Imagination Required

I have to be somewhat apologetic about apologetics -- I've never much cared for them. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't appreciate being able to scientifically provide evidences for Truth or creation or any other matter of faith. The discipline, I suppose, has rightful place in our quest to understand issues of divine relevance and my thanks goes out to those men and women who dedicate their lives to the pursuit. Personally, it really just doesn't push my buttons.

As driven as some are by the need to "prove" something, I am equally moved and inspired by that which I "can't" know. It is necessary to qualify the "can't" because in a sense I long to know and one day will know as I am fully known but for now, I'm okay with not knowing.

Mystery necessarily surrounds matters of faith and relationship with the Creator. For some, a cliffhanger story never resolving drives them crazy. For others, we can finish the book or walk out of the movie and never know what happened to the "cliffhung" character and just love it! For weeks, we'll run various endings through our imagination and feel completely at home in the dissonance of not knowing.

Being raised on a theology that had to know (or worse yet, virtually claimed to know) I find it sometimes difficult to let go and have Mystery take over. Letting go though, opens doors of the heart and soul. It allows us to truly begin to imagine again.

Remember being a child and how you enjoyed the power of imagination? Imagination got me through countless hours of shooting baskets until well past dark (I loved that streetlight near our house for that very reason). In my imagination I was in the NBA finals more times than Jerry West, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Michael Jordan combined. If I didn't make the final shot to win the game... my imagination simply ran the clock back another 3 seconds and I got to try all over again. It was great!

I rode countless miles of cement "sidewalk surfing" (skateboards) pretending to be in the big waves, when Mom couldn't take me to the beach. Eventually, driving myself to the waves allowed dust to collect on the old skateboard -- closing an era for me and perhaps the end of youthful imagination as well.

Somewhere along the way, most adults forget how to imagine. Sometimes we'll call it responsibility, but that just might be a cop out. Our inability to think "immeasurably more" is likely a critical commentary on our faith. Childlike faith still dreams... and it dreams big! Some will call it is impossible. Others will suggest it irresponsible. But a few will imagine it "faithful." What will you say? One of the keys to finding God's mystery is releasing any need for personal glory, credit or recognition. When we quit letting it be about us, we begin to dream again -- we're not afraid to imagine.

Currently, I feel poured into a spiritual tide on the move. Disconcerting and comforting at the same time, it is sometimes difficult to know whether to float, swim toward something specific or just simply hang on and enjoy the wonder of it all. Hard to say, because it is mystery, right? But how incredibly amazing is the work of the Lord and Master of mystery! I'm in the current and there is nowhere else I'd rather be! Where God is leading is difficult to completely articulate and yet, God is moving with faithful force! I am trusting... waiting... watching.

Imagination required!

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more
than all we ask or imagine
according to his power that is at work within us
to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout
all generations forever and ever, amen."
Eph. 3:20