Monthly Archives: November 2011

HATERS GONNA HATE

Posted by Dave Gipson on

   Don’t be surprised when they hate you.  It’s the opposite of what you expect as an artistic person.  We want people to enjoy what we create.

I talked to a friend this week who is an interior designer.  He said that, before he was a Christian, he didn’t understand where his artistic ideas came from.  It seemed almost like a miracle had occurred, that something so beautiful could have come from him.  He would look at his designs with amazement, and now he finally knows the Source of that creativity.  And it is a miracle – a tiny miraculous glimpse of the wonder and awe of an endlessly creative God.

So when we realize what God creates through us, we expect the world to be amazed and celebrate with us.  Not to celebrate us – no, not at all.  Because we as artists realize what an undeniable miracle it is that God worked through us to make something beautiful – it is nothing short of astounding. 

But if you are not careful, you will be blind-sided by the fact that some people will see your talent and their reflex will be to tear it down and minimize it.  They will question your motives in creating, that you are just “trying to impress people”.  They will leave you gasping for air, so hateful will be their attacks on you and your love for God.  You thought your creation would be a cause for celebration, not of you, but of the True Creator who lowered himself to bother creating through you.  But they will not see it that way at all.

Don’t be surprised.  It’s the “Saul Syndrome”.

Saul was the first King of Israel, but Saul didn’t really care much about God or His will.  Saul cared mostly about being King and getting Saul’s way.  So finally when God had enough, He had Samuel the Prophet anoint David as King while Saul was still on the throne. 

Saul recognized immediately that God’s hand was on David’s life.  You would think this would make Saul respect David, or at least make him want to use David to his own advantage.  But instead, Saul saw David as a nagging reminder of what Saul was not – a “God-hearted man”.  And this ticked Saul off to no end, so much so that Saul eventually made a fool of himself trying to destroy David.  And eventually he died, and his throne went to the very man whose anointing he had so despised.

So strong was Saul’s resentment that it was passed on to his daughter Michal, who became David’s wife.  When she saw David’s obvious passion for God in worship as the Ark reentered Jerusalem, she accused David of the ulterior motive of dancing to impress the ladies.  God responded to her spiritual barrenness by cursing her with a reproductive barrenness to match it.

When hateful, bitter or petty people see your giftedness, they will not rejoice with you.  They will resent you for the fact that God is not using them in the same way.  They will see in your success their own failure, and they will work hard to destroy everything of yours they can.  Even when you benefit them, whether in business or in the ministry, they will try to undercut your creativity, even to their own disadvantage. 

I cannot count the number of pastors and ministers I have worked with who saw my gifts and abilities as threats, even when I was working with them or for them.  I was genuinely stunned by this at first, thinking that all I was doing was helping them.  But I finally realized that though I thought we were both on God’s team, we were really not on the same team after all.  They were in fact a team of one, and in their eyes the gifts and talents of others only served to show the inadequacy of their own.  Every victory of mine was their defeat.  When others recognized my spiritual insight, they questioned my motives and implied that I ministered out of pride.  Any attention that came to me was proof of my insincerity.  So they had to shoot down my songs, my sermons, and my creativity in order to feel any sad sort of self-worth themselves. 

As one young friend of mine loves to say, “Haters gonna hate”.  Yes, that is exactly what they do.  So don’t be surprised when your gifts draw hatred from some.  It should not discourage you at all.  And unless God convicts you through the Holy Spirit, you should ignore what they say and realize their criticism is not an indictment on your ministry.  Quite the contrary – it is your validation that God’s hand is really on you.  If God were not so greatly on your side, the haters would not be so threatened by you.

So go ahead and create…and let the haters hate.

Creative License: Are You an “Artist”?

Posted by Dave Gipson on

We “creatives” are an interesting breed.  We are highly gifted in creating what many of us like to call “art”.

And yet Joe, the guy who cuts my hair, wouldn’t call himself a “follicle sculptor”.  He does excellent work, yet would stare at me funny if I suddenly exclaimed “what an artist” when he shows me my haircut in the mirror.  He is a skilled craftsman who doesn’t take what he does too seriously.  And the more I think about the music and theatre I create, the more I see Joe as a good role model.

Creative people do have a tough time in the church, it’s true.  Churches have a long history of looking suspiciously at the Arts, and are usually a good ten to twenty years behind any creative trends.  And church is by nature a rather “conservative” place, and tends to take a long hard look at things before deciding they are spiritually “OK”.  It is this cautious approach to the Arts that has often put a distance between them and “the Artist”.

Since artists tend to be rather emotionally wired, we see this cautiousness as rejection. We have often been heard whining about how church leaders are being Philistines…or Pharisees…or some other word we use to make us sound smart.  But while there are some thing in the church which definitely need to change toward the Arts, there are also some practical things there that make us better and keep us grounded.

One of those is teaching us to be a servant with our gifts just like Jesus. Certainly no one in history was more gifted than He. And yet He is the one putting a towel around His waste and washing the grime off the disciple’s feet. If He was the ultimate example of creativity personified, yet was humble, why should we be any less?

Another thing we can learn occasional trials in the church is what my friend Joe is good at – not taking ourselves too seriously.  Joe cuts my hair way better than the fancy salon where I used to go. But Joe is a lot less pretentious about his skill than the “stylists” who cut my hair before.

Yes, we creatives have a gift, and yes, our gift gets a lot of attention from others.  But the little secret we all know in our hearts is this: that gift doesn’t mean we are any closer to God than anyone else, or any deeper spiritually for that matter.  It really only means that we are better at expressing that relationship in pleasing and elegant artistic terms than others may be. When people see their own relationship with God mirrored in what we perform, it puts their feelings into an artistic form and they identify with it. That’s it – that’s all.

Unfortunately, some people’s talent has given them a forum that their spiritual maturity hasn’t earned and doesn’t deserve.  Look back at some of the Christian celebrities of the past who were thrust into a premature spotlight, simply because they believed in Jesus and could sing real pretty.  The fact that they had a nice voice didn’t necessarily mean they really had anything special to say…they could just say it better.

But it’s not just a problem with musicians – I know some gifted preachers whose spiritual lives don’t come close to matching their oratory skill.  And many of yesterday’s gifted yet immature preachers and singers are today’s walking “cautionary tales”, warning us of the pitfalls of having too much talent with too little maturity.

So maybe instead of calling ourselves “Christian artists”, we might just think of ourselves as Christians who happen to have a skill that God can use…just like everybody else.  And we should discourage people when they try to put us on that pedestal, because in our hearts we know that our gift is just that…a gift we didn’t earn in the first place.

So no, please don’t call me a Christian “artist” – I don’t think Joe my barber would be very impressed with that. The fact that my gift is flashier than someone else’s should mean little to me… I know it means little to God, compared to how much my life reflects Him and how much I use that gift to give Him glory. That’s a goal we all should be reaching for, whether we call ourselves an “artist” or a barber.

Do you think it is pretentious for a creative person to call themselves an “artist”?

How do you guard against taking yourself too seriously?