Timely Wanderings: A Direction

This is part 1 of 3 articles talking about what Timely Wanderings is all about. For Part 2 click here. For Part 3 click here.

Created to Create

To say that this is has been a sudden development would be grossly undermining the greatest of strategists- God! Yes. Timely Wanderings is something that God spoke to me about a few years ago but He has also made it abundantly clear that everything He has ever done in my life and all that He has brought me through so far has led to this. For that matter, everything He has brought you through has led you to this moment- right here, right now. There is no chance. There are no coincidences. There is only purpose- God’s purpose.

Timely Wanderings grew out of a desire to connect with like-minded young Christians creatives from across the world and put to use what God has given all of us for His kingdom. We’ve been given so many gifts/talents/skills that we should ultimately be using for His glory. I’ve seen so many Christian creatives put out insane work but we often do that for ourselves, or others, or even if we are doing it for the Lord, we’re quite fragmented and it’s not often that we come across fellow Christian creatives in our everyday lives. We are where we are today only because of Him and the blessings we enjoy through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. God created an entire universe to give us a glimpse of His incredible creativity, power, majesty, and beauty. But God also created you and me. He created us to tell the world of His love for the whole world. We were created to create. It is only right that we come together to create for His glory.

Inspiration isn’t random as it may sometimes seem. As creatives we derive inspiration for the world around us- our reality. This is the very universe that showcases the matchless creativity of God Himself. When God has enabled us to see the beauty in everything around us because of who He is, why don’t we help others see that too? This could even involve something as simple as stylising a verse along with images and creative typography. God can use anything…just anything and anyone. All he’s looking for is a leap of faith.

A lot of us interact with numerous people on a daily basis (for some this number would be in the hundreds, or thousands, if not millions) and yet most of the world doesn’t quite know who we really are – children of God! We must tell our stories and proclaim God’s incredible love to the world. Wouldn’t it be truly amazing to build a global community of Christ proclaiming creatives? Imagine that! Picture us all as a part of something that always keeps Christ at the centre of it all, just like our lives should be.

In all His faithfulness, God has brought us all through so much and yet these are stories that we lock up in the deep recesses of our minds, never to be brought to light as far as we can help it. What if we really told those stories? What if we encouraged others with the same love that we have received from God? Yes! These stories might force us to relive a lot of pain but they are also testament to the fact that we have a loving, and caring God who never leaves us. Let’s step up, open up, and encourage each other because we need it. We are never alone in what we go through and while God Himself helps, He often does that through our fellow believers. But if we all just stuck to our comfort zones, we wouldn’t really be of much help to each other.

These are a few things that were brief moments that led me to this and I hope resonate with you too in some way:

1. Getting into photography has been a real testament to God’s faithfulness for me as has the journey. It was all sparked by the inspiration that I found in the created world. However, a comment I was often met with was something along the lines of this- “we live in the same place you do and walk the same streets you do, yet we don’t see the same things you do.” This really surprised me. Perhaps we’re not really seeing what’s right in front of us?
2. While watching an action film, I noticed that a scene towards the end of the film was an almost perfect analogy for what faith is all about. God gave me an opportunity to use that to explain to a colleague what it meant to be a Christian and he was able to understand it fairly easily because he was a fan of the film.
3. A couple of years ago I noticed a trend of creatives I’d been following for a while coming forward and boldly proclaiming that they were Christians. Given the state of the world today, this isn’t easy to do and yet here were individuals sharing the gospel with the millions that follow them. That really struck a cord with me.
4. Then there’s also the aspect of all of our lives that we tend to keep locked away and hidden. These might be stories of addictions, mental health issues, experiences of abuse, etc. that God has helped us heal through; that we’re too scared to talk about because of the stigma attached and what people might say or think but also because telling those stories would mean reliving a lot of past pain. But it is important to share these stories because there are others like us who might just think that they’re all alone or have to face these giants on their own and no one would understand them. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

The point is that God is very relevant. We don’t always see Him because we’re often not looking close enough. We tend to box God up with our own pre-conceived notions about who He is and how He works and speaks to us and completely reject everything else. We refuse to see that God might just be talking to us through the little things. The still small voice is as real today as it was when Elijah heard it.

So, Timely Wanderings isn’t about me, or even a dozen people, it’s about Christ. It’s about all of us who share the same belief in the name of Jesus Christ.

Whether we realise it or not, we’re all creative in our own way and that’s the beauty of it all. We see the world in our own unique ways. We see and experience God in various ways that are real, relevant and relatable to each of us. Let’s share that with each other! God wants each of us. We are all valuable. We might not all consider ourselves to be a part of the “creative” community but remember that there is no greater artist than God Himself and you are a work of art…His work of art! The greatest of artist is hard at work carefully crafting your life. Let’s show the world His work in and through us.

One of the aims for Timely Wanderings is to create high quality content, but that can come in any shape and form- articles, photographs, videos, music, life stories, and so much more that are a part of our everyday lives. So, feel free to create and Timely Wanderings would love to publish it.

For now, we’ll be publishing articles as well as some visual content like images, verses, etc. but over time, God willing, this will also include a podcast, videos, films, printed material, etc. Timely Wanderings might be primarily digital for now, but there is an ever-increasing list of ideas that can become a reality as the Lord leads.

It would be great if we could all contribute to the content in ways that we are comfortable with and tell the stories of our lives in Christ. I don’t just mean the story of how the Lord saved you, but also how the Lord has brought you through life until now. This might just be confined to one incident or multiple chapters in your life, but tell it nonetheless.

Even if none of the above makes any sense, I’d still appreciate it if you’d just pray for Timely Wanderings. Prayer is such an invaluable resource. Pray that everything will be done in all humility and God will always be at the centre of this.

The future may be uncertain but it is exciting!

For part 2: What’s in a name? Click here

For Part 3: Beyond the apparent. Click here