A different kind of inspiration

Inspiration comes at you from all directions. Everyone (hopefully) finds inspiration in his or her own way. Often, for web design, you’ll hear some designers claim that they never use the web itself to find inspiration, while others say that’s the only true way to keep new designs fresh. It’s debatable because it’s an opinion—a feeling. And what matters most: using that inner feeling to drive you to put your efforts into something meaningful.

Just tonight, I came across a site called Investing Talents. It appears that they put out a quarterly magazine developed by creative Christians, covering all sorts of topics relating to creativity: design, writing, poetry, etc. Their mission seems to be a good one, in that they promote you to use your gift toward a common good in support of an overall purpose—to bring glory to God.

This is the purpose for Investing Talents: to encourage the investment of our talents so that we may never lose our ability to bring glory to God through their use.

The magazine sort of caught me off guard. I found myself inspired, but not just to come up with a new design; but to design for a purpose other than my own satisfaction—something bigger, something with meaning.

When a muscle is not used, it weakens. Our creativity is a muscle, also a gift, which if not used and exercised for good, can weaken and possibly disappear. In the same way, someone who makes good use of his talent can reap the rewards of his investment for many years as it grows and strengthens. It is this pulling back and reaping that is the picture of God taking and giving. God “takes” “talents” from the unwise investors and “gives” those “talents” to the ones who have been wise with their investment.

So far, I’ve found a lot of inspiring statements and remarks. It’s a different kind of inspiration than what I’m usually seeking, but undoubtedly in a good way. I enjoyed the read and I’m looking forward to the second issue.

Investing Talents is courtesy of Godly Creative People (I love their search box).