April 30, 2024 • 27 mins
Michael and Meredith guide us through an inspiring exploration of the unique power of creativity, especially during chaotic times. This episode teaches valuable lessons on the necessity of innovative thinking, utilizing inspiration from both Biblical teachings and cultural milestones such as the renowned movie, "Goonies".
Through the 'parable' of Goonies, they shed light on the healing power of confession and the transformative impact of art. They delve into the paradox of weakness being a strength, the crucial role of art in shaping culture, and how truth-telling can lead to emancipation and restoration.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:08):
Welcome to the Song Lab podcast. This is Michael and Meredith Malden,
where we discuss all things worship, music, creativity, arts, and family sometimes.
Where's our desire to inspire and equip you to create with God in such a way
that you transform the world around you so that your world looks more like heaven on earth.
(00:28):
Hey, it's you and I again. end. Today, I want to talk about creativity,
but I want to talk about it in creating in seasons of chaos.
Because I believe that we are globally, we've been in a season of chaos for quite a while.
I think if you look at every major system in our planet, whether it's the pharmaceutical
system, the education system, medical system, the religious system,
(00:52):
political system, every one of them are at breaking points and in need of reformation.
And when there's a need of reformation, it's time for the creators to arise.
It's people that can think outside the box, that can see where the Lord is taking
us, that have spent time with him, that are prophetic in nature,
that are creative in nature, that can help paint a picture of where we're supposed
(01:14):
to go and where we're supposed to be, right?
And the way I like to look at this is the first five words in the Bible, Mm-hmm.
In the beginning, God created, right?
Before we're introduced to a lover, a healer, a father, a savior,
we're introduced to a creator who creates worlds with his words, right?
(01:36):
And so I think that gives us an indication of who he is, his nature,
what he's like, but also the earth was formless and void.
It was in a state of what some would say chaos, right? And I think that there's
a lot in our culture that's becoming formless and void, whether it's the arts.
It's part of the Communist Manifesto, right, is to create art that's awkward,
(01:59):
shapeless, and meaningless, right?
Wait, before you go to that, because you just threw that out there and a lot
of people don't know what that is. So they're going to be like,
hey, what? Oh, all right. Sorry. Yes.
Say, what about the Communist Manifesto? What are you talking about?
Come on back. Sorry, yeah, a little too fast. So the communist goals of 1963,
if you look that up. Is in a book, right?
Is a book, yes, called The Naked Communist, not The Communist Manifest.
(02:21):
It's called The Naked Communist.
And it talks about their goals for America that were written more than 60 years ago.
Because we were very anti-communist as a society because we fought it.
Yes, because communism at its nature is anti-God, anti-hope.
There's elements about it that I think are, that have good intentions,
(02:43):
but when they practically work themselves out, it leads to more death than has
ever been experienced in the history of mankind, which we've seen in the 20th century.
But part of their goals were to, you know, eliminate prayer from school.
Get control of the media, policymaking positions.
But as it related to the arts, they specifically went after to destroy all beautiful sculptures,
(03:06):
remove them from parks, to replace them with shapeless,
awkward, meaningless forms to promote repulsive ugly art and and put it into
museums and and so they went after an identity of a culture to remove that and
if you have shapeless awkward and meaningless,
that means we don't know who we are because a lot of times people reflect art
(03:30):
right so we become what we become what we behold and and so we're in a season
where a lot of that's been taking place over the last 60 years.
And so there's times for those who can help us create beauty once again so that
we can reflect our creator.
So you're saying within this, like...
Right now, there's an opportunity because of so much chaos and whatnot for creativity
(03:55):
that is godly to lead again.
Yes. Because there's always in movements, God's movements and even other movements,
that it's the creativity that leads.
Yeah. Right? I mean, how is the creativity of movies and film and television
and all the things right now out there have led our culture?
They have totally led our culture. And so- Discipled our nation.
(04:18):
Yes. Right? That's discipled us more than anything else. It's that famous Scottish
politician, Andrew Fletcher, quote, let me write the songs of a nation and I
care not who writes its laws.
Right? Because it's not the laws that grab the heart and the mind of the people.
You know, the law is the power of sin. People will rebel against laws all day.
Right. You know, it's not what grabs their hearts. And so art has a way of subverting
(04:42):
your intellect and getting right in. Getting to your heart.
Getting right in. It's like, you know, that we talk about it all the time,
but the people that are dealing with, you know, dementia and Parkinson's, or what is it? Dementia?
Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's. Yeah. I almost forgot. Had a demented moment.
That, you know, at the end of the life, they remember songs.
(05:04):
They don't remember their family members, but they remember songs.
Right. And so there's something about that. That can sing an old hymn.
That goes, that music that goes into the deep places of our hearts.
And so we need the creatives to arise right now. Yeah.
And I think going back to our last podcast, we talked about the need for spending
alone time and going deep with God.
And there's a film that actually, I think, illustrates this process really well. Process of creativity?
(05:31):
Creativity, of emptying yourself out of your junk and connecting to what God
has placed already within you.
Because Jesus said, you must return and become like a little child to inherit
the kingdom of God, right? There's something about kids that have,
they function in 90th, 100th percentile of creativity.
And it's the education system that was meant to create factory workers,
(05:55):
which is how it was designed. Interesting.
Is what squashes a lot of the creativity out of our kids. And so how do we become
like children again and tap into the creative things that God placed within our hearts?
Because he puts dreams and things in our hearts because he knit us together in our mother's womb.
Yeah, we knit it together. There's things that he put within us that need to
come forward, but they get covered up. they get squashed, they get dulled.
Because they're powerful.
(06:16):
Because they are powerful. The enemy knows it. And so he gives us lies. He spits lies to us.
He hurts us or we get traumatized emotionally and then we lock up. There's comparison.
There's all these other things. Yes, there's a lot of things.
It causes us to lock up and we can't see what God has placed within us,
the original glory of God that he placed within us.
And the film that I'm talking about is the movie Goonies. Okay,
(06:39):
hold on. Let me just preface this real fast.
So Michael watches movies like I've never met anybody else who watches and analyzes movies.
Like he'll watch something and get so much prophetic insight into it.
And I'm like, wait, what?
I watched the same movie and didn't get it. And then when he breaks it down, I'm like, whoa.
