 So that's good, so Vashish, good to hear that, yeah. Hey, I just wanted to share just a quick thought. And it's about what we read in one contains three and one contains six, one contains six, I'm sorry, one contains three, the last couple of verses. Sorry, verse 16 and 17 talks about the fact that we as believers, we are collectively the dwelling place of God, we are collectively the temple of God, right? So there's an exhortation that you are the temple of God. And the spirit of God dwells, it's not an empty temple, the spirit of God dwells. And therefore, if anyone defiles the temple, then God is going to be taking that very seriously, there's destruction coming, right? If anyone defiles the temple of God. So here one contains 13 talks about what is happening collectively, right, collectively as believers. So he's saying you, and if you see the verses before that, he's addressing certain issues there, he's addressing how people are carnal, they have envy, strife, everything, division, everything. So he's addressing that and he's saying, actually you cannot be carnal, we're all the same. And then in the same thought he says, you are the temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in you. So if anyone defiles this temple, then God is not pleased and there is, he will be destroyed. So he talks about something that we can do. First of all, we see that collectively we are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, right? Collectively as a church, as a fellowship, as a family, you know, we are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit does something in us collectively, does a, you know, I don't know, different kind of work collectively among us, right? So we are the dwelling place. So in that sense, if anyone defiles the temple of God, I'm so sorry, I think that it dropped. Can you all hear me, that's fine, yeah? Okay, yeah, so we were looking at how if anyone defiles that temple being the dwelling place, then there is a person will be destroyed, right? So if you look at that, the sixth chapter and the last two verses, there he's specifically talking about how our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, right? How we as individuals, our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, that we, the Holy Spirit of God indwells us and therefore, you know, we belong to him and he has purchased us, we belong to him, therefore do not defile your body. You know, he says, you know, you are bought at the price, therefore glorify God in your body, is don't do the opposite of it, glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are gods, right? So we see both applications of it and we will do well to follow both. You know, sometimes we are, we give more attention to the one content six, where we say, okay, I'm going to temple of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God dwells in me, which is a good thing, right? I should not defile the, I should glorify God in my body and in my spirit, which is again a good thing, right? But sometimes we overlook the fact that it is followed by, you know, or it is what precedes this is one content three, where he's talking about, you know, you collectively, we collectively and what defiles the body or causes the desecration of the dwelling place is division, envy, strife, everything, right? And we will do well to avoid or, you know, deal with those things, right? Okay, so let's pray. Father, we thank you Lord for this understanding that you dwell us collectively and as individuals Lord and both are valid and both are important Lord and you, yeah, you just fulfill your plans and purposes, even as you do so Lord in both scenarios, Lord. And so we thank you Lord. We thank you master. We pray that we'll be, we'll give careful attention to not defile the temple of God, Lord, to defile your dwelling place, which is us collectively as a people that we will not Lord defile it in any way through the works of the flesh, through carnality, through envy, through strife or division or quarreling or contentions. Lord, we pray that, yeah, let your shalom Lord, rest in abide, Father God, in us master. And also individually we pray God that even as you dwell us and even as we are the temple of the Holy Spirit leading us into holiness and sanctification, Lord, we pray that we'll be careful to glorify you Lord in our body and spirit, which anyway belong to you Lord because we are your purchased possessions, God. We thank you. We give you all the praise and glory of this time in Jesus' matchless name, we pray. Amen, amen. Okay, so today we're going to look at, we looked at conflict resolution last class, that's what we ended with. And we said that, that we looked at some tools that we can use in order to resolve conflicts. We also saw that just by ignoring conflicts it will not go away. You know, we looked at that chart. Sorry. So we saw, you know, what conflict, we looked at the chart and let me just share that again. You know, when I concern for self and concern for others, you know, when that graph very clearly describes when that is high, then we choose to collaborate, work together in order to reach, you know, discuss and reach an amicable outcome, right? Something that's a win for both, right? But if it is a low, and so for self, and so for others also a low, then we would, we choose to be, the other extremists, we choose to be in that place of denial, right? Okay, so we saw