God's Been Preparing You the Whole Time

Some of the best artists in the world didn't even hit their stride until later in life. I mean, some didn't even start creating until their 60s or 70s. And so listen, if you've ever felt like you're behind, like you missed your chance, or like your best creative years are already behind you, I've got some really good news. God might just be getting started with you creatively. And so today, I wanna show you five reasons why your best creative season is absolutely still ahead. Even if you started late, lost some time, or even feel like you missed some opportunities along the way. And hey, be sure to stay with me to the very end, because the fifth reason I'm gonna share today will completely change how you view your age and your creative calling. So let's jump in. Well, hey friend, I'm Matt Tommey, and as a professional artist for over 30 years and mentor to thousands of Christian creatives around the world, I've watched how people discover something so surprising over and over again in their life. The things that they thought disqualified them from their creative calling, things like age or life experiences, failures, even detours on their journey, were often the very things that God wanted to use powerfully in their life as artists. In fact, all of the things that we thought that were holding us back, were actually preparing us for everything that God had planned. Which kind of brings me to the first reason your best creative season is probably still ahead. And it's this, your creative calling never expires. In fact, I believe some of the most fruitful creative seasons happen later in our life because we finally stopped trying to prove ourselves to everybody, even to God, and started actually partnering with God. But you know, the enemy loves to keep artists, just like you and me, believing that our creative calling has an expiration date, right? Even though we don't always say it like that, we usually are thinking that kind of thing inside, right? Things like, I'm too old, or I should have started this years ago, or maybe I missed my chance, or oh, you know, the younger generation, they're always doing it better and faster, and this or that. Listen, no matter how many times you hear those lies, even how many times you say those lies, it doesn't make them true. In fact, the Bible says that the gifts and callings of God are irrevocable. In other words, God doesn't suddenly look at you and say to somebody in their 60s or 70s, well, I guess we're done here, you know? Listen, friends, as long as you're still breathing, you're still dreaming with him, God's got a purpose for your life. As long as you're still walking with him and listening to his voice, there is absolutely something that he wants to do in and through you creatively. And honestly, I think some of those dangerous words that a creative person can say are, well, I guess it's too late. I mean, too late for what? Too late to obey, to create, to become the artist that God created you to be? Listen, if God is still stirring something in your heart, that is evidence that he's not finished with you. Now, before I go any further, I'd love to hear from you down in the comments. So let me know, where are you in the world? How old are you? What do you love to do creatively? And most importantly, what's that creative dream that's still stirring in your heart? When you share that, I know that God's gonna encourage a lot more people than you realize. And also, if you're enjoying this conversation, make sure you subscribe because every week here on the channel, I help Christian creatives just like you walk in clarity, confidence, and creative freedom in Christ, all right? Now, the second reason your best creative season is probably still ahead is because God almost never works on our timeline, right? I mean, can we just be honest about that? Most of us have this imaginary schedule in our head for our life. We think, oh, by this age, I should be here. By this age, I should have accomplished this. By now, I should have had this thing figured out. But you know what I've found in my life, and you could probably say this as well, God rarely seems interested in my deadlines. In fact, when you look through scripture, you see a whole lot less deadlines and a whole lot more stories of preparation over and over again. I mean, look at Moses. He spent decades being prepared. Abraham waited. Joseph endured this years of process before he stepped into his purpose. David, one of the most creative people in the Bible, spent years of being developed and prepared. And so what looks like delay in the natural was actually development for the supernatural. Listen, I'm gonna say that again because this is so key. What looks like delay in the natural is often development for the supernatural. And maybe that's true in your life as well. Maybe what feels like time lost wasn't lost at all. Maybe God's been preparing you for something, for something right now, before he released something through you. And that's a very, very different perspective. That's a life-giving perspective because suddenly your past isn't evidence that you've missed it. It's evidence that God has been at work the whole time. For all of us, we've got the benefit of being able to look at our life through hindsight. And they always say what? Hindsight is 20-20. You can probably, if you're like me, you can look back at seasons of your life and you can say, you know, maybe something that you went through that was so difficult that you thought, man, I ain't never been through anything like this. Like this is gonna completely destroy me. It's over. I'm never gonna, you know, God can never use me again. I've messed up too bad or whatever. You look back, right, through the lens of history and the lens of perspective, and you look back now, whether it was five, 10, 20 years ago, whatever, and you see, oh, oh, that situation that I thought was gonna kill me, that was actually God's mercy on my life. That was actually Him pulling me out of a situation so that I didn't keep walking in the dysfunctional way that I was in order to, you know, save me and heal me and deliver me and actually put me back on, you know, the path that He had for me. And, you know, as you walk with the Lord, you start to see those things with perspective. And sometimes when you're in the middle of it, you just don't realize it. You just don't realize the powerful, redemptive nature of some of those difficult things in your life. And so I just, I think that's one of the reasons why, you know, all through the Bible, you know, it talks about, you know, recount the deeds of the Lord. Remember the deeds of the Lord. Remember