Is God Even Calling You to Be An Artist?

That restless creative itch you keep burying might not be a distraction at all. If you’ve been living in the in-between, not where you were and not yet where you’re going, we want to help you stop treating your art like a guilty secret and start seeing it as a real part of your calling.

We get honest about why creative transition feels so unnerving, especially for Christian artists who were taught that creativity is impractical or “less spiritual.” Drawing from decades of life as working artists and years of mentoring, we walk through a clear framework: acknowledge the desire instead of denying it, release the need for everything to make perfect sense, and practice faithfulness with what’s already in your hand. We also unpack the difference between wanting a detailed plan and learning to live from a promise, because most creative breakthroughs begin as a nudge rather than a map.

We go deeper into the spiritual side of the creative process, from Genesis and the idea of God bringing light into chaos, to the loaves and fishes picture of offering what you have and letting God multiply it. You’ll leave with practical next steps you can take this week, plus a renewed sense that your creative gifts are not accidental and your “yes” can unlock clarity over time.

If this speaks to you, subscribe, share it with a creative friend who feels stuck, and leave a review so more artists can find it. What’s one small act of creative faithfulness you’re willing to do today?

Join the Foundations Course: https://www.matttommeymentoring.com/foundations

Fuel Your Creative Calling with Weekly Encouragement
Join thousands of Christian artists who are growing in faith, creativity, and purpose.

Subscribe to The Thriving Christian Artist Weekly and receive powerful, faith-filled content every week—designed to encourage your heart, spark your creativity, and equip you to walk boldly in your God-given calling as an artist.

👉 Click here. It’s free. It’s faith-filled. And it’s just for you. 

