translate the experience in my imagination into the experience that plays out in reality.
My daughter, Mariah, on the other hand, seems to be able to translate what she hears in her head to what we hear when she sings. When we hear her sing, itâs like stepping into a dream. That may be one way we discover our unique artistic spaceâthat point where reality matches imagination. This may be the best indicator of a natural talent or where we find our natural sweet spot: how closely does our execution resemble our imagination? Part of the uniqueness of being human is that we are materializers of the invisible. We discover what we do best in life when we see something in our imagination and are then able to execute it in the real world. Sometimes this process works in reverse. I tried to water-ski once and failed miserably. Then I spent the summer working at SeaWorld, watching world-class skiers while trapped selling Cokes inside a kiosk. Without realizing it, I spent the summer watching, observing, and imagining myself performing the same feats that those skilled entertainers had spent a lifetime developing. To my surprise, the next time I skied, I could slalom effortlessly. I had been practicing in my imagination all summer long, and given the opportunity, I was able to translate it into reality.
Have you ever had an idea of yourself that was different from what played out in real life? More often than not, our focus is talentâto become a great doctor, a great teacher, a great writer, a great attorney. And itâs completely human to imagine ourselves as the very best in a field for which we have a deep passion. How many of us havenât imagined ourselves as the next LeBron James or the next Tiger Woods or the next Steven Spielberg or the next Maya Angelou? I am reminded of the endless people I have met who quickly described themselves as an âidea person.â Why is it that more often than not the person who says âI am an idea guyâ usually means âI donât actually like doing workâ or âI have no specific skill setâ or âI can tell you what to do, but someone else will have to figure out how to do it.â The only ideas that really matter are the ones that get turned into realities. There is no proof of creativity without action. The creative act requires both sides: it requires creativity, and it requires action.
For years, I signed all my books with three simple wordsâdream, risk, create. Each reminds me of the reason most of us never go from dreaming to creating: itâs an uncomfortable middle space called risk. If the culminating moment of Godâs creative act was the creation of man, then it is clear that we cannot create without risk. Godâs ultimate act of creationâcreating humanity in his own likeness, with the freedom to choose so that we might become authentic conduits of loveâwas the greatest risk that God ever undertook.
I love Godâs words to Jeremiah (1:5), when he reminds him, âBefore I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.â
This is the intimate application of everything we have been talking about applied here to a specific individual. What God is saying to Jeremiah also goes for us: âI knew you before you were born.â How is it possible to know someone before he was born, unless for God the relationship begins while we are only an idea in his mind. Jeremiah, you were a dream in the heart of God, an idea in the mind of God, a manifestation of imagination. You exist because God uses invisible material to make all things visible.
Somehow it is exhilarating to me to realize that I was an idea in the mind of God before I was an embryo in the womb of my mother. Everyone knows that the quality of a product is directly related to the material used, the process chosen, and the artist who designs and creates it. For us, all of
My daughter, Mariah, on the other hand, seems to be able to translate what she hears in her head to what we hear when she sings. When we hear her sing, itâs like stepping into a dream. That may be one way we discover our unique artistic spaceâthat point where reality matches imagination. This may be the best indicator of a natural talent or where we find our natural sweet spot: how closely does our execution resemble our imagination? Part of the uniqueness of being human is that we are materializers of the invisible. We discover what we do best in life when we see something in our imagination and are then able to execute it in the real world. Sometimes this process works in reverse. I tried to water-ski once and failed miserably. Then I spent the summer working at SeaWorld, watching world-class skiers while trapped selling Cokes inside a kiosk. Without realizing it, I spent the summer watching, observing, and imagining myself performing the same feats that those skilled entertainers had spent a lifetime developing. To my surprise, the next time I skied, I could slalom effortlessly. I had been practicing in my imagination all summer long, and given the opportunity, I was able to translate it into reality.
Have you ever had an idea of yourself that was different from what played out in real life? More often than not, our focus is talentâto become a great doctor, a great teacher, a great writer, a great attorney. And itâs completely human to imagine ourselves as the very best in a field for which we have a deep passion. How many of us havenât imagined ourselves as the next LeBron James or the next Tiger Woods or the next Steven Spielberg or the next Maya Angelou? I am reminded of the endless people I have met who quickly described themselves as an âidea person.â Why is it that more often than not the person who says âI am an idea guyâ usually means âI donât actually like doing workâ or âI have no specific skill setâ or âI can tell you what to do, but someone else will have to figure out how to do it.â The only ideas that really matter are the ones that get turned into realities. There is no proof of creativity without action. The creative act requires both sides: it requires creativity, and it requires action.
For years, I signed all my books with three simple wordsâdream, risk, create. Each reminds me of the reason most of us never go from dreaming to creating: itâs an uncomfortable middle space called risk. If the culminating moment of Godâs creative act was the creation of man, then it is clear that we cannot create without risk. Godâs ultimate act of creationâcreating humanity in his own likeness, with the freedom to choose so that we might become authentic conduits of loveâwas the greatest risk that God ever undertook.
I love Godâs words to Jeremiah (1:5), when he reminds him, âBefore I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.â
This is the intimate application of everything we have been talking about applied here to a specific individual. What God is saying to Jeremiah also goes for us: âI knew you before you were born.â How is it possible to know someone before he was born, unless for God the relationship begins while we are only an idea in his mind. Jeremiah, you were a dream in the heart of God, an idea in the mind of God, a manifestation of imagination. You exist because God uses invisible material to make all things visible.
Somehow it is exhilarating to me to realize that I was an idea in the mind of God before I was an embryo in the womb of my mother. Everyone knows that the quality of a product is directly related to the material used, the process chosen, and the artist who designs and creates it. For us, all of
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