Lynne Baab • Wednesday July 1 2020
I’m thinking about friends who have been doing a lot of crocheting and knitting during the pandemic. I’m thinking of their hands rhythmically moving the knitting needles or crochet hook, threading yarn through their fingers.
I’m thinking of friends who have been baking bread in these strange days. I picture them moving around their kitchens, from fridge to sink to countertop to oven, using their hands and their feet as they gather ingredients, knead and shape their loaves.
I’m thinking of a friend who is a poet. I’ve never asked her whether she writes her poems on a piece of paper with a pen or pencil or whether she types them on a tablet or laptop. Either way, her hands take her evocative words from her brain onto paper or screen.
I’m thinking of my husband Dave who has painted and painted during the pandemic. I see him standing by his painting table, one brush in his right hand and an extra one in his mouth, rocking back and forth as he considers what to do next on his watercolor.
I’m thinking of friends who are trying to come up creative ways to help white people understand the challenges of people of color. I see activists typing articles on their laptops using their fingers and arms. I see them holding cellphones and video cameras so all of us can observe what’s happening. I see them marching. I see them brainstorming with others, their lungs pushing air across their vocal cords, sounds moving through the air and hitting the ears of the people they are brainstorming with. Perhaps these sounds travelled to the other person via a satellite, electronic pulses sent from a cellphone or computer, and then turned back into sound waves to enter the body through the ear and be processed in the brain.
For all of these creative people – whether they’re knitting, crocheting, cooking, baking, painting, writing, typing, or brainstorming – brain chemicals cross the gaps between neurons to make the creative process happen. In our brain, spinal cord, and in the nerves in our hands and feet, neurotransmitting chemicals busily do their work.
In my early adult years, I learned a mostly disembodied form of Christianity. In those days, thinking was not viewed as embodied, partly because we knew so little about brain chemicals and how the brain works. The Christian faith was often viewed as giving cognitive assent to a list of truths about God, completely disconnected from any kind of physical experience. Sure, we were supposed to love God – hey, remember the greatest commandment – but let’s not get too emotional about it. Let’s not think too hard about the connection of the body to that love.
With a group of Christians, I’ve been reading Sex, God and the Conservative Church, by an old friend, Tina Schermer Sellers. As you read these two sentences she wrote, think about the connections with creativity:
“Our body is the pen with which we write our love story, beginning with our first breath and ending at death. The body gives a physical representation of the things that happen in the ‘inner chambers’ of thought, desire, reason and emotion.” [1]
Our creative expressions can be viewed as a love story to the God who created the constellation Orion, fragrant roses, and Bengal tigers. Creativity begins in the “inner chambers of thought, desire, reason and emotion,” and then our bodies enable us to give physical representation to what we’ve been thinking about, desiring, and feeling.
We praise God for so many forms of creativity, and we rejoice in so many forms of beauty. We can amplify our thanks by focusing on the role of our bodies in creativity. We can give high praise to our creative God for the privilege of living in bodies and using them to serve God creatively.
Next week: Creativity and the imagination. Illustration by Dave Baab, one of his many pandemic paintings, from a photo taken on a hike in Bend, Oregon, last winter.
Some previous blog posts that relate to the body:
[1] Tina Schermer Sellers, Sex, God and the Conservative Church: Erasing Shame from Sexual Intimacy, Routledge, 2017, 65.
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Lynne M. Baab, Ph.D., is an author and adjunct professor. She has written numerous books, Bible study guides, and articles for magazines and journals. Lynne is passionate about prayer and other ways to draw near to God, and her writing conveys encouragement for readers to be their authentic selves before God. She encourages experimentation and lightness in Christians spiritual practices. Read more »
Lynne is pleased to announce the release of her two 2024 books, both of them illustrated with her talented husband Dave's watercolors. She is thrilled at how good the watercolors look in the printed books, and in the kindle versions, if read on a phone, the watercolors glow. Friendship, Listening and Empathy: A Prayer Guide guides the reader into new ways to pray about the topics in the title. Draw Near: A Lenten Devotional guides the reader to a psalm for each day of Lent and offers insightful reflection/discussion questions that can be used alone or in groups.
Another recent book is Two Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian Life, available in paperback, audiobook, and for kindle. Lynne's 2018 book is Nurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care for the Twenty-First Century, and her most popular book is Sabbath-Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest (now available as an audiobook as well as paperback and kindle). You can see her many other book titles here, along with her Bible study guides.
You can listen to Lynne talk about these topics: empathy, bringing spiritual practices to life. Sabbath keeping for recent grads., and Sabbath keeping for families and children.
Lynne was interviewed for the podcast "As the Crow Flies". The first episode focuses on why listening matters and the second one on listening skills.
Here are two talks Lynne gave on listening (recorded in audio form on YouTube): Listening for Mission and Ministry and Why Listening Matters for Mission and Ministry.
"Lynne's writing is beautiful. Her tone has such a note of hope and excitement about growth. It is gentle and affirming."
— a reader
"Dear Dr. Baab, You changed my life. It is only through God’s gift of the sabbath that I feel in my heart and soul that God loves me apart from anything I do."
— a reader of Sabbath Keeping
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