the various aspect, various spectrum of it, and then some of the skills also to handle conflicts, right? So today we're looking at chapter 10, which is creativity and critical thinking, kind of club both together, though by themselves these two topics are quite exhaustive, right? So creativity, okay, so this morning if you attended the mentoring hour, Roshan was talking about creativity in connection to songwriting and how creativity is something that all of us as believers, you know, we have in varying degrees, or as human beings, we have in varying degrees because our God is the creator, he is the creative one, so out of him flows creativity and out of that we have received, right? And so we reflect his image when it comes to creativity. So we see that it's something new that we bring about, we create, right? Something new in various spheres of life, you know, creativity can need not be just, you know, songwriting or other things, because normally that's what we think about, right? Creativity, maybe it's something like writing poems, writing songs or music or, you know, art and so on. But not necessarily, you know, it can be creativity is an attribute which you can have in problem solving. Creativity is an attribute which you can have in administration, church administration, right? And all our strategies, right? All our processes that we might have with regard to our team and how we do ministry that can be, you know, that can be creativity, there can be creativity in it, right? So it's, like we saw, it's the ability to make something new with the help of our imagination, God-given imagination or some original ideas, right? And we also see that, you know, the difference between, we also saw the difference between creativity and innovation. Like innovation is introduction of or tweaking something which is already there and you innovate, you know, maybe a new process or maybe a new method of doing things, maybe some new ideas of achieving, you know, the slightly different result that is innovation, okay? And Linus Pauling who's a Nobel laureate, you know, he says this, right? The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas, which means that, you know, come up with lots of ideas, come up with a lot of, you know, possibilities and it's not like everything we can actually implement, but definitely some of it will be very effective, right? Okay, so I just wanted to share something else when it comes to, you know, creativity. Let's say, okay, so we saw this, okay, I'm sure you would have, some of you would have seen this. So I just want to show this, okay. So what do you see, right? What do you see anyone? You see, do you see a face, right? So yeah, so you see a face and okay, we just kind of contrasted that, okay? And if you, you know, turn it, what do you see? Right, so it's the same thing. You know, this is what it is, but when, now when you, you know, it's the same image, but it now gives you a new perspective, right? So innovation can be like that. Creativity also is like that, right? Innovation is, you know, you're tweaking something which is already there, but creativity is something new, something fresh. You know, you see that, yeah, the next image, again, you see two perspectives, right? A person who's actually looking to the right and a person who's also looking straight, right? So just to show that it's a different perspective, right? So it's a different perspective. So all of us have that and more so, you know, when we are children, when we were children, you know, if you realize that children are very creative when it comes to play, right? For them, a small stool, a small chair, it becomes a ship, right? It becomes a, you know, it becomes a racing car and if you remember playing when you were children, it was so real to you, right? I remember playing, you know, with my brother and it was in our room, which was a very small place and then there was one sofa there and then the bed there and then we said, okay, this is it, you know, this is an island and you know, the floor is full of water and you know, and there's the marsh and we have crocodiles there, so be careful. So I remember it was just, you know, avoiding jumping on the floor because it was full of crocodiles in the water. So I remember, you know, my mother walking in to the house, he opened the room and we said, don't, you know, don't walk there. And she was scared, she said, what happened? No, there's crocodiles there, so don't step in there. For us, it was so real, right? And creativity, you know, is at its height, you know, we were just in play, so children, very, very creative and they bring that in their play and it's amazing. And what happens is we lose that sense of creativity and wonder as we grow. If for some it stays, but for some it just, it's not there because we become very, very rational in our thinking, very rational, very logical, which is good, right? But we lose that sense of wonder and sometimes this creativity when it comes to, for which we are created, right? We are, we can be and we are called to be and that takes a backseat, okay? So just wanted to say, you know, just to understand some facts about our physical organ, the brain, okay? These are, you know, scientific facts which are there. So what we understand about the brain is that our brains like complexity, okay? It's, it actually gets challenged by complexity and change and that's one of the reasons