LAST POST ABOUT ARTISTS (Whew! Finally!)

ARTISTS ARE...SELFISH? (Say it ain't so)

I am pretty sure that all of us could write our own book about this one.  Artists tend seek their own rather than the desires of others.  Artists generally have gaping character flaws.  Ouch!  Am I stepping on your toes?  Take solace in the fact that I am stepping all over my own, too...and everyone else’s for that matter.  Hey, there's safety in numbers.  Here's reality: Artists are actually no different than anyone else on the planet.  No one I've ever met walks in the spirit 100% of the time, and that means that all of us at times conduct our lives in a way we wish we didn’t.  It’s not what we want, but it happens.  The only difference between “normal” people and artists is that “normal” people don’t generally write songs, poems, or books about what’s wrong with them, or paint pictures or create sculpture depicting the depravity of the human condition.  

That said, selfishness is a big deal.  It doesn’t matter if you’ve never taken a drink or a drug at any time in your life, I don’t know of a better word written about the subject than this line from page 60 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, it’s application is universal: “Whatever our protestations, are not most of us concerned with ourselves, our resentments, or our self-pity?  Selfishness – self-centeredness!  That, we think, is the root of our troubles.”  The Message Bible in Galatians 5:16 bears this translation, “Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit.  Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness.  For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness.” 

Checking our motives – as artists – too often means confessing to anyone willing to listen that we “don’t really want to have a gold record for our own benefit, it’s just that it’s our responsibility to get our product into as many hands as possible so they can be blessed by it.”  Does that sound familiar?  I’ve said it before.  You?  Check it out: Before it’s going to be God’s idea for us to sell a half-million of anything, we need to come clean with ourselves about our own personal desire for recognition, and put our flakiness, our competitive nature, our compulsive behavior and our moody attitude to work for the Creator.  We need to ask God to go ahead and try our works now, so we can move forward free to create, by the Spirit of God, something that won’t just stand the test of time, but will stand the trying by fire that will accompany the end of our life’s work.   Then it truly will be a blessing to Gods people, and we’ll take another step forward in our journey of not just a purpose-driven life, but a “worship-driven” one.  Peace.