what I did for you. Remember where I brought you from. Because it's so important for us to have perspective in our life, to realize that God's not taking you through things through the difficulties of your life to kill you. He's taking you through those things to bring you into the fullness of who He created you to be and created me to be. And when you can have that perspective and you can realize, wow, it's the difficult things that were actually the most important things that I thought were disqualifying, they've actually been qualifying, that's when you can begin, I think as you get older, you can begin to trust the Lord a whole lot more and say, Lord, you know, kind of like Paul said, right? I've been in times of plenty. I've been in times of lack. I've been in times where things were great. I've been in times where things were difficult, but whatever, I'm gonna give thanks in all things. Why? Because I know you're working all things together for my good, because you love me and you call me according to your purpose. And listen, that perspective, as much as I wanted to have that years ago as a young man, I think that kind of perspective is only developed as we walk with the Lord year after year, maybe even decade after decade. Now, the third reason that your best creative season may still be ahead is because far more people start later than you realize. You and I both know our culture loves to tell stories about prodigies, right? We love to celebrate the 20-year-old success story, the 13-year-old painter, whatever. But listen, history is filled with people whose most impactful work happened later in their life. I mean, you've probably heard Grandma Moses, right? Famous for her paintings, but not until her 70s. Colonel Sanders, and listen, I love me some fried chicken. He didn't start KFC until he was in his 60s. And Laura Ingalls Wilder, I love those stories of Little House on the Prairie. She didn't start until her 60s. In fact, as I was getting ready to make this video today, I was thinking of one of my students, Ms. Judy, and she came to me years ago. She's been in our community for a lot of years, and she's in her mid-70s. I won't go further than that, but she's in her 70s. You know, she had believed a lot of stuff about her creativity over the years, like a lot of us had, that she was disqualified, wasn't good enough, couldn't do it, especially couldn't do it at this age. And she came into the program and got connected in the community, started walking through the lessons, and all of a sudden, guess what? God started changing her heart. She started building confidence. She started selling her work. She started tripling what she was making in her art. She's got confidence now of sharing, and doing shows, and doing commissions, and all this stuff, and I just sit back and laugh, and I know the Lord sits back and laughs too, and like, girl, I've had this for you the whole time, right? But it's when you walk a pathway, right? When you believe the vision that God's put on your heart, when you believe that the thing that he's given you creatively is for you in this season, at this time, that you can absolutely do it with his help. Like, listen, I don't care where you are. I got a student right now that's in her mid-80s doing the same thing. I got students in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s. It does not matter. The issue is not, are you qualified, or are you too old? The issue is, are you willing to say yes to God in the season that you're in, where you're at, and are you willing to walk through a process of development with him, learning from a mentor like me and other fellow artists so that you can learn what it takes to walk in the thing that God's called you to? And listen, if you're just willing to give God that simple yes, it is amazing. Not only will God redeem the time that you feel like you've lost, he'll bring acceleration to do things a lot faster than you thought were even possible, not because you're qualified, not because you're all that in a bag of chips, but because you're willing to say yes, because you're aligned with him. And listen, that is super exciting to watch that every day. I love telling these stories over and over again because they remind us that life experience is not a liability. It's often part of the preparation, not only for you, but also for others. I mean, I love reading in the Old Testament about the tabernacle of David, where guys like Asaph and Jaduthin and Heman taught the musicians how to play skillfully and prophesy. Creative fathers, right, who walked this journey of preparation, now being used by God to pour into the next generation. That is so powerful. Listen, the point of you and I making art and creating is not that everybody becomes famous, it's that we're responding to the call of God in our life in whatever way it expresses itself, in whatever season that that happens. And maybe today, watching this right now, is the spark that you needed to believe for the beginning of a brand new chapter in your life that's better and more filled with joy and purpose and freedom than you ever even imagined. Now, the fourth reason your best creative season is probably still ahead is because your creativity matures with your life experience. This is something I understand now a whole lot more than I could have understood 30 years ago. In fact, the work that I'm creating today as an artist could probably never have been created by the younger version of me. I mean, maybe the technical skill, but not the depth and not the perspective, right, not the healing that I've walked through, the wisdom that I've developed, the understanding of how God works in me and through me creatively. You know, the art that I create is different because the artist, me, I'm different, and you're different, and the same thing is true in what you're doing. The heartbreak that you've experienced, the prayers that you've prayed and seen answered, the relationships that you've built, the disappointments that you've overcome, the victories that you've celebrated, the things that you've walked through, listen, none of that is wasted. In fact, it often becomes the richest materials that God uses in our creative lives. You know, I've often said that so many people spend the first half of life collecting material and the second half of life expressing it. We often spend decades gathering stories and wisdom and experience and revelation and perspective, and then one day we realized that, hey, we actually got something to say through our art, and honestly, this is one of the biggest reasons that I created what we call the Thriving Christian Artist Pathway because after mentoring thousands of