why, you know, when we see babies, when you just put them on the floor and you're, you know, we have the toys that, you know, they spend hours looking at things. They will spend hours just being engaged, you know, they see something moving, they're just engaged, right? So we are, we have that interest in complexity. We have the curious nature in us, okay? The second thing is that when there is learning, okay? So we feed our brain with that learning. It actually gives rise to more learning, okay? It's like, it's like the Lord saying to Him who has more will be given, right? So it's like our brains are created in such a way which has patterns and the way it is formed. You know, when there is learning, when there is information about something and when there is learning, you know, learning which means that you've analyzed it and you know, read certain conclusions with that piece of information, when there's more, it gives scope to more learning, okay? So, which means that it builds on, the brain builds on what is already there with the fresh information coming in. So it builds those connections, builds those, you know, those patterns. So it comes in, right? As in when new information comes in, right? Third thing that we see that our brains are prone to making assumptions based on existing knowledge. So when you have a framework of knowledge which is already there, like maybe an introductory level of learning of something, okay? So now when there's new things coming in, our brains are created in such a way that it makes certain references, it makes certain pathways and it's already forming conclusions based on what it's already, you know, what it already has then existing knowledge that it has, okay? So, which is good, which means that when this new information comes in, it doesn't start from scratch but it builds on what is already there, right? So which means that it's faster, the learning is faster and also it's, whatever you're putting, it stays and it consolidates, you know, there's a consolidation that happens and it forms all those conclusions which are necessary, right? Okay, so hopefully, you know, we are created in such a ways to search for meaning and connections, okay? Like some of the things that, you know, what we see in mankind, you know, there is, we are searching for meaning, you know, let's say you, mankind in general, right? Is already always on a search, search for truth, search for meaning, right? And when we move God out of the picture, that is when the search, you know, is in all the wrong places, right? There is a search for truth, there is a search for meaning to make something meaningful out of our lives, right? And say, you know, what is the purpose of all this? So this meaning and purpose and truth is mankind's, you know, real search, okay? So that is how we are created and it's meant to find its destiny in God, right? So our brain searches, you know, as a physical organ, there is a search for something new, there's something for, search for meaning and connections and so on, okay? And yeah, so we also see that there is a brains also, you know, like to play in the sense there are puzzles, there are quizzes, if there are, you know, things to be identified, our brain likes to play or it's wired to be naturally, you know, I would say naturally inclined to play, to learn through playing, to play as leisure activity, et cetera, right? So having said all that, we need to look after, okay? We need to, you know, look after, we need to protect our brain function, okay? Which means that, well, it needs rest, it needs recuperation, it can handle stress, but after a prolonged season or time of rest, of stress, sorry, it needs rest in order to get rejuvenated, in order to recuperate and get back to, you know, again, you know, functioning the way it's supposed to, right? So it's amazing, amazing way in which God has created us, God has created the brain, right? And we see that people say that we use a small percentage of it, you know, it's capable of much more, it's capable of much more, but we, scientists, the medical faculty say that we use a small percentage of it only, right? And there's so much that we can actually use. And so, Lord has created us in this amazing ways, right? I just want to read this scripture, which talks about, yeah, it's 1 Peter, and 1 Peter chapter one and verse 22, okay? It talks about how souls basically are thinking, imaginations, you know, thought patterns and everything can be purified, okay? You have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit, insincere love of the brethren, et cetera. So there is a, you know, if you want our brain functioning, well, if you want our thought processes and everything to be fresh and flourishing, there's something that we need to do that even when we bring our minds in subjection to the word of God, when we obey the truth, there is a purifying of the soul, and there's a purifying of our thoughts, imaginations, everything, then it works effectively the way we were designed to work, okay? And also, another scripture that talks about how our fleshly lusts war against the soul, okay? Fleshly lusts war against the soul. Just trying to find the reference there. If you know the reference, can you just share that, please? I think it's also 2 Peter or 1 Peter. Let's just check. 