Oh wow. 😳 You do creative work!?

“So, what do you do for a living?”

“I’m a songwriter, and I’m in an artist duo with my wife. We’ve been doing music together for the last 14ish years.”

With a look of slight shock and amazement, “Wow! That’s cool!”

This was a conversation I had at the gym just a few weeks ago. I often get this kind of reaction when I mention that I do creative work for a living. I try to respond graciously, but in my head, I chuckle because no one ever responded this way when I was a janitor, waiter, or retail clerk.

If I’m not careful, I can start to believe that doing creative work is superior to other kinds of work. But there isn’t any more dignity or nobility in my creative work than there was in my work as a janitor.

But we live in a culture that is confused about how it feels about creative work. On one hand, we champion creative work more than other kinds of work. On the other hand, we wonder if creative work is actually work.

The other reaction

I met a new lady at church a few weeks ago who asked what I do for a living. I explained that my wife and I are full-time songwriters and artists, and her facial features fell into a stink-face frown as she said, “And you can actually make money doing that? Aha! Just kidding.”

This is the second common reaction I get when I tell people I do creative work for a living. I can’t tell you how many times people have looked at me like I’m an alien because my literal job is a creative work they’re not familiar with. People are skeptical of creative work, especially when your creative work isn’t famous. I don’t have time in this post to go in-depth about how this reflects the cultural assumption that fame or being well-known is the only determining factor of whether or not you are successful as a creative, but it does.

I’m sure the lady I met (along with all the other people who have responded this way) didn’t mean anything by this response, but this kind of reaction makes me feel small and silly for pursuing creative endeavors.

In some ways, creative work is championed as superior work, but in other ways, it’s deemed an inferior career path.

A better understanding of work

As a creative person, I swim in these confused cultural waters while trying to keep my head on straight. I’ve found that the healthiest way for me to press on is to understand and embrace a Biblical, Christian worldview of work.

The book Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller has been incredibly helpful. Here’s a helpful quote that speaks to this seesaw of inferiority and superiority complex we sometimes face as creatives.

“We no longer have any basis for condescension or superiority; nor is there any basis for envy or feelings of inferiority. And every Christian should be able to identify, with conviction and satisfaction, the ways in which his or her work participates with God in his creativity and cultivation.”

— Timothy Keller

There is much more I have to say about this in future articles. For now, I just wanted to share that it’s helped me to see that doing creative work isn’t superior or inferior to other kinds of work.

Satisfaction in the work itself

If we buy into the hype and think that our work is superior, it might leave us confused when we start to feel the _work_ of our work. Every successful creative, you know, is just waking up and doing the work. We have to get over this idea that if we were only gifted and creative enough, we would live a charmed life, and everyone would love everything we create. One thing that helps us move past that idea is finding satisfaction in the work itself.

In his book Keep Going, Austin Kleon talks about how creatives should embrace a personal “Groundhog Day.” The point is to find satisfaction and joy in doing the same work day after day.

“The creative journey is not one in which you’re crowned the triumphant hero and live happily ever after. The real creative journey is one in which you wake up every day, like Phil (from the movie Groundhog Day), with more work to do.”

— Austin Kleon

Into the void

Gaining a balanced understanding of our creative work doesn’t just keep us from getting a big head but also keeps us from getting overly discouraged.

Our creative work isn’t inferior just because people don’t know about it.

It’s incredibly discouraging when we spend hours, days, weeks, and months on creative projects, only for them to fall flat and tumble into the void of noise where people are unlikely to find it. It’s easy to feel pretty silly for spending time on creative projects when we don’t seem to get any results.

We can and should evaluate, learn, and grow from our perceived failures. It’s not smart to plow forward on the wings of hope without evaluating our desires, what’s working, what’s not, and why.

But gaining mass attention isn’t the only indicator that we are doing important and meaningful work.

As creatives, we long to be seen and heard. We long to connect with others who might appreciate the things we are working on. I think it’s good and normal for us to want these things, but every creative I know goes in and out of seasons of feeling frustrated by a lack of public response to what they’re creating.

What helps us press on when we feel discouraged is finding joy, satisfaction, and meaning in the work of creating things.

Humble and glorious

The creative people I admire most are those who seem to have a humble and glorious view of their creative work.

Creative work is important and meaningful, not because it has the ability to draw attention to itself but because of how it adds beauty, connection, and insight to the world.

My job as a creative worker isn’t superior to my former job as a janitor. Each is an essential and helpful way of contributing to society. The position of a janitor isn’t going to draw a crowd, and it’s not a coveted job, but it’s holy, needed, and good work.

Likewise, my job as a creative worker isn’t inferior to my former job as a janitor. Having a “stable job” with a “stable paycheck” doing work that obviously benefits others is a wonderfully good and noble thing to do. But it’s also noble to do the work of thinking, writing, forming, shaping, and creating. It’s noble to risk giving the world your best creative energy, knowing that it could seemingly go unheard and unseen.

Having a deeper appreciation for work itself has grounded me as I pursue my creative work. It’s provided both confidence and humility. It has helped me take myself less seriously and more seriously.

My creative work isn’t superior or inferior to any other work; it’s just the work God has given me to do.