Creatives, ask yourselves this question concerning your art and your life.
Do you engage in your surroundings, giving yourself permission to receive, reflect and then freely respond, or do you depend on other circumstances to permit yourself to express?
Receive, reflect, then freely respond
Who is in charge of your creativity?
I answered this question for my personal walk in a recent post (check out Discovering New Life in Second Chances ). As a creative person, I am sure you feel very deeply about the expression flowing from your heart. Whether what comes pouring out is for financial gain or not, it is part of you. You want it to be seen. Would you want anyone touching it to change what you worked so hard to share?
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Copyright laws in the U.S. began with a provision submitted by James Madison in 1787. This was labeled an “intellectual property clause” and the first Copyright Act of 1790 was passed.
Copyright laws protect your creative items so they are not stolen by another, rearranged, and then claimed as theirs without your permission.
Receive, reflect, then freely respond.
Are you asking as to why I am including this information about the copyright laws? I was checking back into the history of Vintage Hymns, and these laws were not even a consideration when the authors created the words. There was an intense unique experience with God. During this time, each person received, gave themselves space to reflect and then freely responded. This experience had to come out.
This is one of those times to reread this last paragraph. Read it slowly. Then consider the how and why of what you create.
Expressing what you receive through experimenting
Do you walk through different techniques to share what has been given to you? The flow can come naturally or the endeavor to freely respond is more challenging.
Being a creative person wanting more from their art than pen to paper or paint to canvas is not easy. The drive inside is fighting to come out, and yet the whole scene to express in a certain manner so the creativity is seen is a battle.
As you walk forward in your journey, are you free to receive, reflect, then freely respond?
Who is in charge of your creativity?
I am finally getting to the story behind a Vintage Hymn. Have you ever experienced an intimate, wonderful time with God where the only response was to express it in some fashion? This was a very free response, and yet the words themselves had an adventure of their own, aside from the author.
A thunderstorm. A two mile hike. The sound of church bells after the storm had cleared.
Rather a unique combination, but these combined items were used to create what is now a well know hymn by Carl Boberg.
This poem had no copyright protection. As you walk into the intense joy and love Carl felt when these words came out in response to God’s love and beauty, ask yourself: do you think he cared?
This hymn took a traveling tour of its own before becoming the one we know today.
The path started out with the poem put together with the melody of a Swedish folk tune. Later, it was translated into German. Five years later came a Russian adaptation.
Finally, in 1931, Stuart K. Hine (a British missionary) heard the Russian translation of Boberg’s poem. He was on a mission trip in the Ukraine at the time. So overwhelmed with the words, Hine not only translated the song to English, but added verses we use today.
The third verse was inspired by the conversion of villagers in Russia who cried out to God loudly as the repented and realized God’s love and mercy. www.godtube.com/popular-hymns/how-great-thou-art/
With open hands respond.
Creatives, when the gift is shared with us from the Creator of the Universe, it is His way of saying, “Come and dance in My Kingdom. You have permission to share what I am sharing with you.” At times this sharing is beautiful with deep joy. At other times, the conditions may be intense, deep and even challenging.
May your response be a reflection of time spent with God.
Continue to create God’s Heart through your art.