Faith and Creativity: Honoring God through the Arts

Written by Stephanie Martin – Dance Instructor

In my senior year of high school, two weeks before a college dance audition, I suffered a devastating injury to my left foot. The doctor told me it would be a long recovery and he wasn’t sure I would be able to dance again. I would come home from school and lay on the ground with my leg in the air, crying out to God, “Why? I don’t understand.” One day I picked up the book, A Purpose Driven Life, and started reading. I wrote James 1:2-4 on my white board for motivation but couldn’t get past the first part, “Count it all joy.” “JOY?!” I was a dancer who couldn’t dance! God worked on my heart through that trial and solidified my understanding that my identity and purpose was in Him, alone. He restored my relationship with Him and dance and healed my foot! Through His goodness, I got a scholarship to my dream school, the University of Arizona (UofA)(only God could do that!). Before the injury, my faith and dance were separate. After the injury, every plie was a prayer; dance became a way that God speaks to me and through me.

At UofA, I teamed up with other believers and we spurred one another on to be intentional about sharing God’s love with our colleagues and professors. College and the decade after, when I lived in NYC, were pivotal years. I did several service and dance missions with Project Dance, Ad Deum Dance Company, Operation Mobilization, International Christian Dance Conference, and my local church and college ministry that helped shape me and brought me together with like-minded artists. Whenever God called me into secular arenas, I had a strong foundation of support and was able to stand firm in my worth and purpose.

When COVID-19 hit, it shifted my mission field from the subways and audition rooms of NYC to rural Pennsylvania. My husband and I retreated to his family farm, staying there for three years  and I started an arts program at my in-laws’ church. Different seasons of my life have taught me that it is the Lord that positions us. Whether it is performing on a Broadway stage or teaching a warm-up before manual labor on a disaster relief trip, God will use your gifts if you simply say “use me.”

We are all creative because we are made in God’s image. Whatever art forms we gravitate toward are a unique way that we can draw closer to Him. In Chariots of Fire, the runner, Eric, says this: “You’ve got to understand, I believe that God made me for a purpose—for China—but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure. To give it up would be to hold Him in contempt”. This is how I feel when I dance. We honor God when we delight in the gifts He has given us and when we steward them well. Eric eventually did go back to China as a missionary after he used his God given talents in the 1924 Olympics where he won both a bronze and gold medal. He honored God in both circumstances.

Through the varied places and situations in which I have found myself, God has grown several convictions in my soul. My artistic passions, though a beautiful gift from God, are not my identity. I must be careful not to make them an idol or get confused by comparing myself to others. I have learned the importance of looking to scripture to remember who I am in Christ and to see His purpose. I have experienced the value in surrounding  myself with people who will speak truth, and encourage me in my walk with the Lord. I have been convicted of the call to pursue excellence in my artistic discipline. (“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,  knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” Colossians 3:23-24). I look for opportunities to use my gifts to serve others where God has already positioned me and seek to answer, “Yes, send me,” when He calls. This is the foundation  on which I desire to grow my artistic life.

I want to encourage you to ask the Lord:

• What unique gifts have You given me?
• Am I fully delighting in them?
• How can I develop them to use them for Your purpose?
• Where have You already positioned me?
• How else can I honor You through the arts?