Steal like an Artist
Read Time: 8 mins
By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; by knowledge its rooms are filled with all kinds of precious and pleasing treasures. A wise warrior is strong, and a man of knowledge makes his strength stronger; for with guidance you wage your war, and with numerous advisers there is victory. Plans fail when there is no counsel, but with abundant advisers they are established. When there is no guidance a nation falls, but there is success in the abundance of counselors.
Proverbs 24:3-6,15:22,11:14 NET
If you want to win, be wise. If you want to be wise, seek wisdom.
While I try to fall asleep and stay asleep like a normal person, I often find myself waking up in the middle of the night with a mind flooded with ideas. As you can imagine, this is both good and bad. Bad because well… I really don’t sleep enough. But good because, like Samuel, I have come to believe that God often speaks the loudest at night when no one else is talking.
God is trying to speak. We just have to seek Him and listen. I remember my mom describing how she felt that God was always giving songs to the earth, and the best songwriters were those who were sensitive enough to capture what God was saying. God is always revealing more of Himself and trying to communicate with His children. The scriptures tell us that the heavens and earth declare the glory of God. He will speak through children and even animals to get through to His people. God is trying to reveal Himself, we just seem to ignore His voice or forget to listen. It’s like God is a radio station that is always transmitting messages. The issue is that many of us aren’t tuned in to the right frequency and listening. I like to see these late night moments as a time to sit in the presence of God and ask if He had me up because He had something to say. Oftentimes, He does.
I had one of those moments tonight. I got up and started asking God if He had anything to say. I started praying for my churches. I started asking God for more clarity and vision. I started journaling to get out my thoughts and reading my Bible to focus them, but soon decided to get up and grab a book from the bookshelf. I picked up one of my wife’s books. Getting married is great because my library just doubled at no extra cost. The book was called Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon, and I ended up reading the entire book in one sitting and then pulled out my iPad to start writing this.
Starting with the ecclesiastical idea that nothing is new under the sun, Austin argues that since nothing is original, we should embrace influence and learn from the work of others before remixing and reimagining our own route. Obviously the idea of theft has a sense of provocative hyperbole, but Pablo Picasso argued the same thing, saying, “Art is theft." David Bowie said, “The only art I’ll study is stuff that I can steal from.” The idea Austun is arguing is that a good artist understands that nothing comes from nowhere and that all creative work builds on what was before it. To create something great, you have to study great things. Because of this, influence matters.
The idea is that we are a conglomerate of the ideas, imaginations, influences, and experiences of those who came before us, and this is a good thing. We are what we “eat.” What we ingest often influences what we produce. This concept reminded me of mentorship and discipleship.
This call to make disciples is a teacher telling His students to bring more people to class. We’re simply passing on what we learned and transmitting the ideas of God. We’re allowing ourselves to be influenced so that we can better influence. Being a disciple is watching someone's life and patterning yours after it. It’s what artists do. We’re passing on the life-changing message that He gave us, because good ideas are worth spreading. We’re called to grow and help others grow by teaching what we learned. We are like artists who are taking what they've been inspired by and representing it to inspire others.
French writer André Gide said that “Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” Repetition deepens the impression. Discipleship is simply reteaching what you’ve been taught as you learn together. Key ideas and concepts often have to be reiterated, reborn, and reinforced based on the context and climate of the audience. We see this through the Bible.
The Bible, despite being written by 40+ authors over a thousand years on three different continents, is a literary web that shows consistency and clarity in themes, patterns, and fulfillment across time. It’s all one idea being presented by dozens of people, as they build on and borrow the work of those who came before them. All through the Bible, we see what some Biblical scholars call Hyperlinks. A hyperlink in the coding world is a reference to data that, when clicked or tapped, takes you to another location. A hyperlink in biblical studies is a passage or concept that is a reference, echo, or preview of something else in biblical literature. The Bible has over 63,700 documented cross references. In the New Testament, Jesus quotes the Old Testament almost 80 times. Biblical writers echo what came before them and prophetically preview what is to come. It’s like the use of samples in Hip Hop. The Bible is influenced by the Bible. Many of the authors are using scripture to teach what they’ve learned in scripture. They were inspired by scripture and reworked what they learned to teach others.
