“Today, to create is to hope. To create is to live.”

– Makoto Fujimura

Last month, Christian artist Makoto Fujimura was listed in CNN’s “Greatest Commencement Speeches of All Time“.

I hope this excerpt from his commencement address whets your appetite to read or watch the entire speech.

Excerpt from “The Aroma of the New”

“The World that Ought to be is that which is already imbedded in our senses. God’s hand touches us, even through the cold earth of death and despair, even though we are being washed away in the sea of Liquid Modernity. The Gospel is an aroma, the aroma of the New. And the aroma will reach us, even in the darkest despair. . .

“Love, my friends, is today mingled with grief. And yet love grows greater. Create in and through that love. Calm the seas of your anxiety and infuse new life deep into the poisoned wells of culture. . .

“Come and dance, play and paint upon your Ground Zero ashes. That is how we must now love the world. Step into the receding (cultural) waters filled with poison, but do it with faith. Then the stench of death will be replaced by the aroma of the New. The Stage behind the stage will open up, and instead of being forced to surrender to the cold earth, we will dance upon the waters, hear new sounds, and create new colors.”

How have these thoughts inspired you to create?

NOTES:

• Christian painter Makoto Fujimura is recognized globally as an arts advocate and cultural influencer. He’s also a speaker and has published several books.
• Read more of Makoto Fujimura’s bio on his website.
• Makoto gave this commencement speech at Belhaven University in 2011.
  • Watch the commencement address on Belhaven’s YouTube channel.
  • Read the speech on Makoto Fujimura’s website.
• The photo is a screenshot from Makoto Fujimura’s YouTube video, Live from Mako’s Studio: Considering (and painting) daffodils