through a song or a story or a painting or a poem or a meal or a letter or a picture or a dance or a whatever.

Put all of you in it, and don’t be mistaken. The expression, no matter how profound or unsightly or mediocre, is not the gift.

You are. And there is nothing better to give.