1 Peter 2, 11, I think 1 Peter. Okay, okay. So we were looking at 1 Peter 1, 22, 1 Peter 2, 11. Thanks a lot, thanks a lot. I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. So which means that there is a battering that happens. There's a damage that happens to this whole process of thoughts, imaginations, and everything because of fleshly lusts. When we give in to fleshly lusts, when we are considering fleshly lusts, basically it's considered to give in, right? So what happens there? There is this war, there is this turmoil which happens against our own thinking, our minds, imaginations, everything. So it's going to hamper the way God designed us to function creatively, okay? So one way to protect, to guard ourselves is, well, the physical aspect of it, where we rest well, where we, you know, there's good nutrition, and also we use our brains because it was created to, you know, sometimes we don't, right? We think that, you know, it's a waste of time, but then when you use it, well, in terms of play, in terms of learning new things, et cetera, right? So when we do that, then there is a, we are actually protecting, looking after, nurturing our brain function, right? Our thoughts and everything. The second part of it is this, that we are unnecessarily damaged when we give in to fleshly lusts, right? When we unnecessarily damage our own, you know, creativity, if we live in disobedience, but when we live in obedience, we purify our souls. Okay, that's what it says. So there is a clarity that comes into our thinking. There is a, you know, fresh creativity that comes into our thoughts when we actually live this way. When we live in obedience, when we make sure that we don't engage in fleshly lusts of any kind, right? Okay, so how can we foster creativity? We're just looking at one way by which we can foster meaning, you know, develop and nurture creatively, okay? One of the ways by which we can do is, of course, brainstorming, okay? So brainstorming, we know it's a collective method of generating ideas. There are, like this morning, we were looking at how, when it comes to songwriting, we can do it in groups, right, there are, instead of one idea, there are actually five or six ideas that are coming up and we can put together, so there's more, there's always more, there's synergy and there's exponential increase when we do it together in a team and no one other Lord actually calls us the body, right? Each one having a different function, each one bringing several things collectively when we are functioning, right? So we see that, right? So the Linus Pauling, again, that mobile laureate, he says that, okay? Brainstorming, the thing is to generate a lot of ideas. The best way to have a good idea, he says, is to have lots of ideas. Of course, first part of it is idea generation, okay? So if people are not judged or critiqued, normally there is a lot of ideas, okay? But people need to understand that as part of the process, not every, the ideas have to be evaluated, okay? Only when we evaluate an idea, can we come to a place of implementing, right? When we need to assess the ideas. But step one is to make sure that everybody has, they say, everybody has the freedom to speak their mind or if they are not comfortable speaking at least to write down, right? So there are several ways we can do this, right? Maybe it can be people writing it on post-its, like sticky notes and putting it in several places. Maybe you want ideas on this, ideas on A, ideas on B, ideas on C. So you categorize it and then people can actually put their thoughts, okay? Maybe in a church setting, it can be, okay, ideas on creative ideas on, okay, let's say outreach or ideas on, okay, what can we do for the old people in our church or for the children in our church? How do we, what can we do? What else can we do? So when we have a group of, let's say, 12 or 15 people and then we put these categories, this is idea generation day or brainstorming day. So we put these categories and people have in all three ideas, there are some, there are all three categories that are 15, maybe one person can have more than one and you welcome that, right? So at least we have 45 ideas come up, 15 into three categories, 45 ideas come up and this is just the minimum. If everyone has this, say, I'm sure there will be people who want to have more, more to contribute, like, so there will be more. So you see, you know, how everything, you know, there's so much of creativity and so much of, so many ideas can be generated, right? So the second phase is the illustration, I mean, sorry, the evaluation of it, okay? So you, after this free flow of ideas that are being generated, then there is the idea evaluation where we ask questions, okay? We ask questions and say, okay, now, here are some things, you know, how can we actually do it? Is it for now or is it for later? And so some of those hard questions, some of those practical questions, you know, given where we are right now, the resources we have or the resources we can develop, can we do it now? Is it for now or do we look at this a little later, right? So things like that, how much would it require? You know, okay, we want to build a rocket and send it to the moon, you know, fine. So first of all, are we called to that? You know, do you want to do that? Do we have the know-how? No, things like that, no, we can have out of the box ideas and say, let's do this, let's do that, let's start a TV channel, right? But the next part is the evaluation, okay? So when we evaluate