Well, a lot of the great filmmakers, the movies that stand the test of time,
(07:00):
their films actually have deeper meaning. There are metaphors of a bigger story.
And I've shared this in some other areas like Groundhog Day or,
you know. So there's actually depth to it. There's depth to it.
So Goonies is actually a deep film, right?
If you haven't seen the movie, it's about these kids who they're about to lose.
One of them is about to lose their home. They're going to have to move away,
but they go into their father's attic and they find a treasure map.
(07:21):
They find a map in their father's attic, right? Isn't that like God to hide
a treasure map for us to discover?
To discover, to go on a journey, right? And there's a group of kids and they
all have these weaknesses.
One of them's overweight. One of them can't see good. One of them has all all
these inventions that are really bad.
One of them talks too much. They call him mouth, you know? And so they all have
(07:46):
these weaknesses, which, which is interesting because their weaknesses,
perceived weaknesses, but their
weaknesses actually become their strengths towards the end of the film.
And I think that's, that's so much the case, even with us that.
That the weaknesses that we perceive in our own lives are oftentimes the place
of where our strength lies because God's power is perfected in our weakness.
And my example of that in my own life as a kid, I always believed that what I said doesn't matter.
(08:11):
That was a lie I believed about myself. The enemy told me that early on,
that what you say doesn't matter.
And so I was afraid to speak, afraid to share my heart. And then what I would
do, I would share it in such a timid way, people would reject it.
And then I was stuck in this cycle of every time I spoke, people would reject me.
Not every time, but a lot of times when it was significant. and when I began
to get saved and the Lord began to reveal to me that I had this core lie that
(08:33):
what I said doesn't matter.
He's like, no, actually, I've chosen you to be an oracle for me and to speak
the word of God. And when you speak, there's power.
And so in my place of weakness is actually where the power lies.
And I've seen that over and over and over again with people.
And this is the story of this film with these young guys.
So they go on this journey to go find this treasure because they need to find
(08:55):
treasure because they're gonna lose their home. That this treasure map that
was their father's treasure map.
And they go on a journey of discovery. And there's a moment when they go,
they find this building, they go underground, they start digging.
But one kid, because of his weakness, the fat kid, he wanted ice cream.
And so he went into this closet and get stuck in this closet.
His weakness caused him to get stuck with the others went on this journey.
(09:16):
And he ends up getting found out by this group called the Fratellis.
And they were basically bank robbers, murderers, and they grabbed the kid.
And they want him to confess where his friends are, what they're up to.
And they go, all right, tell us everything. Start from the beginning.
Kid, I want you to spill your guts. Tell us everything. Everything. Everything.
(09:39):
Okay, I'll talk. And he starts confessing every sin of his entire life.
You know, they put his hand in a blender. He's like, at age three,
I did this. At age four, I did this. You know, and they start looking at him.
And in the middle of confession, profession,
Inside the room that they're in, there's a fireplace, which the other kids had
gone down the fireplace.
They didn't know that there was a secret trap in there. But as he's confessing,
(10:00):
all these bats come pouring out of the fireplace.
It's a picture of deliverance because he was hiding all this stuff deep within him. And it's like bats.
It's like these inner demons, these inner lies, these things that he was holding on.
And in the midst of him confessing that out, the visual picture is these bats
coming out of the depths of the earth, right?
(10:20):
And that's what confession is. You're getting rid of the junk that you're holding
with inside of you. That's what David did.
That's what David did. David did that in the Psalms all the time. You see it.
His start of his Psalm is like, God, where are you? I don't know where you are.
My enemies are against me. I'm like falling apart.
He gets out all of the junk of what he's believing and what he's feeling and the situation he's in.
(10:44):
But you always notice by the end of the Psalm, he's like, oh,
but my God, my strong tower, or you are, you know, and he ends up confessing the truth.
He has to get out the junk in order to get to the truth.
And then that's, I honestly believe why David, who experienced such chaos,
experienced such betrayal, experienced, you know, war and horrifying things.
(11:08):
And how did he keep his heart pure before the Lord?
I truly believe it's through his song and his confession of pain to the Lord
that led him to strengthen himself in the Lord and remind himself who he had
to get all the way to the depth of it. Totally, yeah.
And then once he did that, it's like, then the truth was there and it set him free.
(11:29):
And then he was strong again because of the Lord. The creative process is healing,
right? The creative process is so healing.
Do you think, so I want to touch on that because it's interesting because there's
a scripture that says that women will be saved through childbearing.
That's an interesting scripture. Right? It's a very interesting scripture,
but it's a creative process.
And saved could also mean healed, delivered, set whole, made whole, right?
(11:53):
So there's something healing and create wholeness about a woman creating and delivering.
And that's a fascinating thought, right? But let's go back to the healing,
creative process being healing.
We've had the privilege where we got to go sit in the office and hang out with George Bush, right?
We got to go to his office and hang out. And he was sharing stories,
and it was really unique to be with him.
(12:15):
This was after his presidency. After his presidency. So we got to ask him questions
about that stuff regarding that.
The decisions he had to make, I was asking him questions about his decisions,
if he thought he made the right decisions.
And he's like, to be honest, we won't know for another 20 years if the decisions
I made were the right decisions.
And you could see it was weighing on him. There was a weightiness to make decisions
about war and people dying.
I mean, I can't imagine what that was like. I mean, King David had to do the
(12:37):
same thing, right? Those kind of decisions affects millions of people.
But what he was doing that season, he was one, he was showing his videos that
he was making about doing stuff with wounded warriors, pushing these guys up hills on their bikes.
And he was helping broken people heal himself, but he was also doing a lot of painting.
(12:59):
Yeah. He was so excited about his art. He was so excited about his art,
but I think he was trying to heal from the trauma that he had gone through from
the decisions that he made.
Yeah. you know back to confession confession good goonies
right confessing i think is a big part of the creative process
of getting wherever you're at the truth of where you're at
what you've been through the trauma that you've been in the past getting that
(13:19):
out the lies that you believed about yourself confessing those out it's a confession
and when you do you get rid of the junk and you open yourself up to then be
able to tap into who you are in the way that god has designed So let's go into Goonies.
They're on this journey. Wait, before, can I get one more thing?
