Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Adverse Effects


Creativity is birthed through adversity. I have always been able to write better during, or directly following some great trial. Last year I lost my job. The creative result was JustMe and Cas Metah Are Unemployed. The financial struggles that we have had ever since, were also a huge inspiration during the writing of my newest album Before The Twilight.

Last night I was watching my favorite movie, Donnie Darko, and it prompted me to do some research on Graham Greene. Greene's short story, The Destructors, played a major role in the film. I was not surprised to find out that many of Greene's early writings had Christian themes, but I was even less surprised to find out that he suffered from Bipolar Disorder. Every woman Edgar Allen Poe ever loved, died young. Bram Stoker was bed-ridden until the age of seven. Flannery O'Connor had Lupus. I could go on for days!


Why are these writers so successful in touching our hearts? To quote R.E.M., "Everybody hurts sometimes." Pain makes us ask questions. Only God knows all the answers.


James 1:2-4


My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

5 comments:

Deano said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Deano said...

A friend of mine often said, "The brightest pictures are developed in the darkest of rooms".

I know that's been true in my life.

Change said...

Word up. I know my best work has often come after great adversity. The death of my father for one... It's our reaction to adversity that makes us who we are, and who we'll be.

WilliePea said...

A mother, annoyed by her son's constant pestering, invented a game for him to play.

She cut up a map of the World from a magazine and gave him the pieces to put together like a puzzle, believing it would take him hours.

Ten minutes later he returned with the completed map. When she asked him how he had done it so quickly, he said, "There's a picture of a woman on the back, and when I put her together, the World came together."

This story has different meanings for different people.

It could mean that adversity (not necessity) is the mother of invention... or that we easily confound peoples' expectations of us... or perhaps that all it takes to solve a seemingly impossible problem is to look at it in a different way...

Or even as James put it in 1:2-4

May we all learn not only to be patient with ourselves, but confident in waiting on the Lord. His timing is perfect... and I know He's not done with me yet.

Anonymous said...

We know that One Word from God can make all of the difference in the World. We know that even when the World makes you want to quit that God knows just what to do and say to keep you going. We know that if just one person's life is changed as a result of your efforts that the joy of it more than makes up for all of the pain and discomfort of going against the grain. And we know that JustMe and the Scribbling Idiots have made a world of difference in many peoples lives...so keep doin what you do fam!

~one
Fodo
holyridaz.com