Inspired to Inspire
It’s not just the Bible being influenced by itself. Biblical authors often used cultural influences of their time as a way to express ideas to their audiences. They use the influences of the world to influence the world. Solomon seems to draw influence from Egyptian literature in Proverbs. David in the Psalms seems to respond to Canaanite poetry and theology. Paul quotes a Greek poet of the day when speaking on Mars Hill. This is like me using language from a new rap album to explain biblical truth. He even structures his letters like theirs. There are quotes and references to other philosophers of that day and responses to thoughts that would have been understood and circulating within their communities. There are even references and quotes from pseudo-scriptural legends and myths that the audience would’ve connected with. The book of Mark, written to a Roman audience, was designed like a Roman novel about a hero. That’s like designing a Bible movie to feel like a Marvel superhero movie for audiences that are used to it. While Matthew is written to be understood by Jews, starting with a lineage and proving Jesus is the messiah through Jewish prophecy, something Jews would’ve understood and cared about, the book of John starts off by explaining Jesus through the lens that Greek philosophers of that day would have understood and dwells on His identity for a crowd that was used to a pantheon of gods. This is why all the “I am” statements of Jesus seem to be in John. It’s influenced by culture, so it can influence culture.
The Bible argued the same idea from different angles for different audiences by balancing different influences. My argument is that you should do the same. God has placed you in your context and community for a reason. We are called to seek God for ourselves so that we can explain Him to others. We are called to seek wisdom so that we can spread it. We are called to study and diligently seek growth so that we can help others grow.
God wants you to be intentional about what you are influenced by so that you can influence others. You have been given the tools to preach Jesus from multiple angles and perspectives to an audience you identify with. This is why, like a biblical author, artist, or musician, you should be intentional about your influences.
So, how do we learn so that we can teach? How do we communicate through our context? The Bible says that wisdom wins battles, and wisdom is found in a multitude of counselors or influences. As you learn, study, and take from the mistakes and successes of those who came before you, you’re adding tools to your belt that you can use to better impact the world around you. As you learn from those who came before you and their application of the gospel in their lives, you can better learn how to apply it in your life. You need to seek wisdom. You need to study and seek counselors.
Many advisors aid in your journey to success. Not just some, but many. Do you reach out for help in an effort to find wisdom? Do you ask questions and seek to understand? Do you seek out mentors to better walk the paths God has prepared for you and diligently seek God through study? Do you allow yourself to learn from the things and people that are around you so that you can teach others?
Ingesting Influence
The Bible says that there is wisdom in a multitude of counselors. Some of these influences we gain wisdom from may not even be necessarily positive. We gain wisdom on how to reach a sinful world by learning the hearts of sinners. We have to know where they are hurting in order to help them heal. There’s an old pastor's phrase that says to have a Bible in one hand and a NY Times in the other. A younger pastor I know modernized it by saying to read the Bible and listen to The Breakfast Club. This concept comes from the desire to know your gun and your target. While Jesus is the answer, culture is where you find the questions. Knowing what is happening in the world or culture helps you to know where the wound is that people are trying to nurse. It's allowing culture to be the counselor that allows you to have the wisdom to impact it.
One pastor said that he reads four or five books a month in addition to personal Bible study. One book is on finance. Another addresses culture. One may address family, and another may focus on politics. Each book, style of literature, and type of genre is chosen to help him stay well-rounded and relevant to what the people he is trying to help are experiencing.
Expand Your Sources
Learn what problems culture is looking for an answer to and pay attention to those who have already been used by God to function as a solution. Kobe Bryant said that no move on the basketball court is new. He would copy players and adjust their moves to his skillset and context. If you are called to impact and influence, you should study what and who God has used in the past so that you can be better prepared for usefulness in your present. If you want to impact the world, study people who did it. Find people to study and stories to be inspired by.
I have lists of people I am inspired by for everything from family to preaching style. I love the creativity of Rich Wilkerson Jr.'s church in Miami, Vous. I love the storytelling, phrasing, and southern style of Pastor Reginald Sharpe. I love the extemporaneous and conversational style of Dr. Myron Edmonds and the literary organization of Dr. Wesley Knight or pastor Claudia Allen. I admire the administrative prowess, passion for mentorship, and integrity of pastor Furman Fordham and the bold vision of Dr. Carlton Byrd. I love the language, emotional intelligence, and approach of Dr. Dharius Daniels. I love how he used his history as an aspiring Ivy League lawyer and business owner who had a history of anxiety attacks to inform how he preaches the practicality of the gospel. I’m inspired by how pastor Steven Furtick is able to pastor a movement of a church while being one of the biggest contributors to the worship music writing community. As someone who loves church leadership and music, this is an intriguing intersection. I love how pastor Max Lucado was able to pastor a church while writing best-selling books to the point that he lived off his author income and donated his church salary. I'm inspired by how pastor Louis Giglio was able to start the Passion Conference movement, which led to tens of thousands of college students selling out football stadiums multiple times a year to praise God. I’m inspired by pastor Mike Todd’s story of crazy faith and how he listened when God told him to cancel hundreds of speaking invitations in a year to prioritize his family at the height of his popularity and momentum. I’m inspired by Craig Groeschel's innovation and how a video sermon played at his church on the day his daughter was born led to one of the largest networks of satellite churches in the United States. I’m inspired by how he and his team were able to start the YouVersion Bible app that you probably have downloaded on your phone. There are so many people I could name who have shown me what's possible or what I should avoid.
