In one of the Judeo-Christian creation myths, God creates the world in seven days. After each phase of creation, God looks at what is created and pronounces that it is “good.” There are no mistake at all. This led to the popular affirmation, “God don’t make mistakes.” True, enough that no person is a mistake but the process of creating the world so smoothly does seem a little curious. I mean, creation of the whole world moves along flawlessly!
Those who are project planners can attest to the fact that
no plan ever goes exactly as planned. The
story of evolution includes many moments when something entirely unexpected or
almost accidental becomes a positive thing that drastically alters the course
of life.
The Judeo-Christian creation stories are only two of many
creation myths in the world. In the
Cherokee creation story, mountains are a mistake crafted by the wing of a giant
buzzard who flies too low to the new earth and gouges the mud, thereby making
mountains. At first, the new earth is
raised up too high and crawfish gets sunburned.
So, the earth has to be lowered. Then, the first people had children
every seven days! Too many people were
created so it was changed to be nine months.
In the whole of the Cherokee myth, creation is a constant story of
adjustment, trial, error and learning.
When I was a teenager, my best friend’s parents decided to
build their dream home. After finding
the right land, they began building. I
remember helping to place nails in rafters and hold beams up. I also remember lots of moments when the
adults would stand in a huddle looking at plans and then looking at a new
problem. I marveled at the ways in which
my friend’s parents worked together to create their home. It could stressful for sure at times and many
pieces did not go exactly as planned, but all these years later, the house is
still there. And my friend’s parents are
too—still married and a team in life.
Creation is never easy nor flawless, but when done as a team
where the risk is shared, the experience can change your life. Creating together can create new worlds. As Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us, in the
face of injustice we are called to be “creatively maladjusted.”
To be a creative people means to be a risk-taking people who
will dare to try for things not yet done or imagined.
So what are you called to create in this life? And who are the people with whom you are
called to create?
With faith and gratitude,
Rev. Robin
Join in the group spiritual practice.
Your Resume of Failures
This exercise invites you to explore the relationship
between creation and failure.
Yup, failure. Nothing gets created without it. The
well-known examples of this come from the scientific world; think penicillin,
Velcro or Teflon. But some of the most interesting creative failures today are
occurring in the world of business and entrepreneurial endeavors. Numerous
business schools actively preach one simple message: Fail faster and fail
better!
In fact, a Stanford Business School professor recently
reported a new trend: young entrepreneurial job seekers are listing their
failures on their resumes! Instead of boasting about their successes and
awards, they proudly promote their marketing missteps and start-up disasters,
and what they learned from them. By sharing what they learned and how they used
that learning, they display their ability to look at their failures with
creative eyes, not as dead ends and bungled attempts but as lessons and brave test
runs.
So why not try it? Here’s your assignment:
Sit down with a piece of paper and spend a day or two
listing all your life failures. Then take another day or two and consider them
in a new light. Jot down a few bullet points under each “failure” explaining
how those dead ends actually became a new road, how what seemed a moment of
coming up empty really turned out to be a time of discovering something new,
something you would have never looked for otherwise.
Then come to your chalice circle or to church ready to share
what you learned about creation and blessed failures.