So in the confession, that's a lot of where actually the world writes its songs.
(13:42):
Is in the confession part of things.
Not necessarily confession, but it's just like they're talking about their heartbreaks.
It's a form of confession. It's a form of confession. They're truth-telling.
They're going through all the things that they're like, and everybody as humans relates to it.
They do, because there's truth to it. The ones that are authentic and true about
their stories in ways that are probably very vulnerable, a lot of people don't
like to talk about, If someone taps into that, there's something to it that,
(14:06):
you know, there's the song, my daughter showed me and it was like this like breakup song, right?
I mean, I'm not in a breakup. We have a happy, healthy marriage.
But when I listen to that song, I feel it. Yeah. I feel it.
And I'm like, but I actually enjoy the moment of it because it's so real and honest.
Like, I'm not in that season. I don't plan to be in that season,
(14:29):
Lord willing, you know, ever.
But there's something about the honesty of that song that makes me feel something
that I actually enjoy their process because you relate as humans.
Yes. and you connect yeah so there's something about confession that causes
you to be authentic because they're confessing out the reality of where they're
at just as believers we don't need to stay there don't need to stay there no
(14:49):
or there's more to it because God wants to fill us up but he also wants to reveal
to us who our God-given identity is and so going into the story of Goonies
there's a lot of metaphor within the film I'm not going to go into all of it
but there comes a place right before they get to,
find the treasure and they come to a place of dry bones,
it's these it's this like like dry bone piano kind of a thing that one-eyed
(15:12):
Willie had placed in there on this journey.
And one-eyed Willie is interesting too when you think about the scripture about
the eye being single, but I'm not going to get into that, but it says your whole
body's full of light. See what I mean?
So they have to go play these old dry bones and there's a girl in there and
she has to tap back into when she had piano lessons as a young girl to be able
(15:35):
to play the chords correctly.
And when they didn't play the chords correctly, directly, the floor would fall
out from underneath them and they would almost die.
But when she would play the chords correctly, this door would open and you would
see the light. It was a pathway of light that led towards their future.
And when she was able to tap into that and play these songs right,
tap into this authenticity of who she was as a little girl, play the songs,
(15:57):
all of a sudden this door opens,
light shining through it, and they were able to go and then escape down into
to where the treasure was, right?
And so I think for a lot of people,
That's a big part of the process is tapping into what has God placed in you
when you were a child, you know?
Because it's always been there from the beginning. He knit you together in your
(16:17):
mother's womb. He put destiny inside of you. He put dreams inside of you, right?
And then part of that process of confession is uncovering that.
And then as you get towards the end, they discover this treasure, right?
And I think it's analogous or metaphor for what God's placed with inside of
us. He's placed treasure within us. It's the original glory.
Yes, we are made in the image of God. There's original sin, but there's also original glory.
(16:40):
And at the end of it, they find their treasure, but then the Fratellis,
the bad guys, they come and they want to squash it.
And how many times in your creative process, when you're about to birth something
new, you're tapping into the creative thing and you're about to release it,
does the enemy come in and try to shut you down and say, what you're saying is not significant.
You can't release that into the earth. You're an idiot. No one's going to like it.
(17:02):
Every single time the enemy comes in right when you're at the treasure point
of releasing that treasure yeah can I just can we just speak to that real fast
yes I just want people to know like it.
Every time there's a release anytime there is the
enemy always wants to come in we think I'm sure everybody thinks oh but that
person you know they've been doing it long they don't feel that I can guarantee
(17:22):
it is just part of the process and I think if we know that then it helps us
to like fight that instead of believe it yeah you know because there is that thing in us that's like,
I'm going through it even right now. It's a battle to trust,
to go, it's what is, we had a whole conversation with our team this morning
(17:44):
because we're releasing music right now.
We have a single coming out April 12th and I'm singing it.
I didn't want to lead out this time, but you were like, you need to lead out.
This was part of the whole thing.
But it's just been this battle to go, no, my success, our takeaway today,
my success is my obedience to the Lord. It's not in the numbers.
(18:05):
It's not in the, and we know the right answer, but sometimes we don't know the
right answer. And it's this constant battle of like, who is this for?
And if nobody listens to it, is God approved? Is this for God or is it not?
You know, especially with worship music and all that kind of stuff.
But I do think that there is this, there's this thing that tries to come to
tell you everything the opposite of what you're originally created for.
(18:27):
Think about this. The Fratellis are thieves in the film.
The thief comes to what? Steal, kill, and destroy.
So right when you're about to burst something new, the enemy comes to steal,
kill, and destroy that thing before it even comes to bring life.
And the biggest, I think, metaphor in the film is the Fratellis had a kid, a child, or the mom did.
(18:47):
There was a brother of the brothers, and his name was Sluth.
And they would keep him chained in a dungeon underneath.
Right? And they thought he was- Because he wasn't acceptable.
He wasn't acceptable. He wasn't pretty. He was ugly.
And he's the metaphor for every one of those goonies.
Because he's just this thing inside of us that we've hidden,
that we're afraid. We feel is ugly and we're afraid to bring it forward.
(19:10):
And we don't think that it's worth being seen, that what God placed within us,
maybe we don't realize that it's what's God placed within us.
We just look at it as like, maybe what I carry doesn't have value because in
the film, he's underground.
He stayed underneath, right? But at the end of the film, once they find their
treasure, he comes showing up onto the scene with Chunk.
(19:31):
And he comes, you know, hey, you guys. Hey, you guys.
Music.
Chuck. Sir, how'd he get out? He comes in and he has this Superman shirt on.
And this person that was supposed to be weak and ugly becomes the person that
helps to save them from the Fratellis, the thief that comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
(19:54):
And so I think it's an alias of the thing that's inside of us that we think
is ugly, that actually that place of weakness might be where our power lies. It's so interesting.
Sometimes I would step out. We talked about spontaneous worship last time in our last one.
And sometimes I would step out and it was so vulnerable and I thought it wasn't good.
And you get beat up with, sometimes you get the vulnerability hangover.
(20:16):
You step out and you're like, I don't know if it was received.
But it was like, sometimes even in the little mistakes that I would make.
You would always be like, that was the most beautiful part, which always would shock me.
