I’m re-reading a book I haven’t read in over 20 years—a book that pretty much changed my reading habits from “read as little as you can and only when you have to” to “voracious reader.” It’s Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park. It’s a page turner from start to finish, and while it can be brutally violent (cloned dinosaurs running free on an island/amusement park, what could go wrong?) it is one of my all-time favorite books, a really smart thriller.
A strange thing is happening to me though, and it happens quite often these days. When I first read this book, I was in a much different place spiritually. I was fairly new to the faith and now I’ve gone quite a bit deeper and as a result my thought process is different. This brings forth some questions and I think some of these may be helpful to all of us as creatives. I spend lot of time on this blog talking about the arts, but to be clear, if creativity is problem solving, then scientists are some of the greatest creatives on earth. In reading Jurassic Park, there is little doubt in my mind that someone has already tried to bring back the dinosaurs and part of me wonders if anyone has succeeded. After alL, if Crichton was smart enough to write all this down, surely there has to have been someone over the last 20 some years who said “hmmm where can I get some amber?” (Insider book reference: They got the dinosaur DNA by extracting blood cells from the bodies of prehistoric biting insects preserved in amber.)
Regardless there are a few things we can learn from the pages of Jurassic Park.
Some things are better left to God
There may have been a reason there wasn’t a pair of T-rex’s on the ark. Maybe they went extinct because they were supposed to.
Greed is a great and terrible motivator
Even when it was clear that an amusement park full of dinosaurs was probably going to be a horrible idea, the amount of money invested (billions) and the amount of money that stood to be made (tens of billions) blinded people to the dangers. How many times have you kept yourself from pulling the plug on a bad idea simply because you had too much invested?
There is a time to walk away from a dream/vision
Usually it’s before you have to wonder “Did the T-rex eat my grandchildren?” (another insider reference). Dreams and visions are great things, especially when you’re sure they come from God. There are times however, when that line gets blurry. I remember a certain young artist who almost lost everything because he was sure art was his God-given talent. That artist was me. I was partly right, but the call was for what I am doing now, not sacrificing my family on the altar of being a rich and famous artist. I had to walk away from that dream to live in God’s vision for my life, creative arts ministry. Dreams and visions have to be handled carefully
And finally…
Just ’cause you can, doesn’t always mean you should!
AMOKArts 