1 John 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
The Apostle John assures us that God knows we are human. While He would certainly prefer that we not sin, He also recognized that we are human and weak. For that reason Jesus serves not only as our Substitute but as our Advocate. As Substitute, Jesus took our sins upon Himself and paid the penalty through the shedding of His own precious blood. But as we continue to be human, He now serves as our Advocate before the Father continuing to appropriate His saving blood for our sinful ways.
While we would never want this to serve as “license” to sin, it still provides a measure of freedom and creativity since the unrealistic pressure to be perfect is off. Knowing that we are loved and accepted, and that one mistake will not remove us from that love, we are free to live with joy and creativity.
The freedom to be creative pays dividends. Not only is this true of the Christian life, but it is equally true in every other facet of life. Take the 3M Company for example.
The 3M Company encourages creativity from its employees. The company allows its researchers to spend 15 percent of their time on any project that interests the. This attitude has brought fantastic benefits not only to the employees but to the 3M Company itself. Many times, a spark of an idea turned into a successful product has boosted 3M’s profits tremendously.
For example, a scientist in 3M’s commercial office took advantage of this 15 percent creative time. This scientist, Art Fry, came up with an idea for one of 3M’s best-selling products. It seems that Art Fry dealt with a small irritation every Sunday as he sang in the church choir. After marking his pages in the hymnal with small bits of paper, the small pieces would invariably fall out all over the floor.
Suddenly, an idea struck Fry. He remembered an adhesive developed by a colleague that everyone thought was a failure because it did not stick very well. “I coated the adhesive on a paper sample,” Fry recalls “and I found that it was not only a good bookmark, but it was great for writing notes. It will stay in place as long as you want it to, and then you can remove it without damage.”
Yes, Art Fry hit the jackpot. The resulting product was called Post-it and has become on of 3M’s most successful office products.
The freedom to be creative pays dividends. Not only is this true in the business world, but in the Christian life. Christ your Substitute and Christ your Advocate gives you security. That security provides the opportunity to live creatively.
With Love
Mike