You know, because in our mind, our perfect, our really good moments or our really,
you know, that's, that's the part that is beautiful, but really it's not always
(20:37):
our really good moments.
It's in our, it's in the authentic. Authentic messy.
Authentic mess is more beautiful than pretty. And here's the thing is like,
I feel like in our society right now, everybody's starved for authenticity.
Like, and we want permission to be authentic. Authentic.
Like, you know, because it's like, especially with social media where you only
(20:57):
get to see the clips of the best and the filters and the pretty and that like
we all got the things and there's no wrinkles and there's a mean and we get all this kind of stuff.
And we're just like, you just compare yourself to the perfection.
You're like, that's not me.
So this isn't good enough. Or this is this authentic of who I am is is not acceptable.
Yeah when really it's like when you do see
something authentic it's actually so life-giving and
(21:20):
it's actually really beautiful totally one one
other little so in the recording for the song and you
know that we're releasing like i had a moment with god in it and i started crying
like i was crying and all of a sudden i couldn't sing because i was crying you
know it's just like it hit me and i was like i mean it was messy you know and
(21:41):
we got done and i was having a hard time like even like pulling myself together all the way.
And then I remember being like, oh no, like we should do it again because that was so messy.
But I've taught over and over in my song lab that authenticity,
I'd rather have you authentic than perfect.
You know, I'd rather you explore the authentic and be that than it be uber creativity
(22:03):
for creativity's sake, you know, because authenticity is actually what we want
to, like the truth is really what we want to follow. It's the truth, yeah.
Truth we know is Jesus. truth is the man, but like that honest truth,
there's something about that makes you want to follow that because it's so real and honest.
But anyways, I was like, okay, I'm not going to rerecord it.
(22:25):
I'm going to let it be what it is. Even though that was like vulnerable for
me, but it's like trying to stay within what I teach. Well, do you think that
sometimes there's music out there, often in the Christian space,
radio, that just, I cringe when I listen to it.
And do you think it's because it's a lack of authenticity and truth?
(22:47):
Or what do you think that is?
Like, I feel embarrassed listening to it sometimes. Yeah. Not everything.
Not everything. I said sometimes. Yeah. And it's in the secular space too.
Yeah, totally. More often Christian space, unfortunately.
Yeah. I think it is. It's like there's sometimes I think the battle that we have.
Now, I feel like with Christian music is always going to be a bigger battle
because there's actually real power in it.
Yeah. So the enemy is always going to be after the thing that actually,
(23:09):
you know, has the power behind it. So we have a bigger fight to fight.
But I would say within it, there is a, sometimes we say what we think we should say.
And there is truth to that. You know, we want to say the right thing.
But I think sometimes we like do that because we're like, it works.
I know within sometimes the Christian industry, they say, hey,
(23:29):
if this works, we want to make 10 more like this.
So no longer is it about like the authentic. It's about what's working.
You know, and so I just think that there's sometimes that sometimes with the
trying to do what's working, it's more easily exposed within Christianity because
Christianity is supposed to be so truly authentic.
And so there's a higher standard for it. And it just when it doesn't work,
(23:52):
it feels cringy because it doesn't feel truly authentic.
I mean, that's a hard thing to say, but I think there's truth in that for sure.
I don't know. I mean, I wouldn't know how to fix it.
No, I think, I think, I think there's just a battle for authenticity.
Yeah. And I think a great model for that.
(24:12):
You brought this up earlier though, is David. And it's willing to write out
the junk of where you're at, the truth of it, the honest, raw truth of how you feel.
Like I've, I've, I've had these moments where I've been able to express that to people in a room.
Honest ugly language and it was man
god came in after that moment because it was so authentic and
(24:34):
real you know in a private conversation private conversation this
isn't corporate i'm not talking about corporate yes i'm just talking about i'm
talking about the act of confession yeah in being authentic with your confession
yes you don't want to confess your junk if you're a worship leader on stage
no that's not the point david didn't do that either that was not for everybody
not for congregational dynamic i'm just talking about the creative process yeah
(24:55):
the creative process yes Yes.
And, and so I think, you know, leaning into David's model of that part,
getting it out, but not staying there and then seeing how God is the flip side
of that often, you know, and that he wants to bring his power into that place
where you've been wounded,
where you've been hurt, where you've spoke a lie.
(25:15):
He wants to come into the depths of your heart and fill that with his spirit.
And he wants to re-reveal to you what your God-given identity is.
And I think your Your creative process can help bring that to the surface a
lot faster than a lot of other processes, if you're willing to be honest.
Yeah. I think, again, kind of tying back what we talked about in the first place
is like creativity leads.
(25:38):
Creativity brings peace in the chaos. Yeah.
I think it takes, at this point, there's an opportunity to lead in that.
Yeah. Like there is a huge, massive opportunity to be able to create songs that
lead, but that takes, again, a cost of seeking the Lord for what He's wanting
to do through you personally and like to be obedient to that.
(26:00):
You know, because a lot of times we can be shallow and it's,
you know, with the social media of like, well, this works, we'll just do this.
And, you know, we're all, I think, guilty of it in whatever form or capacity, but the true...
Creativity that really creates a change, it comes from a super authentic and it takes depth.
(26:20):
Yeah. I agree. Well, I think that's a great place to kind of wrap that up.
And I want to pray for us, but I just want to encourage everyone to go on that journey with God.
There is a treasure map that he's given and it's the word of God,
and it's our father's treasure map.
And he wants to reveal to you who you are, and he wants to reveal to you what
(26:43):
the world like is to come.
Jesus' prayer was that it would be on earth as it is in heaven.
And so the journey is into his heart so that we can see what heaven looks like.
And our creative expressions can help articulate that, can help paint that picture,
can help articulate that in a film, song, painting, dance, poetry, all those things.
And so, Lord, may we be like the Goonies, and maybe we'd be willing to go on
(27:06):
a journey to to follow the treasure map.
May you teach us how to be authentic truth tellers, confess out the truth of
what we've gone through, what we've been through, the lies that we believe about
ourselves, and may you reveal to us our God-given identity.
May we be able to tap into the things that you placed in us when we were kids,
that we could play those old dry bones that would come to life.
And you'd bring flesh to those old dreams, those old dead things,
(27:29):
and the light to the path before us would appear, and you would lead us to the
things that are of true value, and that in that process that the mouth of the
enemy would be silenced.
