Creating With the Creator

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Student: I posted something this week and it got one like. One. And I wasn’t disappointed. I felt exactly the same as the day a post got a thousand. Is something wrong with me?

Professor: Tell me, when the one like came in, what were you actually happy about?

Student: I guess... the making of it. The hours I spent writing. It felt like I wasn’t alone while I did it.

Professor: Then perhaps nothing is wrong at all. When Samuel went looking for a king, what did the Lord tell him about how people measure things?

Student: That people judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. So the numbers are the outward appearance?

Professor: You said it, not I. What do you suppose the Lord was looking at while you wrote?

Student: Me. And Him. Together. That’s the part I love. I write every day until I can’t write anymore, and somewhere in the middle it stops feeling like I’m the one writing. The words get kinder than I was when I started.

Professor: And when the words grow kinder than you, where do you think the kindness came from?

Student: The Holy Spirit. He’s so positive, so supportive. But He corrects me too. Sometimes He sends me to scripture, and sometimes He sends me to a trusted friend.

Professor: A friend? Is that not a bit ordinary for the Spirit of God?

Student: Proverbs says as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. I think He uses people. Honestly, He even uses my books and the AI I work with to help me dig into the Hebrew and Greek.

Professor: Ah. Does that trouble you? A machine in the studio?

Student: A little. Should it?

Professor: When Paul wrote to the Romans, who held the pen?

Student: Tertius! He even signs his name at the end of the letter. Paul spoke, and Tertius wrote it down.

Professor: And did Tertius decide what the letter should say?

Student: No. He served the message. That’s how I see it. By the time I bring an idea to the AI, the direction has already come. A Strong’s number in prayer, a dream I wrote down, a verse that stopped me on a drive. It can help me research and find words, but it can’t tell me whether something honors God.

Professor: Then who can?

Student: Today I chose a song for a piece of art and something about it felt wrong. I couldn’t explain it. So I let it go and kept listening, and I found a different song called “Oro.” It means gold.

Professor: And what did you make of that?

Student: Job said when He tests me, I will come out as pure as gold. And my whole brand is “Stay Golden.” I didn’t plan that.

Professor: Did you hear a voice telling you to walk away from the first song?

Student: Not out loud. More like... Isaiah says a voice behind you will say, this is the way, walk in it. It was like that.

Professor: Then I wonder whether you are asking the right question. You keep asking whether the algorithm will notice. What if the more interesting question is what would happen if everyone created this way?

Student: Nothing would look the same. He speaks to each of us in our own story. Nobody could copy it, because it wouldn’t come from a trend. It would come from Him.

Professor: When the Lord built His tabernacle, did He leave the art to chance?

Student: No. He filled Bezalel with His Spirit, with wisdom and skill in every kind of craft. The Spirit was in the art itself.

Professor: So is the Spirit only for preachers?

Student: No. He’s for painters. Writers. Cooks. Anyone making anything. Maybe some people are already hearing Him and just haven’t invited Him into the room yet.

Professor: And Jesus said His sheep do what with His voice?

Student: They listen to it. And they follow.

Professor: Then perhaps your one like was never the measure. Perhaps the measure was that you listened.

Student: So I was never creating alone.

Professor: Were you ever?

Student: No. I hope this inspires you, too.

This is one piece of the archive, find the rest of the Student and Professor conversations over on TikTok.