Thursday Evening Recap...Reflections on fear...

What an awesome evening, thank you to ladies in attendance!
We started with a brief free write prompt of "What did you have for lunch?" It was fun to see how one simple direct question can take us all off in so many different directions...
The theme for the evening was reflecting on fear and how we let it stop us from creating.
I read some passages from the book "Creative Call" by Janice Elsheimer. "One reason artists become blocked is by using inertia to avoid feeling like losers. This behavior is all about self protection.... I'm afraid that if I finish the book or the poem or the musical composition, I'll have to put it out there where others will judge it."
Another quote by Franky Schaeffer from "Addicted to Mediocrity: 20th Century Christians and the Arts" is "Remember that as a creative person, the important thing to do is to create. Who sees what you make, where it goes and what it does is a secondary consideration: the first is to exercise the talent God has given you."
We then took some time to process these quotes and look at how these fears affect us personally. What are you afraid of? Is it failure? Judgement? Rejection? What happens to you when you are not creating? Do you start to feel tense? Angry? Sad? Frustrated?
To read some of the writing responses check out these blogs:
http://carol-fromheretothere.blogspot.com/ and http://atravellersinsights.blogspot.com/

We ended the evening with some thoughts on what it would look like to live without fear and live fully into God's desires for us as artists. We closed listening to the song by Casting Crowns entitled "Who Am I?" and hopefully, prayerfully, and fearlessly walked out in to the night ready to create in honor of the greatest Creator of all...