Authors: Erwin Raphael McManus
Remember, intention precedes creation, and essence informs intention. We cannot create life if we are not alive. Which for me brings new meaning and clarity to the words of Jesus, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Not only is the creative process driven by intention, but it is also driven by relationship. Nothing in the creative process was designed in isolation. Creation was designed as an organic whole.
While a cursory glance at part of the creative process might lead someone to assume that one aspect of creation has nothing to do with the other, science itself has proved to us that quite the opposite is true. Regardless of what we discover, regardless of how far we are able to explore or how profound our discoveries may be, every nuance of the universe, every detail of the creative order, only magnifies the extraordinary integration of all things. Simply put, the unifying principle of the universe is relationship.
Thousands of years ago, before science began to inform the human narrative, the writer of Genesis understood that God didn't simply throw the sun up into the sky. Long before we understood the critical nature of design, the Hebrews understood that the universe was designed with a relational intelligence that could not possibly be accidental. It's no small thing that the universe somehow got it all right, that the distance between the sun and the earth just happened to be exactly right, and the atmosphere just happened to be exactly what the human species needed to survive. It didn't just happen that in the midst of a planet with salt water, the freshwater essential to our survival erupted out of the earth. What if there had only been salt water? What if nitrogen filled the atmosphere?
However you understand humanity's relationship to nature, we are intimately connected to the entire created order. Just as plants depend on us, we depend on them. What we inhale, they exhale. What we exhale, they inhale. We live in symbiosis. We live in relationship with all things. It shouldn't surprise us, when we are created for relationship with each other and in relationship to the created order, that we are also created for relationship with the Creator of the universe.
In the paradise known as Eden, we are told, God saw that it was not good for man to be alone. We are relational creatures living in a universe held together by relationship. There may be no more powerful or elegant example of design through synthesis than the one we find in the opening pages of the Scriptures. A unique characteristic of design thinking is that the process is informed less by the product than by the people it serves. All design is in a sense informed by ergonomics. What matters is how what we create affects and serves humanity. This characteristic of the design process can be described as empathy, which means we begin the entire process by asking a question: How does this affect others?
The highest level of design is a deep commitment to reclaiming our humanity. I love how the creative act in Genesis 1 begins with the almost ethereal creation of light out of darkness and ends with an intimate act of God breathing life into man. This is the best reflection and highest expression of design thinking. Everything drives toward intimacy. The culminating moment of the creative act is the moment when man awakens and finds his meaning in God. The greater the design, the more intimate its expression. From beginning to end, the Scriptures are clear that though the unifying principle of the universe is relationship and its driving force is intention, the motivation for the creation of all things is love.
Within the universe's intention and its unique design around relationship, we find that the focal point of the universe, the motive of the universe, is love. God created life so that we could know love. Everything God does is an expression of his love. It is neither trite nor superficial that the Scriptures summarize this in three simple words: “God is love.” It is critical to understand this because, if we are to reclaim our role in the creative process and express our lives as masterful works of art, we, too, must be sure that our motivation is the expansion of love. Jesus made this the central proof of living in relationship with him. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34â35).
If we have embraced God's intention and stepped into relationship with God, then we, too, will live out our lives with God's motive. When love is the driving force of the universe, everything moves toward intimacy; everything is informed by empathy; everything we create brings life.
Nearly five years ago, I made a career shift and found myself in the world of fashion. I quickly learned that all design is informed by story and that in the end fashion is all about storytelling.
The story that shapes who we are informs everything we make, and it works on multiple levels. Brands tell us a story to inspire us to participate. If we buy a pair of shoes, we will be better athletes; if we buy a certain jacket, we will become more adventurous; if we wear a certain perfume, we will be more glamorous. Even social innovation has entered the world of fashion, understanding that we can tell a great story by selling a pair of shoes. What we wear is an extension of who we are, or at least of who we want to be perceived to be.
One of the curious experiences I had during those years in the fashion industry was that any encounter with an old-school craftsman, whether from Europe or the Middle East, always began with a long conversation. They would tell their story of how they moved into leatherwork or working with fabrics, or whatever their particular arena in the process was. Then they would ask me my story. They wanted to understand my intention. They needed to decide if they wanted to have a relationship with us. It was never simply about making a product; the product was always for them an extension of themselves.
Every time I met with one of the owners of the various manufacturing companies we interacted with, they always said to me, “You are far more European than American.” I heard this over and over. At first I would simply nod and take it as a compliment, although admittedly I had no idea what they meant. I'm an immigrant, so I thought they were picking up on that, and I'm proud to be an American, so I wasn't sure what the nuanced distinction was. But when I heard it again on a particular trip, I paused and asked, “What exactly does it mean that I am more European than American?”
The elderly salesman very quickly and easily explained, “American fashion is about figuring out how to sell a product, and a story is contrived so that the product will sell. European fashion is always about a lifestyle and is always built on the authentic life lived out by the individual who inspires the brand. The fashion then becomes an extension of that person's values and lifestyle. A European does not try to create for the purpose of selling; he knows that his unique style will find its own audience when it finds the person who resonates with the story.”
