Whoa, pardners. Let’s slow down here.
In ordinary English, as opposed to theological English, “creator” with a small C just means somebody doing and making things in an ordinary way. Company creator, game creator, story creator, content creator, model creator, blah blah blah. In that sense, a lot of people can be small-c creators. Since the tape is having you say “a” creator, not “the Creator,” you are using it in this sense. So it may or may not be a stupid motivational program, but it’s not encouraging sinful presumption or blasphemy.
In theological terms, to “create” is to make something appear from absolutely nothing (ex nihilo). Humans cannot fully do that, and therefore we are not Creators with a capital C. We are “co-workers with” God, as Paul says, however. That’s “co-” in the Greek or Roman sense, where it means somebody is being a lesser participant, like Bob the newbie intern. But “co-creator” would be kind of a confusing term for humans, so it isn’t something we say.
The accepted term, invented by J.R.R. Tolkien of all people, is actually “sub-creator.” (You can read about it in his famous essay, “On Fairy-Stories.”) We can create mental creations almost from nothing, in the realms of art and imagination. We have similar powers with engineering and all the other professions that are about making things. We don’t start from nothing; we use available tools and materials, and we use our observations and knowledge of the world around us. We also use and share ideas from all the other humans who have ever lived. But this making is not something animals or plants can do. It is one of the powers God gave Eve and Adam before the Fall, but that we did not entirely lose after the Fall.
(And actually, the word “poet” comes from the Greek word for “maker.” The old English and Scottish word for a poet was also “makar” or “maker.”)
Something like that is also true of the circumstances of our own lives. We aren’t individually responsible for the existence of gravity (God did that one) or for what kind of government is in the country of our birth (other humans did that one, either encouraged by God or just allowed by Him to muck things up for everybody else).
We aren’t responsible for the genetics or parental care of our own bodies, but each of us is individually responsible for the consequences of how each of us treats our own bodies. And if I refuse to brush my teeth or drink calcium or stop eating tons of sugar candy all day every day, and all my teeth fall out of my head, I have definitely created that circumstance. If it turns out that I wasn’t taking care of myself because I was depressed or crazy, my responsibility would be lessened, but I would still be a participant. (I could have asked for help, for example.)
So sometimes we do create our own circumstances, and sometimes we don’t. It’s hard to tell how much responsibility we have. God knows because He has perfect knowledge. We don’t.
I agree that some of these programs put too much pressure on an individual person. But if you take it the right way (“Yes, I should brush my teeth even if I’m depressed! Let me get up and brush my teeth right now, before I fall back into bad habits!” or “I know I have problems, but I will figure out little ways to make life better for myself and do them every day!”), that sort of thing can be helpful.
You do have plenty of power and control over your own life, even if it’s by doing little things in corners or learning to think in a sane and reasoned way. That is part of your Christian vocation as an anointed little priest, prophet, and king, a co-heir with Jesus and part of His Body. It is also part of God’s command to Adam and Eve to care for the world and tame it; so it is part of the basics of being a human being even for non-Christians.
You can’t do everything, but you are supposed to do what can be done. And there’s a lot that you can do, just as one person. Being creative and being determined are how you obey God’s will.
If this particular program makes you uncomfortable, you don’t have to listen to it, of course. Like I say, motivational stuff can be very helpful or very stupid and useless. But you certainly haven’t sinned.
