Yesterday I read an article that inspired me to the core. Someone has invented a new kind of soccer ball. When the ball is kicked, it stores up energy within. The ball can be brought home and plugged in to an extension cord. Fifteen minutes of soccer stores up enough energy to light up a house for three hours. The ball has been designed to provide electricity for poor villages in developing countries.

Talk about creativity! My head is spinning with admiration.

We have a bit of that spirit around here. I really don’t mean to brag, but … last week our high school students at Charis pulled off our school’s first annual Creativity Festival. The entire two week festival was planned and organized by the students. Teachers and parents had almost no involvement. I stood behind hundreds of onlookers watching dramas, dances and awards given to the winners of a 3D construction contest, and speech and debate contests.

Next week our seniors are hosting a photography competition. Students from eleven high schools and universities will be participating. Our kids who planned this show have already been invited to take their masterpieces on the road … to London, England.  

There is something breathtakingly fresh about environments where creativity flourishes, and where we are set free to unleash our creative colors. 

Have you ever experienced an environment where the human spirit is genuinely free to sing in the rhythms of the soul? 

Well, I know of such a place. 

There is an environment that was designed for soul freedom.  There is a place that provides all of the ingredients needed to awaken the purest heart expressions.  There is a place where the creative genius that lies dormant within every human being is meant to be resurrected and nurtured.  There is a place where honesty is the rule of the day.  Where we can all be free to take off our masks and ask the real questions and plunge into the deeper currents of spirituality.  When human beings enter this place, their souls are flooded with a mysterious beauty. The colors of their environments somehow feel sharper and more piercing.

This place is not any particular school or church or software company. But it is where innovation and creative problem solving are meant to flourish.  This place is filled with joy and vitality. It is a place where the master artisan himself takes the raw materials of our lives and transforms us into new creations. The designer of this environment has a universal understanding of the vast potential and the wellspring of creative talent within each of us.

After all, He is the One who is creating us. This place belongs to him. It is called the Kingdom of God.