creatives, I've realized that most artists, most people just like you and me aren't lacking talent. We're just lacking a roadmap, clarity and confidence and a clear path forward. They know that something's inside of them that God put there. They just don't know how to move forward with it, and I'll tell you more about that later, but suffice it to say, your creative calling doesn't disappear with age. Again, it evolves and matures over time as you continue to lean into creating and dreaming and walking with Jesus. Now, here's the fifth reason, and this one thing changed everything for me, and it's this. Your best creative season may still be ahead because God uses prepared people, not perfect people. You know, years ago, the Lord showed me something that completely changed my perspective. I was evaluating my future based on my past, right? You know, everything I'd been through, things I'd done, made mistakes. Maybe you've done that too, right? You look at your mistakes, you look at lost opportunities, things that didn't work out, the dreams that never happened, maybe even the times that, if you're like me, you know, times that you procrastinated or stayed stuck in fear, and you assume that your future will be just more of the same, but hey, the good thing is this. God doesn't see your future through a lens of your failures. He sees your future through the lens of His purpose, through your identity in Christ, and that revelation for me, and I hope for you, it changes everything, because listen, the question isn't am I young enough or am I talented enough or am I successful enough or, you know, whatever that, you know, you may be dealing with in your head. The question is, am I willing to say yes in this season? I mean, God's always used ordinary people who are just willing, not perfect people, just prepared people, people that He was shaping and preparing along the way that were refined by the challenges and taught by experiences and shaped by the Spirit of God moving through their life. And listen, maybe the very things that you've been seeing as weaknesses in your life are actually the things that God intends to use the most. I know that's been my story. I mean, when I look back on my life and all the things that I've walked through of a performance mentality, of being addicted to pornography for so many years, for using my art as a way to get approval in my life, for, you know, some of the dysfunctional things that I'd done relationally, you know, just a lot of junk, you know, things that I'm not proud to talk about necessarily. But when I look at those and I look through the hard work that it took to face those things, to ask the Lord to come in and heal the broken places in my heart and to see the days and weeks and months and years that it took to walk through those processes, some faster than others. And now I see on the other side, not only how God healed me and brought deliverance and freedom in those areas, but how he uses those really difficult things that I walked through as opportunities, intersection points, if you will, for healing in the lives of others. I just have to say, thank you, Jesus. Like, it's so worth it, right? It is not about us having it all together. It is not about us making all the right decisions all the time. God is close to the brokenhearted. Jesus is not backing up from us because we're in process. Jesus died for you to be fully human, for you to walk through this process of being redeemed and reconciled and restored and brought back to him and formed into the image of Christ. And listen, part of that is messy. A lot of that is messy. A lot of that means that we don't get it right all the time. But listen, that is this beautiful, redemptive, restorative part of what God does in our journey, not only to heal us and save us and restore us and bring us into everything that God has for us, but also so that we might be used by him as ambassadors of reconciliation and restoration in the world. I think that's awesome. So what do you do from here? Well, I'd say three things. Number one, stop grieving the timeline that you made up in your head and that you just imagined. You can't move forward into a new season while constantly looking backwards and saying coulda, woulda, shoulda. Secondly, I'd say pay attention to what keeps coming alive in you now, that dream that won't leave, that desire that keeps resurfacing, that thing that keeps showing up in prayer. Listen, pay attention because God often speaks through those persistent desires that keep coming up as we're with him. And listen, thirdly, I would just say, don't try to have the whole thing planned out. Just take one little step. Take the next step. Write the first page of the book. Take the class, buy the supplies, start the sketch, record the song, reach out to the mentor. Whatever it is that you need to do, I promise that that one act of obedience can unlock an entirely new season in your life that you only dreamed was possible years ago. Friend, if there's one thing that I hope you take away from this video today, it is this, you are not behind. You are forgotten, you are disqualified, and you are definitely not too late. The same God who's been faithful in every season of your life is still writing your story, your creative story. And your best creative season is absolutely still ahead. Trust me, age is not your disadvantage. It's your evidence, the evidence of God's faithfulness in your life, of his preparation in your life, of his work in your life all these years, evidence that you have something that is worth saying creatively, that God can use to impact the lives of others in a super, super powerful way. And hey, if you're realizing that God is inviting you into a new season and you'd love to have a clear spirit-led path forward, and you'd love my help along the way, I'd love to invite you to check out the Thriving Christian Artist Pathway. It's designed for Christian creatives just like you to move from confusion and uncertainty to clarity and confidence and momentum in your creative calling so you can actually become the artist that God created you to be. There's a link right here below this and it's got all the details and I promise we'll walk with you every step of the way. And hey, before you go, be sure to tell me in the comments which part of this teaching helped you the most today. And of course, if you got a question, I love those, drop that there as well. I read every one and it'd be my honor to try to help you out and give you some answers to whatever you're struggling with. All right, listen, I love you, friend. Thanks so much for being here today. And remember, until next time, you were created to thrive. Bye.