To write like God

Why is there evil? Why did God, in omnipotence, create pestilence and genocide? Why do the weak suffer though God is said to be benevolent?

This is a topic I’ve talked about previously, though never from such a biblical angle. I beg you to bear with me. They say every artist only has that one painting in them, the one they keep trying to bring out in all their paintings. Maybe this topic is that painting for me.

So, why is there evil?

In short, because that’s how creation works. You, who create, understand this in your bones.

It’s not possible to create a thing that is good. Neither is it possible to create a thing that is beautiful. When you look at the naked core of creation, only one thing is possible for you: to create things that live.

That is why there is evil. Though good, God could not create a creation that was good. He could only create a creation that lives – and it lives by its own free will.

The creation and all its creatures just slipped through God’s fingers like so much fine sand. All he did was breathe life into them. He couldn’t choose. Choice was reserved for the created.

Like, think of motherhood. As mothers, we can’t choose to bear good children. The gametes join, and they grow into something. All we can do is hope that this something stays alive.

This concerns deeply all you artists. Ya wanna write, paint, or sing like gods? Then you gotta surrender to it. What you create will flow through you. It wants to live, so it cannot stay in you. It wants to be free. It wants to be unburdened by you.

The child cannot stay in its mother’s womb, and neither can the story stay in your imagination.

Once it gets out, you can rule over it no longer. In fact, it was never for you to rule. You were the seedbed. In you, the seed had a safe nest. In you, the seed drank the fresh rain and basked in the sun. Through you, the seed burst into the world. You gave it the foundation, the outlet, but the rest was up to the seed. The glory is not with the seedbed, but with the bright green shoots that reach toward the light.

Recognise your seedbedness. You are no author. You are not in control. When you know this, and accept this, you will write like God.