The thief that would come to steal, to kill and destroy would be,
would be sent off and, and, and drowned where it's whatever that is,
is supposed to go in Jesus name.
And yeah, let creativity flow. We love you guys.
Welcome to the Song Lab podcast. This is Michael and Meredith Malden,
where we discuss all things worship, music, creativity, arts, and family sometimes.
Where's our desire to inspire and equip you to create with God in such a way
that you transform the world around you so that your world looks more like heaven on earth.
(00:28):
Hey, it's you and I again. end. Today, I want to talk about creativity,
but I want to talk about it in creating in seasons of chaos.
Because I believe that we are globally, we've been in a season of chaos for quite a while.
I think if you look at every major system in our planet, whether it's the pharmaceutical
system, the education system, medical system, the religious system,
(00:52):
political system, every one of them are at breaking points and in need of reformation.
And when there's a need of reformation, it's time for the creators to arise.
It's people that can think outside the box, that can see where the Lord is taking
us, that have spent time with him, that are prophetic in nature,
that are creative in nature, that can help paint a picture of where we're supposed
(01:14):
to go and where we're supposed to be, right?
And the way I like to look at this is the first five words in the Bible, Mm-hmm.
In the beginning, God created, right?
Before we're introduced to a lover, a healer, a father, a savior,
we're introduced to a creator who creates worlds with his words, right?
(01:36):
And so I think that gives us an indication of who he is, his nature,
what he's like, but also the earth was formless and void.
It was in a state of what some would say chaos, right? And I think that there's
a lot in our culture that's becoming formless and void, whether it's the arts.
It's part of the Communist Manifesto, right, is to create art that's awkward,
(01:59):
shapeless, and meaningless, right?
Wait, before you go to that, because you just threw that out there and a lot
of people don't know what that is. So they're going to be like,
hey, what? Oh, all right. Sorry. Yes.
Say, what about the Communist Manifesto? What are you talking about?
Come on back. Sorry, yeah, a little too fast. So the communist goals of 1963,
if you look that up. Is in a book, right?
Is a book, yes, called The Naked Communist, not The Communist Manifest.
(02:21):
It's called The Naked Communist.
And it talks about their goals for America that were written more than 60 years ago.
Because we were very anti-communist as a society because we fought it.
Yes, because communism at its nature is anti-God, anti-hope.
There's elements about it that I think are, that have good intentions,
(02:43):
but when they practically work themselves out, it leads to more death than has
ever been experienced in the history of mankind, which we've seen in the 20th century.
But part of their goals were to, you know, eliminate prayer from school.
Get control of the media, policymaking positions.
But as it related to the arts, they specifically went after to destroy all beautiful sculptures,
(03:06):
remove them from parks, to replace them with shapeless,
awkward, meaningless forms to promote repulsive ugly art and and put it into
museums and and so they went after an identity of a culture to remove that and
if you have shapeless awkward and meaningless,
that means we don't know who we are because a lot of times people reflect art
(03:30):
right so we become what we become what we behold and and so we're in a season
where a lot of that's been taking place over the last 60 years.
And so there's times for those who can help us create beauty once again so that
we can reflect our creator.
So you're saying within this, like...
Right now, there's an opportunity because of so much chaos and whatnot for creativity
(03:55):
that is godly to lead again.
Yes. Because there's always in movements, God's movements and even other movements,
that it's the creativity that leads.
Yeah. Right? I mean, how is the creativity of movies and film and television
and all the things right now out there have led our culture?
They have totally led our culture. And so- Discipled our nation.
(04:18):
Yes. Right? That's discipled us more than anything else. It's that famous Scottish
politician, Andrew Fletcher, quote, let me write the songs of a nation and I
care not who writes its laws.
Right? Because it's not the laws that grab the heart and the mind of the people.
You know, the law is the power of sin. People will rebel against laws all day.
Right. You know, it's not what grabs their hearts. And so art has a way of subverting
(04:42):
your intellect and getting right in. Getting to your heart.
Getting right in. It's like, you know, that we talk about it all the time,
but the people that are dealing with, you know, dementia and Parkinson's, or what is it? Dementia?
Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's. Yeah. I almost forgot. Had a demented moment.
That, you know, at the end of the life, they remember songs.
(05:04):
They don't remember their family members, but they remember songs.
Right. And so there's something about that. That can sing an old hymn.
That goes, that music that goes into the deep places of our hearts.
And so we need the creatives to arise right now. Yeah.
And I think going back to our last podcast, we talked about the need for spending
alone time and going deep with God.
And there's a film that actually, I think, illustrates this process really well. Process of creativity?
(05:31):
Creativity, of emptying yourself out of your junk and connecting to what God
has placed already within you.
Because Jesus said, you must return and become like a little child to inherit
the kingdom of God, right? There's something about kids that have,
they function in 90th, 100th percentile of creativity.
And it's the education system that was meant to create factory workers,
(05:55):
which is how it was designed. Interesting.
Is what squashes a lot of the creativity out of our kids. And so how do we become
like children again and tap into the creative things that God placed within our hearts?
Because he puts dreams and things in our hearts because he knit us together in our mother's womb.
Yeah, we knit it together. There's things that he put within us that need to
come forward, but they get covered up. they get squashed, they get dulled.
Because they're powerful.
(06:16):
Because they are powerful. The enemy knows it. And so he gives us lies. He spits lies to us.
He hurts us or we get traumatized emotionally and then we lock up. There's comparison.
There's all these other things. Yes, there's a lot of things.
It causes us to lock up and we can't see what God has placed within us,
the original glory of God that he placed within us.
And the film that I'm talking about is the movie Goonies. Okay,
(06:39):
hold on. Let me just preface this real fast.
So Michael watches movies like I've never met anybody else who watches and analyzes movies.
Like he'll watch something and get so much prophetic insight into it.
And I'm like, wait, what?
I watched the same movie and didn't get it. And then when he breaks it down, I'm like, whoa.
Well, a lot of the great filmmakers, the movies that stand the test of time,
(07:00):
their films actually have deeper meaning. There are metaphors of a bigger story.
And I've shared this in some other areas like Groundhog Day or,
you know. So there's actually depth to it. There's depth to it.