and when we come up with, you know, the assessment of it, then we can actually go ahead and implement it. So the leader, it's good to have a leader or a facilitator who does the role of facilitation in order to guide, right? In order to generate this whole process, or guide this whole process, right? Okay, so let's do a quick exercise, okay? So when it comes to creativity, I have a video to show as well and maybe we can see some parts of it, but I just want us to take two minutes, okay? So, and everyday object like a, let's say your pencil, if you have a pencil, okay? Okay, no, I just want to show a pencil. So if you have one, I'll just take that and show it. Okay, I have one, I think you have a pen. Okay, you have a pen, you have a pencil, okay, whatever. Okay, let's say a pen, okay? It has a cap and this is how we close it. Okay, so I just want you to list down how many ever uses for this pen, okay? The most obvious one is writing, right? But what are some uses that you can think of, okay? Using this pen, okay? Maybe one of this or many, okay? So you can, what you can do is list down and then put, I think you're putting some responses. What I wanted to do is maybe you listed down in your, wherever, just put it as a complete list. Take two minutes, okay? So list down how many ever you want and then you share it here, okay? Once you thought, okay, I'll just call out the time and then whatever you've listed, you can actually put it, right? Okay, we'll take another minute, yeah? Okay, three times up, so whatever you've written, can I just post it, please, let's see. Okay, whatever you've written, okay? So, okay, let's see, paper clip, bookmark, marker for writing, okay? So marker as in Rosalind, marker. Like we can just mark, if you're reading something, we can use a pen to mark, that's two. Okay, okay, just to underline. Yeah, yeah, underline, yeah, underline, okay, okay? Now, paper clip, bookmark, toy, okay? Fidget spinner, okay, so something like that, okay? Then as a pin, so you use that on a, depends on a soft surface, okay? Then paint it, beauty accessory, okay? As a cosmetic, okay, cap can be used to draw circle, okay? Okay, nice, okay, who else? Who else? John Paul, Jackson, Zilly Tolly? First, I just lost in between, I got a call, sorry. Oh, okay, okay, no problem, no worries. Okay, Lama, Zilly Tolly, anything. Okay, so the thing is this, you know, now let's say you were able to list down all this, right? So what really helped you to come out with these ideas? Okay, let's say, we'll ask Rosalind, we can even scratch our head with it, exactly. So, you know, what really helped you, right? Come out with all these options, if you just, you know, reflect, Zilly Tolly, Jafina, anyone, you know. Yeah, you can, Jafina, yeah. Okay, Rosalind says personal experience, Jafina. Yeah, so I think maybe imagining, thinking a little deeper, I even imagined pens, pen jumping, pen being thrown, and all the other thoughts came, and then I was thinking, and I was focusing on the object, thinking in various angles, what if I turn it this side, what if I turn it that side? Okay. One of the things I can separate it from. Maybe taking a closer look, and then imagining all silly things that I can, somehow something finally makes sense. Yeah, so imagination, so experience. So Rosalind says experience, which means that, okay, probably you have used it in all these ways. So that's the personal experience, saying, okay, this thing works this way, right? And like you said, Jafina, like taking a closer look at it, and also imagination, you know. Imagination, again, is a very important factor, right? So what really helps us to imagine, what inhibits our imagination? Just think about it. What really prevents our imagination inhibits? I can think of a couple of things, like one is maybe fear, fear of being laughed at, fear of being put down, it could be anything. So you hold back, we withhold, rather than kind of unleash your imagination thoughts, we hold back saying, okay, what if, it doesn't work, now you'd never, and it is a simple thing. Then, okay, so what is the most that can happen? So you just went ahead with it. So just imagine, so for every problem, when we are ministry or in life, yes, we are there as problem solvers. So we are there to kind of provide solutions, or maybe even plan and plan ahead and do things. So what if we overcame these feelings or inhibitions, and we really let loose, dare, daring to dream? There would be so much, right? Because God is for us, He's with us, He's for us, and He has created us, and He's also the God of creativity. So if we would just draw from Him, right? And just let loose or flow in our creativity. There'll be so many options coming up just like this, right? And then, of course, we will evaluate and say, okay, for now, we will use this, but then, just see how many things, how many options can come in solving a particular problem in thinking of new ways of doing things, right? Many times we don't even go there, because we are so inhibited by our own fears. Second factor could be pressure, intense pressure, fear of failure, why this thing has to work. And so our thinking is so inhibited or limited, right? And so we don't think beyond the point, we want to play safe and say, I'd rather not get into it. So all that inhibits our creativity. So I don't think we have time for the video, but to fully watch it. But let me just, we have about