Transcript

The Fear Of The In-Between

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You know, transition in life, especially for creative people, can be really scary. It can be really unnerving. You know, you're not where you've been, you're not where you're going yet. You've got this big creative gift inside of you that just won't quit. It keeps wanting to jump out in your life, but it feels sometimes irresponsible, even selfish to pursue it because it just doesn't make sense in regards to everything else that you have going on in your life. Listen, if that's you, I want to let you know you're not alone. And today I want to encourage you on this journey of transition, this in-between of trying to navigate and figure out whether your creative calling is actually from God, if it actually might be an opportunity for a next step in that direction. Listen, I I've been in that place many times in my life. I wish I could say transition only happens once and you step in and that's and that's it. But listen, I've just learned walking with the Lord for all these years, being an artist for over 30 years now, mentoring thousands of artists over the years. I realize God is always taking us into these seasons of transition where He's inviting us to release what we've had in order to step into the new things that he has for us. And for creative people, that can that can be difficult because, you know, for a lot of us, I know this was my story. My creativity was always something that I was passionate about, always something I loved, always, you know, was finding a way to come out in my life. But I really didn't have a context early on for how to walk in my creativity in a way that was primary. I pursued, you know, ministry jobs, I pursued entrepreneurship. I was doing things that, you know, were fun, that I was fulfilled in. But really what I loved to do, I mean, from the time I was just growing up was being in the woods, making baskets, taking natural materials and working with my hands. I loved, you know, selling those at craft shows every now and then, making my Christmas money, you know, doing all that. And honestly, when things would get bad at work or when I was going through a difficult time or whatever, I would always tell my wife, I'd be like, you know, let's just sell everything and and I'll go make baskets, you know. And she was like, uh, and that's not gonna happen. Right. That's we just we just couldn't figure out right how to how to make that work in our life. And yet, over and over and over again, I kept seeing this creative gifting, this passion to make and to create and to share it with the world. It just kept coming up. And there was this constant conversation every time, you know, that that would rise to the top. There's this constant conversation of, you know, is this selfish? Is this just me? Am I being irresponsible? You know, shouldn't I be doing other things that are more, more spiritual, not just, you know, pursuing my own desires? And yet, the more that I've walked with the Lord and the more that I've developed in my own journey as a professional artist and one who mentors artists, the more I've realized that God doesn't wire people, he doesn't design people accidentally. The creative gift, desires that God's put inside of you, those are not by accident. And listen, friend, they're not selfish and they don't deserve to be pushed down in your life. In fact, if God cared enough to give you those creative gifts, if he cared enough to put those in your life and let desire start building inside of you all these years, these dreams and passions and hopes. Guess what? If he cared enough to put those inside of you, it ought to be important enough for you to give it time and energy and attention and resource. And yet, I get, listen, I get it. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense in our culture. Many times we think it doesn't make sense financially. Maybe it doesn't even make sense depending on the church that you've grown up in or the stream of the body of Christ you're in. Maybe being an artist, even pursuing your creativity in any kind of serious way, not even getting paid for it. Maybe it's just not something that has ever been a reality or an authentic, valid pursuit in your world. But I'm here to tell you, if God thought it was important enough to put that gift inside of you, it ought to be important enough for you to be able to say yes to it. And that can be one of the most difficult and faith-building and exciting and frustrating and challenging and exciting things that we get to do as people is to choose to say yes to something that makes no sense to anybody else, that makes no practical sense. And yet we know that we know that we know that God put this thing inside of us, this thing of creativity. You know, I can remember when I started really realizing that it was God that put this creative gifting inside of me, that he had wired me as a creative in his image to be able to create and create with him, not just for him, and to be able to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in the context of my creative pursuits and be able to see him use what I was doing creatively, not only to form me into the image of Christ, but also to release transformation to others in simple ways, especially at the beginning. That changed everything for me because it started this belief process, if you will, inside of my heart, this believing development inside of me that said, you know what? This thing that God's given me is worthy of attention. This thing that God's given me is worthy of pursuit. That God didn't create me creative on accident. He created me as a creative because he's the creator. And if I'm his son and you're his son and his daughter, then he's created you in his image as well. And the more that we lean into this thing that God's given us is our creative design, the more that not only he's glorified, but the more that we are fulfilled as people, the more we're able to walk in the abundant life. And so I just want to encourage you today, the first step in really being able to navigate seasons of transition and understand, hey, is this creative gift thing that I feel? Is this from God? The first step is to just quit pushing it down, to quit denying it. The first step is just to say, God, thank you that you're the one that put these creative desires inside of me. Thank you that you're the author and the finisher of my faith. You're the one who knit me together in my mother's womb. And God, thank you that you have a plan and a purpose for my life and my creativity and my creative expression, even though I can't see it right now. Listen, the second thing that changed everything for me in learning to navigate these seasons of transition is to give up the need for everything to make sense. Now, I know that's a lot easier said than done. I've often said, you know, sometimes God gives us a plan and sometimes God gives us a promise, right? To Moses, he gave a plan, right? He said, Hey, go do this. It's gonna look like this, you know. I want you to lead the Israelites from here to there. To Abraham, he just said, What? Hey, I love you, man. Just go get your stuff and go to the land which I will show you. I would much rather have a plan in my life. I don't know if you're that way, but I would much rather know, hey, it's gonna work out this way. That's the that's the road to take. These are the next steps. I've heard so many artists that I've mentored over the years say, if God would just tell me what to do, I would do it. Have you prayed that? I I've prayed that. I've prayed that before. I've said, oh God, if you would just show me what to do, I'll do it. But you know, every opportunity to step into what God has for us, it always starts with this invitation from God. Usually that doesn't make sense. Usually that's just a nudge. Usually that's just kind of an inkling of a halfway feeling of a I think this might be, but I'm not quite sure. But am I gonna step out or not? And so many times, especially for creatives, because we've been taught to doubt our creativity, we've been taught to push it down, we've been taught that it wasn't spiritual, it's not important, it's selfish, it's not practical. So many times people are used to just saying, oh, that's not me. That's just that's just me, that's not God. And they push it to the side. There's something that