Lately I've noticed that many of my favorite writers have used the word "imagination" in the course of writing about prayer, worship, and relationship with God.
At first, finding that word in that context startled me, even disconcerted me.
I've always thought of my imagination as unreliable, given to 'flights of fancy' and characterized by my own 'wild imaginings.' I've always categorized my imagination as the opposite of the facts -- and therefore unreliable.
These writers -- all excellent Bible students themselves -- have forced me to struggle with what they are saying, invited me to reconsider these ideas. They seem to be acknowleging that our imaginations were created by God, that our imaginations can add value to our prayers, our meditation, our time spent with God.
Because imagination can be subjective, fictional, skewed, I don't think it can be the only ingredient in our search for spiritual growth, but I wonder if our imaginations might make the difference in our understanding God more fully. Our imaginations might be where the spark happens that reveals God not as a two-dimensional being, but as having three- or more dimensions.
Perhaps my imagination is where the Holy Spirit whispers His deeper understandings of scripture. Perhaps my imagination is where God makes his presence in my daily life more noticable. . . where the words on the page of my Bible become alive for me.
Is there such a thing as a "disciplined imagination" (or is that an oxymoron?) -- that is, an imagination that works within the framework of Biblical text ? An imagination that doesn't just take off on its own strange journey about God, but draws on the Bible for guidance and then grows from there ?
I think my experience says yes.
3 comments:
I love it.
I think an interesting illustration to your post is writers. They need to use their imagination to give us a story, but it has to be believable. If it is outside our framework of reality we won't connect with it. There are some unbelieveable things about The Lord of the Rings, but it connects with us much more so than Gigli, which is more "realistic".
In the same way there are things about God that are too fantastic for this world, yet with our imaginations we can find ways to fit his omnipotence into our small minds. Such an interesting idea and topic.
Thanks
(A closer but less attractive comparison is soldiers. There are very defanite boundries in war, but with a good imagination you can change a battle, much like a good imagination can change the way we approach a spiritual struggle so that we can overcome it.)
Great thing to think about.
I really like this post...and it makes me think of that song that sounds so much better with instruments that the C of C is still trying to make acapalla..."I can only imagine"
Wonderful! I never thought about a disciplined imagination. Leave it to you to think of that.
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