Pinpointing what you like about someone and diving into their stories and influences to see how it came about and how they grew into who they are now can help you become who God has called you to be. Read their books. Listen to their podcast. Seek to understand.
I’m not saying to be a copy of the people you admire. To be honest, you should not agree with everything that the people I've named have done or said. You may have issues with some of the people I just named. That’s ok. But that doesn't mean to throw away what you can learn from them. No human is perfect, but we can learn from them. And like Kobe, we can copy the biblical principles they lived out in our own lives. None of these men or women I’ve listed are perfect. And that’s true for our biblical mentors and inspirations, too. Even David, a phenomenal leader, creative, and a man after God's own heart, who was used in the Bible to point to Jesus, wasn’t perfect. Moses wasn’t perfect. Peter wasn’t perfect. Paul wasn’t perfect. But while we acknowledge their mistakes and learn from them in an effort to avoid them, we don’t cancel their whole story because of their mistakes. People don’t have to be perfect for us to learn from them and their stories.
Austin argues, “The artist is a collector. Not a hoarder, mind you, there’s a difference: hoarders collect indiscriminately, artists collect selectively.” It’s ok to chew the meat and spit out the bones. It’s ok to learn from the stories and experiences of others, but how do we guard our hearts as Proverbs 4:23 says? How do we determine what parts are good and what are bad?
The Bible says to test all things and people by the Holy Spirit. All things. Not some things. It says to meditate on what is true, noble, pure, and of good report. How do we vet what we allow into our lives? How do we better determine if we are learning from the lives of modern mentors and biblical characters the right way? We have to test whether what we are being taught follows the consistency of Scripture and what Jesus has taught us about His character and the Gospel.
Should you seek out counsel and understanding from many advisors? Yes. Should you read and study, and listen to stories to learn more about this world and how we can minister in it? Yes. But you should be able to vet what information or methods are worth adding to your game.
The best person to seek counsel from is Jesus. When you understand His character and get to know His message and method, you can better determine what advice or counsel is good for you. When you know what Jesus looks like, you can avoid what doesn't look like Him. This is so important because while other authors and writers may explain how to follow Jesus from their experience and perspective, you must make sure you are lining up what they say with the character of Jesus. Jesus says that all scripture points to Him. You have to know Jesus so that you can know what scripture is saying and if your interpretation is or isn’t in line with the gospel.
While sermons and devotionals are good, there’s nothing better than the source. My life changed during a period of time when I'd listen to at least one sermon everyday. It was good for me. However, it would've been negative if I were simply listening to advisors but not lining up what they said with scripture. In addition to that, I was intentional about reading the bible before I picked up my phone in the morning and before I went to bed each day. You are setting yourself up for failure if you can't read for yourself. Learn to study the Word and seek Jesus for yourself. Don't take anyone's word for it. Study for yourself. The bible says that Jesus’ sheep know His voice. That means that they can tell when it isn't Him talking. Don’t spend so much time eating from the plates of gifted preachers and writers that you don’t study for yourself.
Many of us avoid Bible study because we go into it with a belief that we won’t understand. Don't be afraid to dive into the scripture. The Spirit will be your interpreter, and with time it’ll become easier. You have to try.
Maybe your call to action is to prayerfully build a pattern of prayer and study into your life. Create touchpoints for spiritual content and edification. You wouldn’t just eat physical food once a week, so don’t just wait for church to eat spiritual food. Learn to study for yourself. Build the muscle of prayer. Walk and talk with godly people and study together. Line up what they say with the Bible and the life of Jesus. Iron will sharpen iron, but be careful not to make the people God uses of higher influence in your life than God himself. Seek the scriptures. Talk to God for yourself. You don’t need a middleman. You need advisors, but in order to know the good ones, you need to seek Jesus first and foremost. Wisdom comes with many advisories, yes, but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of it.
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