happens, though, when you get to be my age. I'm 52, and I don't know how old you are right now. I'm not asking. But uh, something happens as you get older and you keep pushing this thing down and pushing this thing down and pushing this thing down and pushing this thing down, and you work enough dead-end jobs and you keep doing things that you don't like and you keep living a life that you know is only a shadow of what God's really got for you, eventually there's something that rises up in you that says, you know what? I don't care what it costs me, I don't care if I can't see the next step or not, I'm gonna step into it. And you know, if you can, if you can get the quicker you can get to that point, I I I look at myself now and said, oh man, if I just got to that point sooner in my life. But you know, God orders our steps, right? You're right on time, you're not late to the party. But I I've just started to realize in my life, in the lives of so many artists that I worked with, man, God always starts in these places of chaos. He always starts in these moments of invitation that don't make sense. He always starts in these moments that seem like they're just filled with darkness. It's just like in Genesis 1, right? In the beginning, it says that God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless and dark and void, and chaos was over the, you know, darkness was over the face of the deep. And that can feel like our life sometimes. But you know what the Bible says then? It's it was in the middle of that that it says the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the deep. That word hovering means to vibrate and to shake and to even brood over like a like a mother hen would. And in the middle of that, brooding and resonating over everything that was dark and chaotic and void, you know what the Bible says? It was in that moment that the Father said, What? Let there be light. Can we even say, Let there be revelation, let there be a release of my nature? And can I just tell you that the more that you can learn to rest in the moments of chaos, to rest in the moments of darkness, to rest in the moments that don't make sense in these transitional seasons as a creative person, the more you can experience the brooding and the resonating and the hovering sense of God's presence in your life. And out of nowhere, if you can get used to being in that moment of darkness with him, fully trusting that he who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it, fully trusting that he is the one that gave you this creative desire. Listen, if you can fully trust him in that moment, I'm telling you, out of nowhere, he'll say, Let there be light. In a moment there'll be revelation. In a moment there'll be a new idea. In a moment there'll be a new opportunity. Because why? Because God wants to bring you into the things that He designed you for. Don't ever forget you and I are a part of God's story. Don't ever think that you're trying to convince God to come get on board with your story, your dream to be an artist. He's the one that put the thing inside of you. He's the He's the one that gave you the creative gift. He's the one that are has been putting in and fueling these desires or creativity in you the whole time. That He's been waiting for you to simply say yes, to simply acknowledge that it's from Him, to simply realize that if it was important enough for Him to give it to you and put it inside of you, it's going to be important enough for you to give it the time and energy and resource that it needs to be able to be fully developed in your life. And so, man, as you start doing that, as you start being willing to walk with the Lord in the unseen moments, God begins to bring you into moments of revelation, moments of acceleration, moments of multiplication, when you can let go of this need to have this huge impact and this huge expectation met, and just say, Lord, I want to come to you. Just like the boy with loaves and fishes that came to Jesus and said, Hey, I don't know if this can help. I don't know if this can help and be a part of what you're trying to do, but I want to offer what I have. And you know what happened in that moment with that little boy? God not only fed him with baskets left over to take back home, he fed everybody else around him in a moment, in a demonstration of his glory and of his goodness. Because that little boy chose to step out in a moment that looked like chaos, in a moment that looked like he didn't measure up, in a moment that looked like he didn't have anything to offer. He just chose to say yes. He chose to say, hey, maybe what I got, that guy, maybe Jesus can use that. And Jesus did it. I'm telling you, when you do the same thing with your creative gifting, God blows your mind. And he brings revelation and he brings opportunity for you to be able to step into the next thing that he's got for you. The third thing I would say is this, and it goes right along with just that simple act of faithfulness. You know, the Bible's clear of Matthew 25, it's in the parable of the talents, Jesus said, you know, to the to the guys in the field there, he said, You've been faithful with little. Now I'm going to make you ruler over much. Part of you learning to step into this creative calling, even if it doesn't make sense now, even if you don't can't see the full picture yet. Part of you even getting on that journey is just being faithful with what's in your hand right now. And I don't know what that looks like for you. You know, maybe that is going to buy some new paint after not painting for years. Or maybe that's like me, just going to spend some time in the woods. Maybe that's going to get back in your creative room that's become a storage room in your house. Maybe that's letting everybody know that, you know, you're not going to be, you know, putting everybody else's knees before your own anymore, but you're actually going to give yourself permission to start creating again. Whatever it is, I just want to encourage you, just do something faithful today, this week, that says to the Lord, I'm raising my hand, I'm saying yes, I'm saying yes to this creative gift, I'm saying yes to this creative call, I'm saying yes to this journey that I know may not fully make sense yet, but I'm going to choose to take what's in my hand, this gift, this talent, this passion, whatever materials and opportunity and place that I have, and I'm going to say yes to it. And listen, I'm just crazy enough to believe because I've seen it in my own life, and I've seen it in the lives of thousands of artists that I've walked with. When you will be faithful to do that day by day, moment by moment, God is going to be faithful to say, let there be light. He's going to be faithful to bring revelation. He's going to be faithful to bring opportunity. He's going to be faithful to bring the next thing that you need on your journey. And as you keep saying yes and you keep taking steps, that's how you grow. And you know, who knows? Who knows? Your creative gift may be for you a wonderful place of connection with the Lord. Maybe it could be something that you begin to make a part-time living from. Maybe God's got full transition into the job you're in now or the thing you're doing now, into doing your creativity as a full-time business, as a full-time working artist. I've helped tons of artists do that over the year in our mentoring program and all the things that we do. But look, you don't even have to worry about that right now. You know why? Because all God's asking you to do is not have it all figured out, not have a 10-year plan, not know every step. He's just asking you to say yes to this gift that's inside of you and yes to the next step that he shows you. My friend, I'm so glad to be on this journey with you. I pray that God would continue to confirm your path. And I want you to watch this next video because I want to give you five really practical things that you can start doing right now. No matter what you create, no longer matter how long you've been creating, no longer, no matter if you're just you know brand new on this journey, these five things are going to help you begin to honor God in your creative gifting and in your art so that you can know you're walking with Him and growing in everything that He's got for you as a creative in His kingdom. I love you, friend. I'll see you in the next video. Bye.