I went to space, after decades of playing an iconic science-fiction character who was exploring the universe. I thought I would experience a deep connection with the immensity around us, a deep call for exploration. I was absolutely wrong. The strongest feeling, that dominated everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I had ever experienced. — William Shatner, 2022
Sometimes creatives get stuck, because whatever wordly success they've achieved can be a big let-down.
They've worked and worked, and are actually successful in reaching their goals. But sometimes success and accomplished goals can end up being a bit anticlimatic.
For creatives involved with children's book publishing, there is nothing quite so thrilling as to see your own name all big and pretty, splashed on the slick shiny cover of a book. But thrills fade and soon we are back to the grind of pursuing the next one to come.
It's no wonder that we get stuck and grind to a halt. The futility of it all is exhausting. Such is the experience of living in this world.
Creatives have the wonderful gift of bringing to life the wonders of dreams and imagination, and the expression of deep emotions. Creatives make the intangible, tangible, and draw their audience into the experience to share in it with them.
It is easy to see how a skilled actor can bring so much life to a role that his audience – over many generations! – is drawn into the experience to the point that it feels like reality. The fantasy of adventure and exploring the unknown is tantalizing to our adventure-seeking brains and hearts. We want it all to be true. And we respond to the actor with such accolades that he also is tantalized into embracing the illusion.
But in the end, that's really all it is ... an illusion.
God designed us with wonderful, creative minds that dream up fantastic senarios where we are the hero who overcomes and discovers and wins the day. It's how creativity works: we dream it and then we build it.
We dreamed of space travel through our books and movies, and today we've got space stations and satellites above us and robots on Mars. Not too shabby an accomplishment! When we manage to pull off stunts like that, it's easy to see how full of ourselves we can get, almost to the point of believing there's nothing we can't do.
And that's the Lie that the world feeds us ... that there's nothing we can't do. That anything we can dream up, we can accomplish.
But we're not as brilliant and powerful as we think we are. And when our Lies crash into God's Truth, Truth wins every time.
In Revelation God tells the church in Laodicea, You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.'
Mr. Shatner's experience left him obviously shaken, and I'm sure that he interprets his experience much differently than I do. What I see is what I suspect we will all see at the end of all things ... and that is the harsh Truth of how absolutely fragile and vulnerable we are, despite our insistence that we've got it all under control.
We absolutely are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. And in desperate need of redemption.