Creative Thursdays: Study

Fourth in the series of posts that celebrate creativity and spirituality.

During the summer, I will be combining my paid subscription content on trauma-sensitive spiritual practices with the Creative Thursdays Posts. I am making them available to all subscribers because, aside from the religious element, these practices are a path to regulating the nervous system, exploring creative urges, and embracing life. Three things that often are challenging to those impacted by trauma.

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The spiritual practice of study and creativity seemed like a stretch unless you think of creativity as extending beyond artistic expression. Creativity is “the ability to make or otherwise bring into existence something new, whether a new solution to a problem, a new method or device, or a new artistic object or form” (Source). Spirituality was meant to be a creative exploration with God!

My Spiritual Study Practice

I returned home for the summer between my sophomore and junior year in college and had the opportunity to experience Bible study in a formational way. On Wednesday nights, my father, as the pastor, would have me help him carry all his Bible study tools (Bible versions/translations, concordances, Bible atlas, etc.) to the auditorium where the two of us, and other church members would spend the evening working together to dig deeper into scripture This was thankfully before religious trauma entered into my story and the memory with my father has helped me retain the spiritual practice of study as demonstrated in the following word study:

The most familiar verse used in the context of study is 2 Timothy 2:15 which instructs us to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (KJV) I use the KJV translation here because the church has retained this as a call to the spiritual practice of study even though more recent translations handle the word study differently—as presenting yourself to God. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (NIV)

In the Greek, word implies the embodiment of an idea or expression in a statement or a speech. Also, in Greek, truth is not limited to spirituality. In ancient Greek culture, the word translated as the truth that we are to rightly divide (orthotomeó: to cut straight) is alḗtheia. which was synonymous for reality as the opposite of illusion, i.e. fact.” (Source)

It is limiting to think study only involves scripture, especially when we realize that the New Testament hadn’t yet been written or considered scripture. The truth is all around us if we study diligently. It is in our created bodies and the earth that sustains us. To study is to see the reality, not the illusion. It is to trust that God’s creativity in providing wisdom is not limited.

Is the intellectual pursuit of understanding important? Yes, but often unobtainable in traditional forms by many who have experienced trauma. And the struggle do do so often robs us of the most important thing—to demonstrate love for others.

“I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains--but if I have no love, I am nothing” (Good News Translation).

Loving others is how we “show ourselves (study) to be approved.” How do you love others with what you study? The answer to that is a creative act! This was my answer!

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