You’ve Got It

Read

2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

Think

I was at a basketball game years ago. Little cracker-box gymnasium, packed out. Standing room only. The home team was up by thirty-five points with a few minutes left. The game was over. Everyone knew it. And then the crowd started doing something I had never heard before. They started chanting. Not the name of a player. Not "defense" or "let’s go." They started chanting at the other team: "You’ve got it, now use it. You’ve got it, now use it." Over and over. Louder and louder. It was the most unusual taunt I have ever witnessed because it was not mean. It was almost encouraging, in the most backhanded way possible. You have the ability. You are just not using it.

That chant has rattled around in my head for years because it is exactly what I believe God is saying to most of his people. You have got it. Now use it. He has given you creativity, ability, talent, spiritual gifts, a mind, a voice, a platform, however small or large. And most of us are sitting on it. We are playing forty points below our capability, and the crowd can see it even if we cannot.

Paul writes, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Freedom to do what? Freedom to create. Freedom to innovate. Freedom to take risks and make mistakes and try things that have never been tried before. The Spirit of God does not produce timidity. He does not produce stagnation. He produces freedom. And freedom produces movement, creativity, and bold action.

God invented creativity. He did not borrow it. He did not discover it. He originated it. Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created." That is the opening line of the entire story. Before anything else, before law, before covenant, before prophecy, there was creativity. God spoke light into darkness. He painted the sky with colors that did not exist until he imagined them. He sculpted mountains and carved rivers and designed creatures so detailed and varied that scientists are still cataloging them thousands of years later. That is the God whose Spirit lives inside of you. And he did not deposit his Spirit in you so you could play it safe and color inside the lines.

Las Vegas has very little to say, but they know how to say it. The church, we have everything to say, yet we do not know how to say it. That observation is not just about churches. It is about every follower of Christ who has the greatest message in history and delivers it with the creativity of a beige wall. We have been given the most transformative truth the world has ever heard, and we present it like we are reading the terms and conditions on a software update.

Here is the deal. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, most people experience what I call a creative cramp. Studies have shown that children operate at genius-level creativity. They imagine, build, invent, and dream without limitation. But by the time they reach adulthood, that creativity has plummeted. Not because the ability left. Because the permission did. We were told to be realistic. We were told to stay in our lane. We were told that creativity is for artists and the rest of us should stick to spreadsheets. And slowly, the cramp set in. The muscles that were designed to stretch and reach and create got tight, and eventually they stopped moving altogether.

But the Spirit of God does not cramp. He frees. He loosens what was locked up. He opens what was shut down. Paul says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. That means if you have the Spirit of God living in you, you have access to the most creative force in the universe. The same God who dreamed up the platypus, who designed snowflakes so that no two are identical, who hid an entire color spectrum inside a beam of white light, that God lives in you. And he is not impressed by your excuses for playing small.

A friend at Florida State was the one who led me to Christ years ago. He invited me to church, and I went. But the service was so over my head, so academic, so disconnected from anything I could relate to, that I almost did not go back. The message was true, but the delivery was dead. The content was right, but the creativity was absent. And I thought, if this is what following God looks like, I am not sure I can do this. Thankfully, God did not let me walk away. But I have never forgotten how close I came to missing the most important relationship of my life because someone presented the greatest story ever told like a footnote in a textbook.

You have got it. The gifts, the talents, the ideas, the vision, the creativity of the God who made everything out of nothing. It is already in you. The Spirit is already there. The freedom is already available. The only question is whether you are going to use it or keep sitting on the bench while the crowd chants what you already know: you have got it. Now use it.

Apply

Break the cramp – Identify one area of your life where you have been playing it safe, coasting, or staying inside lines someone else drew for you. Take one creative risk today. It does not have to be dramatic. Write something. Start something. Say yes to something you have been avoiding. Let the Spirit move in a space you have kept locked.

Pray

God, you are the author of creativity, and your Spirit lives in me. Forgive me for playing it safe when you designed me for more. Forgive me for shrinking back when you gave me freedom to move. Break the cramp that has settled into my thinking. Loosen what has been locked up. I do not want to sit on the gifts you gave me while the world waits for what only I can offer. Give me the courage to create, to risk, to try, and to trust that your Spirit will meet me in the middle of the attempt. In Jesus’ name. Amen.