I'm reading this book right now, called Scribbling in the Sand, by Michael Card.

For those of you who know him, yes, it is the same Michael Card who has written all of that truly marvelous music.

This is a book about creativity. I'm reading it in short segments, so I can digest it slowly. So far, it's very inspiring.

He describes creativity as being worship. I agree with him. We are not so much acting like God when we create as we are responding to him. When you think about it, even those who do not believe in God are responding to him when they create. That kind of places the whole spectrum of art in a new perspective.

Here's my favorite quote from the book so far: (Let me set this up by saying that Card and his oldest son are outside, watching a Lunar eclipse at around 2am) Something in both of us aches and hungers and is not filled even in the presence of this awesome beauty. This is more than a hunger for beauty. It is at the same time a hunger for love, for acceptance--which, if you think about it long enough, you'll realize is a hunger for God. For he is beautiful.

He then references Psalm 27:4, which is the basis of one of the verses of Matt Redman's song "Better Is One Day," One thing have I asked of Yahweh, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of Yahweh and to inquire in his temple.

Finally, as the chapter closes Card makes reference to a phone conversation with one Brennan Manning, who after reading a five volume work on Christian aesthetics by Hans Urs von Balthasar, reduced it down to one sentence, Love makes us beautiful.

Let us all try to love a little more.

Missed anything?
The Beatles--Abbey Road/Alice Cooper--Killer - July 04, 2012
The Beatles Eponymous Album - June 26, 2012
Autism's False Prophets - February 12, 2011
Santana--Guitar God? - November 11, 2010
Tribute To the Red Sox - September 29, 2010