Home > Work > The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art QUOTES

The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art QUOTES

1 " Who told you that you were naked? Who have you been listening to?..'

This is a tragic reminder that we humans have the strange capacity to live a soulless life. Our inner voice was never supposed to be simply an echo. Our inner voice was always to resonate with the voice of God. Every other voice will either make us less than we were intended to be or convince us that we are more than we really are. Neither self-loathing nor self-worship helps us find our authentic voice. It is only when our inner voice responds to the voice of God that we begin to truly find to find our own voice. As critical as it is for us to understand that art is always an extension of ourselves, the creative act is also an expression of our essence.

It is equally important for us to realize that our guiding narrative determines the story we tell through our lives. Our inner voice not only informs us of who we are, but affects everything we touch. And in the end, becomes the driving force through which we strive to shape the world around us. The principal creative act described in Genesis chapter 1 begins with God speaking the universe into existence. God speaks out of who He is and everything in creation is a declaration of His glory. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

2 " All art is an expression and extension of ourselves.. Art finds its deepest value when it is the authentic expression of a deep human experience. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

3 " Far too often, when we think we are frightened by mystery, the fact is that we are haunted by history. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

4 " Most of us are still in some small way victims of the Industrial Revolution. Whether through our grandparents, our parents, or our own experience, we were raised to believe that our place in life required compliance and conformity rather than creativity and uniqueness. We have been raised in a world where information is deemed far more important than imagination. Adults replaced dreams with discipline when they were finally ready to grow up and be responsible for their lives. Whether this contrast was reinforced on an assembly line, in a cubicle, or in a classroom, the surest path to acceptance in society is accepting standardization. And we more than willingly, relinquish our uniqueness. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

5 " To create is to reflect the image of God. To create is an act of worship. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

6 " Love never comes without wounds; faith never comes without failure. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

7 " Whether we realize it or not, everything we do is an expression of either how alive our souls are or how much we have allowed ourselves to be deadened over time. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

8 " True creativity does not come easily; creativity is born of risk and refined from failure. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

9 " There is no proof of creativity without action. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

10 " Artists love without reservation. They give their hearts completely and leave nothing on the table. They are naked and unashamed. They leave no room for pretension. And because they have given all of themselves, they live without regret. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

11 " What is your idea of you? Who is it that you have decided to become? If your greatest work of art is the life you live, and ultimately life is a creative act, what life will you choose to leave behind as your masterpiece? "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

12 " Within the universe’s intention and its unique design around relationship, we find that the focal point of the universe, the motive of the universe, is love. God created life so that we could know love. Everything God does is an expression of his love. It is neither trite nor superficial that the Scriptures summarize this in three simple words: “God is love.” It is critical to understand this because, if we are to reclaim our role in the creative process and express our lives as masterful works of art, we, too, must be sure that our motivation is the expansion of love. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

13 " Frankly, the people who whine the most about how hard their lives are have very rarely experienced much to be disappointed about. They seem to find solace in their most negative memories, using these as a blank check that abdicates them from all personal responsibility. “I am how I am because of the pain of my past. If you had experienced what I have experienced, you would understand my bitterness, my anger, my paralysis, my despair. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

14 " Jesus’s early followers formed a movement of dreamers and visionaries. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

15 " the only art we can create is that which authentically reflects who we are. Our soul is the material for all we create. Thus, to nurture the artisan soul, essence is far more important than talent. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

16 " The life of faith is less about gathering information than it is about expanding imagination. The movement Jesus started was a movement of dreamers and visionaries, not a movement of academics and theologians. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

17 " When we are freed from the rules and regulations that are so often imposed on us in the name of God, we discover that creativity is the natural result of spirituality. And if this is true, then our soul is the primary material for all artistic expression. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

18 " It’s hard to tell a great story if we remain stuck in chapter one. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

19 " It takes courage to not only accept our limitations but embrace our potential. To deny our creative nature is to choose a life where we are less and thus responsible for less. We see ourselves as created beings, so we choose to survive. When we see ourselves as creative beings, we must instead create. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art

20 " I have come to realize, after over thirty years of studying human creativity, that the great divide is not between those who are artists and those who are not, but between those who understand that they are creative and those who have become convinced that they are not. "

― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art