five minutes, we can watch it for some time. And so this lady, she talks about several other factors, imagination is one and several other factors, learning and knowledge and so on. So let's just watch it and then... Where do these ideas come from? This is a question that I have been pondering for the last 35 years. Where do ideas come from? I started out as a neurophysiologist, poking little tiny cells with even tinier electrodes, seeing what they would tell me about creativity and innovation. After I finished by PhD, I went out to study and sort of learn all about creativity in the wild, working in big companies and small companies, even starting my own. And for the last almost 13 years I've been at Stanford, teaching classes on creativity and innovation and entrepreneurship. And in my classes, I've done endless experiments with my students, trying to figure out what is involved with unlocking creativity. What I've realized over the last few years is that we look at creativity in much too narrow a way. We really need to open the aperture and look at creativity in a very different light. And what I've done is put together a model that I'm gonna basically explain to you in the next few minutes about all the things we need to unlock creativity. And I wanna point out, before I take it apart, that this innovation engine, that's what I call it, has two parts. The inside is you, your knowledge, your imagination, your attitude. And the outside is the outside world, the resources, the habitat, and the culture. So let's start. Let's start where most people start. Most people start thinking about creativity by thinking about imagination. So let's start there. Now, imagination, one of the sad things is that we don't really teach people how to increase their imagination in school. And so there really are ways to increase our ability to come up with really interesting ideas. We have to go back to kindergarten to see where the problem is. If you're in kindergarten, it's very likely you'll get a question like this. What is the sum of five plus five? So what's the answer to this? 10, you guys are really smart, right? We know it's 10 because there's one right answer to this problem. But what if we ask this question in a slightly different way? What if we ask what two numbers add up to 10? How many answers are this to this? Infinite, infinite number. And this is critically important and something that many of the speakers have brought up today. Is it the way you ask the question determines the type of answers you get? The question you ask is the frame to which the answers will fall. And if you don't ask the question in a thoughtful way, you're not gonna get really interesting answers. Consider the fact that the Copernican Revolution came about by reframing the question, what if the Earth is not the center of the solar system? What if the sun is? And that opened up the entire study of astronomy. But you know what? You don't have to do this in such a serious way. You can practice it every single day with jokes because most jokes that we tell are interesting because the frame switches in the middle of the joke. Consider this, the Pink Panther, if you've seen him's movie, he walks into a hotel, there's a little dog sitting on the carpet, he says to the hotel manager, does your dog bite? And the manager says, no, my dog doesn't bite. He reaches down, the dog basically attacks him, he says, what happened? He says, well, that's not my dog. Think about it, whenever you hear a joke, you will find that almost always it's that the flame has switched in the middle. And it's a really fun way to practice framing and reframing problems. So that's one of the ways that you can increase your imagination, but there are other ways. One of the key ways is to connect and combine ideas. Most inventions in the world, most innovations come from putting things together that haven't been there together before, often in really unusual and surprising ways. One of my favorite ways to practice this is with the Japanese art of Shindogu. Shindogu is the art of creating unuseless inventions. They're not useful, they're not useless, they're unuseless. And what they really are is a way of saying there might be something here, but I'm not quite sure. So in this example with the umbrellas on the shoes, well, gee, it might not be very practical, but it unlocks some really, really interesting ideas. Speaking of shoes, here's another Shindogu, okay? Little dust pants, again, it might not be practical, but you know what, there's an interesting idea there. Again, you can use jokes for inspiration every single day. One of my favorite things, whenever I get the New Yorker, and I'm sure anyone who reads a New Yorker knows, the first thing you do is you open up the back cover and you look at the cartoon caption contest. The cartoon caption contest always puts things together that are not obvious, often because they're out of scale or things that would be very, very surprising to have in the same frame. And your job is to come up with a really creative way. Okay, thank you for being part of today's class. I'll post to the link there if you want to watch the rest of the video. For e-learning students, I'll post it as part of the discussion so you can watch it and you can share your thoughts, okay? Okay, we'll continue next class. And we'll move on to critical thinking in our next class, right? Okay, thank you, God bless.