So Goonies is actually a deep film, right?
If you haven't seen the movie, it's about these kids who they're about to lose.
One of them is about to lose their home. They're going to have to move away,
but they go into their father's attic and they find a treasure map.
(07:21):
They find a map in their father's attic, right? Isn't that like God to hide
a treasure map for us to discover?
To discover, to go on a journey, right? And there's a group of kids and they
all have these weaknesses.
One of them's overweight. One of them can't see good. One of them has all all
these inventions that are really bad.
One of them talks too much. They call him mouth, you know? And so they all have
(07:46):
these weaknesses, which, which is interesting because their weaknesses,
perceived weaknesses, but their
weaknesses actually become their strengths towards the end of the film.
And I think that's, that's so much the case, even with us that.
That the weaknesses that we perceive in our own lives are oftentimes the place
of where our strength lies because God's power is perfected in our weakness.
And my example of that in my own life as a kid, I always believed that what I said doesn't matter.
(08:11):
That was a lie I believed about myself. The enemy told me that early on,
that what you say doesn't matter.
And so I was afraid to speak, afraid to share my heart. And then what I would
do, I would share it in such a timid way, people would reject it.
And then I was stuck in this cycle of every time I spoke, people would reject me.
Not every time, but a lot of times when it was significant. and when I began
to get saved and the Lord began to reveal to me that I had this core lie that
(08:33):
what I said doesn't matter.
He's like, no, actually, I've chosen you to be an oracle for me and to speak
the word of God. And when you speak, there's power.
And so in my place of weakness is actually where the power lies.
And I've seen that over and over and over again with people.
And this is the story of this film with these young guys.
So they go on this journey to go find this treasure because they need to find
(08:55):
treasure because they're gonna lose their home. That this treasure map that
was their father's treasure map.
And they go on a journey of discovery. And there's a moment when they go,
they find this building, they go underground, they start digging.
But one kid, because of his weakness, the fat kid, he wanted ice cream.
And so he went into this closet and get stuck in this closet.
His weakness caused him to get stuck with the others went on this journey.
(09:16):
And he ends up getting found out by this group called the Fratellis.
And they were basically bank robbers, murderers, and they grabbed the kid.
And they want him to confess where his friends are, what they're up to.
And they go, all right, tell us everything. Start from the beginning.
Kid, I want you to spill your guts. Tell us everything. Everything. Everything.
(09:39):
Okay, I'll talk. And he starts confessing every sin of his entire life.
You know, they put his hand in a blender. He's like, at age three,
I did this. At age four, I did this. You know, and they start looking at him.
And in the middle of confession, profession,
Inside the room that they're in, there's a fireplace, which the other kids had
gone down the fireplace.
They didn't know that there was a secret trap in there. But as he's confessing,
(10:00):
all these bats come pouring out of the fireplace.
It's a picture of deliverance because he was hiding all this stuff deep within him. And it's like bats.
It's like these inner demons, these inner lies, these things that he was holding on.
And in the midst of him confessing that out, the visual picture is these bats
coming out of the depths of the earth, right?
(10:20):
And that's what confession is. You're getting rid of the junk that you're holding
with inside of you. That's what David did.
That's what David did. David did that in the Psalms all the time. You see it.
His start of his Psalm is like, God, where are you? I don't know where you are.
My enemies are against me. I'm like falling apart.
He gets out all of the junk of what he's believing and what he's feeling and the situation he's in.
(10:44):
But you always notice by the end of the Psalm, he's like, oh,
but my God, my strong tower, or you are, you know, and he ends up confessing the truth.
He has to get out the junk in order to get to the truth.
And then that's, I honestly believe why David, who experienced such chaos,
experienced such betrayal, experienced, you know, war and horrifying things.
(11:08):
And how did he keep his heart pure before the Lord?
I truly believe it's through his song and his confession of pain to the Lord
that led him to strengthen himself in the Lord and remind himself who he had
to get all the way to the depth of it. Totally, yeah.
And then once he did that, it's like, then the truth was there and it set him free.
(11:29):
And then he was strong again because of the Lord. The creative process is healing,
right? The creative process is so healing.
Do you think, so I want to touch on that because it's interesting because there's
a scripture that says that women will be saved through childbearing.
That's an interesting scripture. Right? It's a very interesting scripture,
but it's a creative process.
And saved could also mean healed, delivered, set whole, made whole, right?
(11:53):
So there's something healing and create wholeness about a woman creating and delivering.
And that's a fascinating thought, right? But let's go back to the healing,
creative process being healing.
We've had the privilege where we got to go sit in the office and hang out with George Bush, right?
We got to go to his office and hang out. And he was sharing stories,
and it was really unique to be with him.
(12:15):
This was after his presidency. After his presidency. So we got to ask him questions
about that stuff regarding that.
The decisions he had to make, I was asking him questions about his decisions,
if he thought he made the right decisions.
And he's like, to be honest, we won't know for another 20 years if the decisions
I made were the right decisions.
And you could see it was weighing on him. There was a weightiness to make decisions
about war and people dying.
I mean, I can't imagine what that was like. I mean, King David had to do the
(12:37):
same thing, right? Those kind of decisions affects millions of people.
But what he was doing that season, he was one, he was showing his videos that
he was making about doing stuff with wounded warriors, pushing these guys up hills on their bikes.
And he was helping broken people heal himself, but he was also doing a lot of painting.
(12:59):
Yeah. He was so excited about his art. He was so excited about his art,
but I think he was trying to heal from the trauma that he had gone through from
the decisions that he made.
Yeah. you know back to confession confession good goonies
right confessing i think is a big part of the creative process
of getting wherever you're at the truth of where you're at
what you've been through the trauma that you've been in the past getting that
(13:19):
out the lies that you believed about yourself confessing those out it's a confession
and when you do you get rid of the junk and you open yourself up to then be
able to tap into who you are in the way that god has designed So let's go into Goonies.
They're on this journey. Wait, before, can I get one more thing?
So in the confession, that's a lot of where actually the world writes its songs.
(13:42):
Is in the confession part of things.
Not necessarily confession, but it's just like they're talking about their heartbreaks.
It's a form of confession. It's a form of confession. They're truth-telling.
They're going through all the things that they're like, and everybody as humans relates to it.