As an immigrant to the United States, I have so much respect and appreciation for what it means to be an American, but I must confess that there are some European values I admire over American ones. When I have had the privilege of traveling across Europe, I have seen the beauty that comes when a person lives a life reflective of the authentic self. Of course, I have seen this many times here, as I traveled across the states, but I do think that we are far more susceptible to losing ourselves in the attempt to be what others want us to be rather than rooting ourselves in the person we were created to be. Though market research invests a lot of money in deciding who we are, living our lives based on the opinions of others will only cause us to lose our souls and our way.
It was no small challenge working through the process of learning to translate the things we cared about into an everyday commodity. How do we express our values and essence in a medicine bag? How can we pass on our story in the design of a men's suit? If my journey into this industry has taught me anything, it is that not only is it possible, but it is essential.
It is essential not only in fashion but in every arena of human engagement. Our best lives are lived out when we are driven by our deepest passions in the task of turning our dreams into reality. Once we know what our story is, it becomes easier and easier to know how to write the next chapter.
Years ago, when I moved to Los Angeles, I met a young woman named Kristin Ross. She worked for the president of a film company and seemed destined for a promising career in the industry. It was another classic story of a mid-America kid from Michigan coming to Los Angeles to pursue a dream of Hollywood success. All who came to know her were certain that she was a shoo-in for a successful career as a director. But, like so many people in Los Angeles, her talent, intelligence, and hard work did not result in the materialization of her dream. Kristin is proof that you can give everything to a dream and still not have it materialize. In her own words, she became bitter and disillusioned.
During this journey, she met a man named Chad Lauterbach, and eventually this woman who was married to her career decided it would be better to be married to Chad. This in no way diminished her ambition or determination. Soon she came to the realization that her film career was not going to happen, and her marriage suffered as she struggled through the death of a dream. To add to the challenge, she unexpectedly became pregnant, and though she had never imagined herself as a mom, she gave birth to a beautiful little girl.
One of the quirky things about Kristin is that she is a purist about everything. She describes herself as “a bit neurotic and somewhat crazy.” When it comes to organic versus artificial anything, neurotic would be an understatement. She reads every label, laments all the artificiality in the world, knows every chemical is out to get her, and to the best of her ability has built a world of only natural and organic products for herself and her family. She is highly sensitive to processed foods, and her skin is, as she would put it, “supersensitive” to anything unnatural or artificial. So, of course, she started making her own lotions, soaps, and bath products. She even went as far as making her own natural deodorant. One day she brought me a package of giftsâshampoos, soaps, and deodorants that you could most likely eat. In fact, I discovered they
were
mostly edible. She started a homegrown company called Root Beauty. In her own words, “Root Beauty is an all-natural, organic skin care line with ingredients that you can not only pronounce but are mostly edible.” I guess in some ways it solves both of her problemsâher delicate relationship to both food and skin care products.
What I love about Kristin's story is that she didn't sit around asking herself, “How can I make myself rich and successful?” After the death of her dream of becoming a filmmaker, finding herself in a state of angst as a wife and mother, she began to apply the same talents that had brought her to the end of a dream to creating something that would meet a real need in her own life, as well as serving the people she cared about the most. Kristin's struggle to find beauty products that were both natural and effective led her to experiment with and create products of her own at home for herself and her friends.
Kristin imagined a world in which severe sensitivities to the chemicals we are confronted with every day could be eliminated, and she translated that idea into a reality through creativity, determination, and hard work. She took her story, and by paying careful attention to a real need that was right in front of her, she began to express her most creative self while making the world a better place.
Years ago someone said to me, “Erwin, you either define yourself or let yourself be defined by others.” And the adage is true:
define or be defined
. We either let ourselves become products of the intention of others or products of living an intentional life. We are creatures designed for relationship, and either we are shaped by the relationships that choose us or we choose our relationships on the basis of the person we intend to become.
Every artist must have a motivation; every creative act is the materialization of the invisible. Everything we do is a manifestation of imagination. Since part of our creative responsibility is to move from imagination to image, we need to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and allow our imagination once again to be the playground of God. And once our dreams and visions are the material that has been passed on to us by a divine imagination, then it is time to dream, to risk, and to create.
M
ozart found his genius at an early age. His full name was Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, but because of his profound talent, he is known to the world simply as Mozart. There may be no name more famous among composers than Mozart. By the age of five, he was already composing and performing at a level that most of us could only aspire to in a lifetime. By seventeen, he was serving as the court musician in Salzburg. By his early twenties, he was refining the greatest pieces the world would ever know. Some people find “it” early, and what they find is a treasure to the world. It is hard to imagine that Mozart composed over six hundred works, most of which would be considered masterpieces by the time he was thirty-five. Then again, he didn't live to see his thirty-sixth birthday.
More often than not, when we think of talent or genius, we envisage people who are both prodigies and prodigious. This is even truer today. In competitive cosmopolitan areas, we find parents putting their children in pre-pre-pre-schools by the age of two. In fact, there are some places where you can ensure your child has a distinct advantage by starting training at six months. Partly, this reflects parents' deep commitment to giving their child the best chance for success. Partly, it is parents' ever-present hope of releasing a child's inner Mozart.