Before you click away from this, listen up, whether you’re a believer or not, God actually plays a huge role in your career as an artist and business owner. Don’t believe me? Well, read on.
Ok, so this might sound a little bizarre. Why would I bring God into the discussion about how I’ve gone from nothing to being a financially independent artist?
I get the skepticism: After all isn’t the love of money the root of all evil? So why would He help me make more of it? Or doesn’t religion stifle creative freedom? How about this one, wouldn’t He rather have people read His scriptures than rot their brains on my fiction?
All valid arguments, but lets dive a little deeper, and see why bringing God into the equation can make all the difference in your artistic career.
- Why Would God Care About My Business As An Artist?
Ok, first off, if you didn’t already catch on to this, I believe in the christian God. My opinions are not meant to be evangelical, nor are they meant to reflect specifically on the position of my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). They are merely the convictions that I’ve developed over the years, and I feel strongly about them.
As those beliefs relate to my artistic and financial endeavors, let me preface this by stating that I believe God considers me to be one of his children. As such, I believe that He wants the best for me. Granted the best for me may not always feel like it in the moment, as his aim is grander and more eternally reaching than my narrow views. So while He’s trying to help me grow and return to live with Him some day, I also believe that He wants me to be happy while I’m here on this Earth.
But its not just my happiness He wants to help me with. Plenty of people find that their lives are anything but. Here’s where He really comes to play. When you’re running a business, you need to develop certain leadership traits that make you a better businessman. Among those things are Salesmanship, relating to people, confidence, public speaking, vision, integrity, resilience, endurance, humility. All of these traits are things we learn as we become more like Christ.
In my life, I spent two years of my life as a full time missionary in the Philippines. I wasn’t technically a salesman, but many of the same principles of being a good missionary still carried over from my proselyting such as: building relationships of trust, help them feel the spirit, help them to act. In sales we do something similar, we build a relationship of trust, we help them feel the need for our products, and then we invite them to act by purchasing our goods.
In my church, I’ve volunteered my time in leadership positions, and in general service positions. I’ve been humbled when I’ve taught, I’ve been empowered when I’ve taught.
Consistent attendance has instilled a culture of learning, growing, caring, and working with teams. The best part is, this training you receive to live your best life possible carries over into all aspects of your life, including your career.
When you’re at your best, you’re more likely to succeed in all you do. Can you see the correlation between your career aspirations and being a disciple of God?
Well, what about the art?
- How Does He Help Me Be A Better Artist?
Assuming you already believe in God, or that you know enough of Christian beliefs to answer this, I pose this question: Who created everything?
Bam!
If we are the children of God, and he is the ultimate creator, are we not entitled to inherit some of His creativity?
Its already in us. By being more Christlike, we also become more creative, unlocking our true potential. Not only that, but as our will aligns with His will, we start to unlock some of his grace to create things that inspire people to good.
There is a lot of art out there that is brain rot. Some of it is even called “Brain Rot.” I can only imagine that God would want us filling our minds with something a little less degrading.
But what if we’re fiction writers?
Yeah, I get it, there’s plenty of people publishing inspirational content out there, but I’m doing fiction. And lets be honest, my fiction isn’t preachy. If there’s a message to bring anyone to a higher power, I think I missed that myself. But here’s where I feel that my efforts are still valued:
My values put me in a position where the fiction I create is more wholesome than the majority of the fiction out there. My goal, and I’ve stated this over and over on my website, is to write fiction that the whole family can enjoy.
If mom or dad reads one of my books, and their pre-teen picks it up, I don’t want the God-fearing parents to be embarrassed by why their kids just discovered about their reading habits. I want to make entertainment that brings clean reads into peoples homes.
In that, I feel that my goals towards art and entertainment aren’t at odds with God’s will for me in my life.
- Where Is God In Your Life?
As an artist, we all draw inspiration from somewhere. I’ve seen art that lifts me up, I’ve seen art that takes me to dark places. I’ve seen art that makes me question everything. Sometimes I just like art that makes me laugh.
Whether that art is put into us by some higher power or not, is not what I’m trying to place before you right now. What I’m trying to say, is that when you make the effort to align your life with God’s will, you’re more likely to tap into His enabling power to help you along the way.
Life is hard enough without God in our lives. Why shut Him out when He might make all the difference in helping us get through all the hard times that will inevitably come our way.
Plus what’s the worst that can happen? Say you choose to follow Him and he turns out to not be real, so you ended up living a better, more charitable life and will be remembered by future generations as being a really good person. Or you choose not to follow Him, and he turns out to be real, then you’re stuck, eternally kicking yourself for your folly.
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