They do, because there's truth to it. The ones that are authentic and true about
their stories in ways that are probably very vulnerable, a lot of people don't
like to talk about, If someone taps into that, there's something to it that,
(14:06):
you know, there's the song, my daughter showed me and it was like this like breakup song, right?
I mean, I'm not in a breakup. We have a happy, healthy marriage.
But when I listen to that song, I feel it. Yeah. I feel it.
And I'm like, but I actually enjoy the moment of it because it's so real and honest.
Like, I'm not in that season. I don't plan to be in that season,
(14:29):
Lord willing, you know, ever.
But there's something about the honesty of that song that makes me feel something
that I actually enjoy their process because you relate as humans.
Yes. and you connect yeah so there's something about confession that causes
you to be authentic because they're confessing out the reality of where they're
at just as believers we don't need to stay there don't need to stay there no
(14:49):
or there's more to it because God wants to fill us up but he also wants to reveal
to us who our God-given identity is and so going into the story of Goonies
there's a lot of metaphor within the film I'm not going to go into all of it
but there comes a place right before they get to,
find the treasure and they come to a place of dry bones,
it's these it's this like like dry bone piano kind of a thing that one-eyed
(15:12):
Willie had placed in there on this journey.
And one-eyed Willie is interesting too when you think about the scripture about
the eye being single, but I'm not going to get into that, but it says your whole
body's full of light. See what I mean?
So they have to go play these old dry bones and there's a girl in there and
she has to tap back into when she had piano lessons as a young girl to be able
(15:35):
to play the chords correctly.
And when they didn't play the chords correctly, directly, the floor would fall
out from underneath them and they would almost die.
But when she would play the chords correctly, this door would open and you would
see the light. It was a pathway of light that led towards their future.
And when she was able to tap into that and play these songs right,
tap into this authenticity of who she was as a little girl, play the songs,
(15:57):
all of a sudden this door opens,
light shining through it, and they were able to go and then escape down into
to where the treasure was, right?
And so I think for a lot of people,
That's a big part of the process is tapping into what has God placed in you
when you were a child, you know?
Because it's always been there from the beginning. He knit you together in your
(16:17):
mother's womb. He put destiny inside of you. He put dreams inside of you, right?
And then part of that process of confession is uncovering that.
And then as you get towards the end, they discover this treasure, right?
And I think it's analogous or metaphor for what God's placed with inside of
us. He's placed treasure within us. It's the original glory.
Yes, we are made in the image of God. There's original sin, but there's also original glory.
(16:40):
And at the end of it, they find their treasure, but then the Fratellis,
the bad guys, they come and they want to squash it.
And how many times in your creative process, when you're about to birth something
new, you're tapping into the creative thing and you're about to release it,
does the enemy come in and try to shut you down and say, what you're saying is not significant.
You can't release that into the earth. You're an idiot. No one's going to like it.
(17:02):
Every single time the enemy comes in right when you're at the treasure point
of releasing that treasure yeah can I just can we just speak to that real fast
yes I just want people to know like it.
Every time there's a release anytime there is the
enemy always wants to come in we think I'm sure everybody thinks oh but that
person you know they've been doing it long they don't feel that I can guarantee
(17:22):
it is just part of the process and I think if we know that then it helps us
to like fight that instead of believe it yeah you know because there is that thing in us that's like,
I'm going through it even right now. It's a battle to trust,
to go, it's what is, we had a whole conversation with our team this morning
(17:44):
because we're releasing music right now.
We have a single coming out April 12th and I'm singing it.
I didn't want to lead out this time, but you were like, you need to lead out.
This was part of the whole thing.
But it's just been this battle to go, no, my success, our takeaway today,
my success is my obedience to the Lord. It's not in the numbers.
(18:05):
It's not in the, and we know the right answer, but sometimes we don't know the
right answer. And it's this constant battle of like, who is this for?
And if nobody listens to it, is God approved? Is this for God or is it not?
You know, especially with worship music and all that kind of stuff.
But I do think that there is this, there's this thing that tries to come to
tell you everything the opposite of what you're originally created for.
(18:27):
Think about this. The Fratellis are thieves in the film.
The thief comes to what? Steal, kill, and destroy.
So right when you're about to burst something new, the enemy comes to steal,
kill, and destroy that thing before it even comes to bring life.
And the biggest, I think, metaphor in the film is the Fratellis had a kid, a child, or the mom did.
(18:47):
There was a brother of the brothers, and his name was Sluth.
And they would keep him chained in a dungeon underneath.
Right? And they thought he was- Because he wasn't acceptable.
He wasn't acceptable. He wasn't pretty. He was ugly.
And he's the metaphor for every one of those goonies.
Because he's just this thing inside of us that we've hidden,
that we're afraid. We feel is ugly and we're afraid to bring it forward.
(19:10):
And we don't think that it's worth being seen, that what God placed within us,
maybe we don't realize that it's what's God placed within us.
We just look at it as like, maybe what I carry doesn't have value because in
the film, he's underground.
He stayed underneath, right? But at the end of the film, once they find their
treasure, he comes showing up onto the scene with Chunk.
(19:31):
And he comes, you know, hey, you guys. Hey, you guys.
Music.
Chuck. Sir, how'd he get out? He comes in and he has this Superman shirt on.
And this person that was supposed to be weak and ugly becomes the person that
helps to save them from the Fratellis, the thief that comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
(19:54):
And so I think it's an alias of the thing that's inside of us that we think
is ugly, that actually that place of weakness might be where our power lies. It's so interesting.
Sometimes I would step out. We talked about spontaneous worship last time in our last one.
And sometimes I would step out and it was so vulnerable and I thought it wasn't good.
And you get beat up with, sometimes you get the vulnerability hangover.
(20:16):
You step out and you're like, I don't know if it was received.
But it was like, sometimes even in the little mistakes that I would make.
You would always be like, that was the most beautiful part, which always would shock me.
You know, because in our mind, our perfect, our really good moments or our really,
you know, that's, that's the part that is beautiful, but really it's not always
(20:37):
our really good moments.
It's in our, it's in the authentic. Authentic messy.
Authentic mess is more beautiful than pretty. And here's the thing is like,
I feel like in our society right now, everybody's starved for authenticity.
