The Record Online
Spring/Summer 2001
 The
High Cost of Creativity
Spring is the time when we most celebrate creativity. It seems
the world is full of new light and life. It is evident in sounds,
sights, smells, and our spirits soar. In the pages that follow you
will see evidence of that creativity at Greenville College. There
are new buildings, new programs, new people, and our spirits soar.
You will see the result of creativity among our faculty, especially
in the beautiful work of Professor Steve Heilmer. I had heard Professor
Heilmer speak of his long-time sculpture project with the mixture
of pain and awe that often dominates those who create. We are drawn
to the potential and repulsed by the effort to achieve it. Some
turn away, overwhelmed. Others push on often wondering why.
The cost of creativity is high. Professor Heilmer recounts his
effort, the setbacks, the appearance of disaster, the redemptive
moments, and the final sense of victory. When I first saw his finished
work, I marveled at the range of appearances his marble material
can take on; from rough, heavy, and dark to thin, glossy, translucent,
and yes, even milky.
While fine art holds no monopoly on creativity it does call us
more than most other works of our minds and hands to pursue creativity.
Spring draws us to the pinnacle of Creativity in Easter. To celebrate
Easter in the spring makes sense whether the resurrection occurred
in that season or not. Easter literally embodies the creativity
of our Heavenly Father. It recounts His efforts in creation, the
setbacks of human sin with the appearance of disaster, and gloriously
captures the moment of redemption and the final sense of eternal
victory.
The cost of creativity is high. God’s cost is found in Christ
at Easter. We are drawn to the energy and potential for new life
in ourselves. Yet we are perhaps driven away by the pain it meant
for Christ and the painful self-denial it means for us. Like marble
we are capable of such range. If we allow ourselves to be captured
by this Creativity, its mixture of pain and awe-ful victory transforms
us. To embrace this mysterious Creativity, found uniquely in the
person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is to find new Life.
May these days, these accounts of Greenville College, make your
spirits soar and may the mystery of His Creativity bring you new
Life.
Related Links:
President V. James Mannoia, Jr.
Web Page
Mannoia Articles, Addresses and Presentations
Last updated: July
17, 2001
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