Meredith Rucker: 0:05

Welcome to what a Ruckus, where faith meets creativity and quiet voices make bold moves. I'm your host, meredith Rucker, a designer, educator and faith-fueled creative on a mission to stir things up in the best way. All right, let's make some noise. Hey, ruckus, fam, it's your girl, the Ruckus, and I'm back with another episode of the what A Ruckus podcast. It's been fun sharing with you the other side, the flip side of my life behind the scenes, the vulnerable details, the intimate details of my creative journey to entrepreneurship, and with a splash of faith. So I hope I've been able to inspire you and give you some tips on how to make the journey of building a business easier. This week we're talking about creative warfare, when the enemy attacks your ideas. Now, in the last episode, we talked about how God gave the blueprint, but we were scared to build, and I gave four points on how to build in obedience. Four points on how to build in obedience, even though you may be unsure.

Meredith Rucker: 1:27

First, we have to have boundaries. We have to be able to say no. We have to be able to guard our time, our mental health, our peace, our rest and our creativity. Proverbs 4.23 says, above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. So we have to guard ourselves. We can't just be available for anybody and everybody at all times. We have to take care of ourselves, and that means we need to rest, we need to feed ourselves with the word of God, we need to fortify ourselves with prayer and fasting, but that takes setting boundaries.

Meredith Rucker: 2:12

The second tip was that you're valuable. It's not your work that makes you valuable. It's because God, your father, created you. You were fearfully and wonderfully made. It doesn't come from your perfection or how you pulled off that project. No, it comes from your father, god himself. The third point was you're not meant to build it alone. God is sending you the right people to help you take your business to the next level, whether that's friends, whether that's mentors, partnerships, pastors. He's sending you the right people to surround you and help you take your ideas and your business to the next level. He is going to sharpen your discernment and show you how to choose the people to help launch your vision. And lastly, your vision should be bigger than you. Your blueprint should scare you If you could do it all in your own strength. You're thinking too small. No, the vision was meant to be built with God and with others, so that when people look at you they'll know that God did it through you. So now that we finally mustered up the courage to walk in faith, to walk in obedience and start building the business, guess what? The enemy tries to come with his attacks. So in this episode we'll deal with how to deal with the attacks as creatives. The enemy will try to frustrate us, distract us and get us to stop building, to stop working.

Meredith Rucker: 3:59

As I'm talking about this, it reminds me of Nehemiah Ne. Nehemiah was an israelite official serving in the persian government. This was 50 years, about 50 years after the israelites were exiled to babylon. So he saw that the walls of jerusalem were destroyed and asked king artaxerxes if he could go back and help rebuild the wall. So he prayed and had favor with the king and he was able to go back with some of the Israelites and begin the rebuilding. So does that sound familiar? After you say yes to the assignment, you get immediate opposition.

Meredith Rucker: 4:43

Some examples of creative attacks could be brain fog, doubt, imposter syndrome and a big one that I often deal with procrastination. Let's take a look and read from Nehemiah, chapter 4. Here's where Sanballat and Tobiah enter the chat. Here's where Sanballat and Tobiah enter the chat. Sanballat was a Persian governor and Tobiah was an Ammonite official, and so they viewed Nehemiah and the Israelites rebuilding the wall as a threat to their influence and power. I'm starting at verse 1 and reading through verse 4. I'm starting at verse 1 and reading through verse 4. Do they think they can build the wall in a single day by just offering a few sacrifices? Do they actually think that they can make something of stones from a rubbish heap, and charred ones at that? Tobiah, the Ammonite, who was standing beside him, remarked no-transcript.

Meredith Rucker: 6:05

Here comes the enemy, trying to challenge and dry up your creativity. He uses three tactics second guessing, shame and silence. Second guessing is the constant loop of is this even worth doing? Sanballat said do they think they can make something of stones from a rubbish heap, and charred ones at that? He'll try to make you think that your assignment, your idea, your creative process isn't even worth it. Then he'll try to use shame and make you feel like you're the unworthy vessel. Lord, I'm not worthy, I don't have it all together. Why are you asking me to do this? Sam Ballett said what do these poor, feeble Jews think that they're doing? Satan will try to make you feel like you're the smallest thing possible but no again, your worth comes from your heavenly father, your creator, the one who fearfully and wonderfully made you. And to also use silence and make you feel like your creativity dried up overnight. So how can we, as creatives, wage a good war?