Like, and we want permission to be authentic. Authentic.
Like, you know, because it's like, especially with social media where you only
(20:57):
get to see the clips of the best and the filters and the pretty and that like
we all got the things and there's no wrinkles and there's a mean and we get all this kind of stuff.
And we're just like, you just compare yourself to the perfection.
You're like, that's not me.
So this isn't good enough. Or this is this authentic of who I am is is not acceptable.
Yeah when really it's like when you do see
something authentic it's actually so life-giving and
(21:20):
it's actually really beautiful totally one one
other little so in the recording for the song and you
know that we're releasing like i had a moment with god in it and i started crying
like i was crying and all of a sudden i couldn't sing because i was crying you
know it's just like it hit me and i was like i mean it was messy you know and
(21:41):
we got done and i was having a hard time like even like pulling myself together all the way.
And then I remember being like, oh no, like we should do it again because that was so messy.
But I've taught over and over in my song lab that authenticity,
I'd rather have you authentic than perfect.
You know, I'd rather you explore the authentic and be that than it be uber creativity
(22:03):
for creativity's sake, you know, because authenticity is actually what we want
to, like the truth is really what we want to follow. It's the truth, yeah.
Truth we know is Jesus. truth is the man, but like that honest truth,
there's something about that makes you want to follow that because it's so real and honest.
But anyways, I was like, okay, I'm not going to rerecord it.
(22:25):
I'm going to let it be what it is. Even though that was like vulnerable for
me, but it's like trying to stay within what I teach. Well, do you think that
sometimes there's music out there, often in the Christian space,
radio, that just, I cringe when I listen to it.
And do you think it's because it's a lack of authenticity and truth?
(22:47):
Or what do you think that is?
Like, I feel embarrassed listening to it sometimes. Yeah. Not everything.
Not everything. I said sometimes. Yeah. And it's in the secular space too.
Yeah, totally. More often Christian space, unfortunately.
Yeah. I think it is. It's like there's sometimes I think the battle that we have.
Now, I feel like with Christian music is always going to be a bigger battle
because there's actually real power in it.
Yeah. So the enemy is always going to be after the thing that actually,
(23:09):
you know, has the power behind it. So we have a bigger fight to fight.
But I would say within it, there is a, sometimes we say what we think we should say.
And there is truth to that. You know, we want to say the right thing.
But I think sometimes we like do that because we're like, it works.
I know within sometimes the Christian industry, they say, hey,
(23:29):
if this works, we want to make 10 more like this.
So no longer is it about like the authentic. It's about what's working.
You know, and so I just think that there's sometimes that sometimes with the
trying to do what's working, it's more easily exposed within Christianity because
Christianity is supposed to be so truly authentic.
And so there's a higher standard for it. And it just when it doesn't work,
(23:52):
it feels cringy because it doesn't feel truly authentic.
I mean, that's a hard thing to say, but I think there's truth in that for sure.
I don't know. I mean, I wouldn't know how to fix it.
No, I think, I think, I think there's just a battle for authenticity.
Yeah. And I think a great model for that.
(24:12):
You brought this up earlier though, is David. And it's willing to write out
the junk of where you're at, the truth of it, the honest, raw truth of how you feel.
Like I've, I've, I've had these moments where I've been able to express that to people in a room.
Honest ugly language and it was man
god came in after that moment because it was so authentic and
(24:34):
real you know in a private conversation private conversation this
isn't corporate i'm not talking about corporate yes i'm just talking about i'm
talking about the act of confession yeah in being authentic with your confession
yes you don't want to confess your junk if you're a worship leader on stage
no that's not the point david didn't do that either that was not for everybody
not for congregational dynamic i'm just talking about the creative process yeah
(24:55):
the creative process yes Yes.
And, and so I think, you know, leaning into David's model of that part,
getting it out, but not staying there and then seeing how God is the flip side
of that often, you know, and that he wants to bring his power into that place
where you've been wounded,
where you've been hurt, where you've spoke a lie.
(25:15):
He wants to come into the depths of your heart and fill that with his spirit.
And he wants to re-reveal to you what your God-given identity is.
And I think your Your creative process can help bring that to the surface a
lot faster than a lot of other processes, if you're willing to be honest.
Yeah. I think, again, kind of tying back what we talked about in the first place
is like creativity leads.
(25:38):
Creativity brings peace in the chaos. Yeah.
I think it takes, at this point, there's an opportunity to lead in that.
Yeah. Like there is a huge, massive opportunity to be able to create songs that
lead, but that takes, again, a cost of seeking the Lord for what He's wanting
to do through you personally and like to be obedient to that.
(26:00):
You know, because a lot of times we can be shallow and it's,
you know, with the social media of like, well, this works, we'll just do this.
And, you know, we're all, I think, guilty of it in whatever form or capacity, but the true...
Creativity that really creates a change, it comes from a super authentic and it takes depth.
(26:20):
Yeah. I agree. Well, I think that's a great place to kind of wrap that up.
And I want to pray for us, but I just want to encourage everyone to go on that journey with God.
There is a treasure map that he's given and it's the word of God,
and it's our father's treasure map.
And he wants to reveal to you who you are, and he wants to reveal to you what
(26:43):
the world like is to come.
Jesus' prayer was that it would be on earth as it is in heaven.
And so the journey is into his heart so that we can see what heaven looks like.
And our creative expressions can help articulate that, can help paint that picture,
can help articulate that in a film, song, painting, dance, poetry, all those things.
And so, Lord, may we be like the Goonies, and maybe we'd be willing to go on
(27:06):
a journey to to follow the treasure map.
May you teach us how to be authentic truth tellers, confess out the truth of
what we've gone through, what we've been through, the lies that we believe about
ourselves, and may you reveal to us our God-given identity.
May we be able to tap into the things that you placed in us when we were kids,
that we could play those old dry bones that would come to life.
And you'd bring flesh to those old dreams, those old dead things,
(27:29):
and the light to the path before us would appear, and you would lead us to the
things that are of true value, and that in that process that the mouth of the
enemy would be silenced.
The thief that would come to steal, to kill and destroy would be,
would be sent off and, and, and drowned where it's whatever that is,
is supposed to go in Jesus name.
And yeah, let creativity flow. We love you guys.
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