Thursday Brew with Gwen: Purpose in Creativity

My true gift is Art Needlework or embroidery. When I see patterns materials, threads, my fingers itch with the desire to work the piece of embroidery.

When I became a Christian, I saw no use for this gift in the service of the Lord or the church. It seemed like a selfish sort of ability.  I denied this gift for many years.

 The need to find a job and help supplement our income after I’d married and had children became important.  It was important to me that I be a stay-at-home Mum. So, I resorted to my gift and set up a dressmaking business operating from my home.  The business flourished.

I knew the Lord was opening doors and increasing my ability to sew and create. I was making money; I loved what I did.  My husband was a pastor; his gift was preaching.  He felt the call at age 16 and followed that call never wavering.

 He felt the call to minister in a church in another city in another part of the State. I had to close my business. We moved. I started again. But there was not the same anointing.  Out of failures, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, a machine embroidery business was created. This business grew and was blessed.

 My husband had a clear call, but I didn’t. I felt like a square peg in a round hole.  I became involved in children’s ministry, Women’s ministry, but when criticism and opposition came along, I resigned from these positions that other better leaders could take over.  I was left in the wings as far as church life was concerned.

The church newsletter was a ministry nobody wanted – but I did. I found an outlet in the church to share my heart – to create a newsletter that carried a message. Had I found my call?  I took Creative Writer’s Courses, with the idea of becoming a writer of merit. Writing was to be my ministry.

My husband was called again to another church. Gone were the embroidery business and the church newsletter. All I had built evaporated.

A new start. I was offered the responsibility of the Children’s Church, but I declined.  I was burnt out. I did not use a sewing or embroidery machine again. That part of my life is over.

After several years my husband received another call and we moved. I decided to leave the church, not the Lord.  I could see I was never going to find my ‘call’ in the church. I gave myself to my writing career.

By this time my writing ability and passion to spread the word had grown and I took over the church newsletter and began to build a readership.

My writing career lasted for several years. I wrote several biographies of Christian men and woman.  A devotional and an Anthology as well as freelance journalism, for 6 years I and a small team produced a Christian magazine, ‘Captivated with Jesus’.

Fast forward to the year 2025. My husband had retired; we had moved twice and now resided in Adelaide in a retirement village.

Another interest, that of photography, was starting to compete with my writing career.  I felt guilty and would pray for this interest to go away, I would promise to give up photography. Somehow it wouldn’t die and I became more proficient with the camera.

  I was torn. Writing that could be used by the Lord to reach people with the Good News of God’s love and my love of photography. But age and opportunity took a toll on my writing career and photography took over. But I never saw photography as a God given creative gift.  I only saw it as a hobby, an interest of mine, how could God use such a gift?  There were no outlets for use in the church.

In 2023 my husband went home to be with the Lord.  In 2025 I bought my first ever camera and a macro lens.  I became a photographer.

I discovered Matt Tommey, the Creative Christian Artist on YouTube in 2025. I could not believe what I was hearing Matt say, ‘God didn't accidentally make you a creative person. He made you this way — on purpose.’  ‘Why creativity is not just a talent — it's one of the primary ways in which humanity reflects the image of God’. ‘When you understand this, you stop seeing your art as just a hobby and you start seeing it as a Kingdom assignment.’ 

What a God moment!  I was speechless. My whole attitude changed and I saw my creativity as a Kingdom assignment. 

The guilt lifted as I saw that God had planned for this phase in my life was to be a photographer. He wanted me to give him the whole of my creativity and life to be for his glory. He had given me these gifts for his pleasure entirely. They were not useless interests on my part.

I regretted the lost years of struggling to find my call. I had completely missed what God had often tried to tell me. At last, I could see and understand why I’d struggled and been blinded.

My blindness, my ignorance, my belief that God wanted me to minister only in the church – even though I didn’t fit – couldn’t fit – and upset people by not being the sweet person a pastor’s wife should be, was a fallacy.  God looked beyond all this.

 His love never left me, He never failed me, He brought me to where I am today in a living, intimate relationship.  He patiently worked on me until I awoke and said, ‘Yes’ to Him. He was then able to lead me to create for just His glory alone.