Meredith Rucker: 7:39

Let's jump down to verse 17 of chapter 4 in Nehemiah. It says the laborers carried on their work with one hand supporting their load and one hand holding a weapon. All the builders had a sword belted to their side and the trumpeter stayed with me to sound the alarm. So we've got to keep working, but we also have to be prepared to fight while we're working. Now I look at the symbolism of the sword, which we know. The sword of the spirit is the word of God. We have got to renew our minds daily with the word of God. The creator, our heavenly father, is the source of all creative ideas. We can replenish our creativity by spending time with him. We can't skip reading the Bible. We can't skip talking to him in prayer. We can't skip our intimate time of worship with the Lord. That all flows into replenishing and renewing our minds and renewing our creativity through him. The goal isn't merely to delay you, it's to disconnect you from your assignment, and so when we're disconnected from God, we become disconnected from our assignment. So we've got to stay connected to our Heavenly Father.

Meredith Rucker: 9:03

Now you also want to take care of yourself physically and emotionally. You have to rest. I know when I was younger I could stay up until all hours of the night. I could stay up until three o'clock in the morning, get up at six and go to work and be fine. But now I can't do that. I have to have a healthy balance of rest and relaxation. Now I'm not saying I won't pull late hours if I have something important to do, but staying up until all hours of the night can't be the norm. I have to have times where I may watch Netflix. I love watching documentaries about art, about history, about business and about different things that inspire me. Sometimes we can take mini vacations or staycations where we just go and visit someplace new to kind of replenish our mind. To kind of replenish our mind and also getting enough sleep.

Meredith Rucker: 10:16

I know it's hard to get seven or eight hours of sleep a night and I know that we have so many demands that are pulling on us, but we have to make sure that we get enough time to rest. Our creativity depends on it, so we can't just pray it away. We also have to plan. So there may be times where you need to have blackout times where you work without distraction for maybe three or four hours. You're not answering emails, you're not answering the phone, but you're working on what your assignment is. It's easy to get distracted by social media notifications, emails and everything going on around you, but sometimes you just have to be deliberate and block out the time to work, incorporate worship, incorporate fasting. Again, set those boundaries that are going to help you. Also. Seek out mentors, seek out teachers who are experts in the thing that you're trying to build.

Meredith Rucker: 11:27

I think a derivative of procrastination is perfectionism, because we don't want to start on something until we know that we're going to get it perfect. Well, we have to take small steps, start on the research, start on the sketch, move forward. Sometimes the ideas come during the journey. I think that's one of the things that frustrated me about my time in agencies. I would do sketches and then sometimes my supervisor would get upset because my work didn't look exactly like the sketch. Well, sketching is a part of the creative process. As I'm sketching, I may get a better idea and start to go in a different direction. The sketch is not the concrete, it's just the jump off point for my creativity. So don't wait until you have everything perfect in your mind. Go ahead and start. Go ahead and start building and let God lead you as you begin to create.

Meredith Rucker: 12:38

And my last point don't make everything about you for sale. What do I mean? Leave something for yourself, for yourself. As artists and creatives, it's easy to try to turn our abilities into the next product or the next new thing, but you don't have to sell yourself. It's already hard enough to pour out your creativity every day and be on demand for clients who are needing their projects. But sometimes you just want to sketch for yourself. Sometimes you just want to learn a new skill for yourself. It doesn't necessarily have to be a source of income. It can be something that brings you enjoyment just for you and help you replenish your creativity.

Meredith Rucker: 13:27

Not everything about you has to be for sale. Be focused, singularly minded and stick with the process. God will lead you and you'll get exactly where you need to go. When we try to focus on everything, we end up not focusing on anything. Focusing on anything. So focus on mastering one or two skills and then move on to the next one. Now, as we close, I want to encourage you. You may be under pressure, but you're still anointed, and the fact that the enemy came for your mind proves just how much your ideas and your creativity matter. If this hit your spirit, share it with a fellow creative or visionary who needs to pick their pen back up, or their mic, or their paintbrush or their business plan. Tag me at what a Ruckus Podcast and let's remind hell that creatives don't quit. We war wisely. If this episode spoke to you, like, share and subscribe. You can find me on YouTube, ig, facebook and TikTok at what A Ruckus Podcast. You can also visit my website at wwwwhataruckuscom. All right, let's keep making a ruckus the right way. Thanks for listening.