whats better? to copy paste or to make something new?

if you asked an artist, or a composer, what would their response be? copying someone else’ ideas and stamping them as your own is wrong. and just not creative. i’d see some fingers wagging in disapproval at that one.

think about the first day of every class you’ve ever taken. whats on the syllabus? “don’t plagiarize”. or what? they’ll expel you!

Main Entry: pla·gia·rize

Pronunciation: \ˈplā-jə-ˌrīz also -jē-ə-\

Function: verb

to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own : use (another’s production) without crediting the source

if you decided to copy paste an article from wikipedia and plop it at the beginning of your essay, a teacher wouldn’t get too far before they got suspicious, and maybe just went ahead and gave you a big fat F. instead, they want you to be able to say in your own words, to take the information all around you, and make it your own, otherwise, it is inauthentic.

i’ve seen this theme played out in my life. growing up, i copy-pasted social cues, cultural ideas, and faith beliefs from whatever I saw around me. Whether it was Oprah, or going to church every now and then, or what I was exposed to during holidays. But I didn’t see anything wrong with it, because the people I saw seemed to be doing the same thing. No one lived out the stuff they were teaching or learning, except maybe those really Holy people, but instead just plopped things onto their lives and went around doing whatever they pleased.

One day two people came to tell me about their faith. They asked me all sorts of questions, and I knew the answers mostly. They didn’t seem to believe me (consider that a copy-paste life doesn’t always resonate as being genuine) and so they shared the story of Jesus. They told me that he came and lived as a man because He had compassion on us, and longed for us to be in a relationship with Him. Each and every one of us. They talked about how we weren’t good enough to be with God in heaven because no matter how much we try, we sin and aren’t perfect. They said that Jesus came and died as a sacrifice, and came back to life, defeating death (the only person to ever do that mind you). After this we could trust that God really did this and hang out with God the way we hang out with our friends or people that we love. That was the only way to be in Heaven, and the question that really struck me was, “would Jesus be able to say I knew Him, when I die?”

Right then and there I committed to being in a relationship with this Jesus guy, to learn more about him, find out what it meant to follow Him. It was so compelling, how much He loved us!

What’s neat about this, is that instead of copy-pasting this new set of ideas or cravings on top of my old self, God cut out the old, and put in something new. Think about it, if you suddenly got an epiphany while writing your essay, and start to actually write it yourself, but you didn’t delete the plagiarized part from before, the teacher wouldn’t even get that far! Big Fat “F”. The only way to be new, would be to cut out the old. I wanted to be new, I wanted it to be for real, for it to be MY story and not someone else’.  I needed to stop copy-pasting, and actually make it my own.

instead of copy-pasting this new set of ideas or cravings on top of my old self, God cut out the old, and put in something new.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17 it says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come”. This couldn’t explain it better!

So, as an artist, and as a person genuinely seeking to live life as authentically as possible, I’ve found its better to create new than to copy-paste.

What does it look like that God made me new? He changed my heart. It says he takes out your heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh. Meaning, He’s going to give you a heart that wants to love Him back.

One way He did this, was to open my eyes to new ways of looking at the things in my life. For instance; all through high school i had this verocious appetite for music. my friends and i would discover new bands like you brush your teeth. ALL the time! (i hope, ew, you don’t? you’re gross!) But I would just download it, or we’d burn it from each other, never buy it. While I think this issue is quite minimal, for me, it was more about my heart, than about the action. My heart was greedy, gluttonous, to have everything I wanted, without any consequences.  More, more more. and with shortcuts. tax fraud, stealing clothes, cheating on a test, are all ways to get the end result without having to do anything hard, without giving up anything you already have to get it. God helped me see that this was counter to the way He wanted my heart to be as I followed Him. And so he changed my appetite for music! I started wanting music a little less. I also decided to start buying CD’s instead. Now, I do spend a decent amount of money on CD’s, but the way I view music, and money even, has changed dramatically. God didn’t change who I was necessarily. He didn’t change my passion and inkling for indie bands that no one’s ever heard of. But He did change the way I look at acquiring them, and what those things really meant to me. Does this make sense? I mean, thats just one little example.

Moral of the story, if you’re copy-pasting in your life; just plopping faith, or all sorts of beliefs, on top of who you are, people are going to be able to tell. They’re going to know you’re confused, they’re going to question why you don’t practice what you preach. That’s what people call a hypocrite. and actually, according to merriam webster, the only kind of hypocrite is a religious one! verrrry interesting, look!

hypocrite:

a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion
a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings

make faith your own. because what’s neat is, God cuts out the old, and creates a new life in you, that can live forever, who can talk with Him, and participate in the divine nature and things in His kingdom.

Yep, that’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it!