A new hobby could change your life! Mordecai and his wife moved to Canada from Nigeria years ago, and share a passion for paint. Mordecai began painting four short years ago. Creativity, colour and design grew as passions for him, and today – he can’t stop! Mordecai works long days in a demanding leadership role and he and his wife have three children under the age of three. Somehow, he manages to produce several magnificent pieces a week. He described his experience saying, “When I start painting I lose track of time. It’s like I’m using a different part of my brain and it gives me life.”

I asked Mordecai why he hadn’t tried painting earlier and he said, “I knew I had it in me, but I was so committed to study the sciences I ignored that part of me.” Are there creative crevasses of your soul you are ignoring because life’s demands and pressures are crowding them out?

Mordecai pointed to his most recent work and began teaching me about the principles of light. He showed me how the forest shades closer to the sun are brighter. He said, “It always gets brighter when you move closer to the sun.”

This is true about the Son of God, too. Everything about your life is brighter as you move closer to the Son.

Your creativity connects you to God. God is creative, and you were made to be creative too. However, if we believe that productivity and usefulness make us valuable, we are bound to devalue and ignore creative expression, and we suffer.

What moves you closer to the Son?

As February emerges today, perhaps there are some pockets of time in the month ahead you can commit to move closer to the Son? This is always the invitation of the Son. Come closer, feel warmer, be brighter.

I asked Mordecai how he manages to have time and energy to paint when he works so hard and manages a demanding schedule. He said simply, “I just start”. The hardest part of any task, project, or practice, is starting. Once you begin your brain moves into flow mode, and just like ocean waves propel a sailboat, you brain will help you along. This month, make it your mission to move closer to the Son. Whatever that means for you, just start.

Find Mordecai on Instagram!