IMAGINATION: What If You are One Decision Away from a Totally Different Life?
A stunted or misshapen imagination threatens the flourishing of all God has intended for our lives.
By Philip K. Hardin, M.A, M.Div. LMFT, LPC
Your life could be different IF you believed God!
He really does have a plan for your life. Do you believe that?
I want to invite you to use your imagination as you read this. Imagine that every circumstance and person in your life—past, present, and future—is part of God’s plan for your life.
Imagination—what if God is working His plan even NOW!
Imagination is critical to our faith.
Scripture says faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).” And II Corinthians 4:16-18 describes that which will last forever, the eternal things as “… the things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.” Therefore, I suggest that what we see with our eyes closed is far more important than what we see with our eyes open.
The Apostle Paul prays in Ephesians 1:18 that “. having the eyes of your heart enlightened.” The imagery is beautiful as we are being invited to see with the eyes of our heart, to imagine something more, something that God wants to do. Faith is an act of the imagination. And a healthy, vibrant imagination is crucial to the Christian life.
Our problem is not an overactive imagination. The real threat is a lack of imagination, or an imagination stunted and misshapen by our experiences.
We need to develop an active imagination. We can do that in two ways:
1. Reading the Bible -mediating and imagining what God wants to say to you.
To develop a biblical imagination is to spend time dwelling in the Scriptures. This requires more than reading a few verses a day. It is a lifelong habit of meditating on the stories of God's creation, redemption, and new creation. Christians have used practices such as lectio divina (slow, meditative reading) to help internalize the Bible's worldview in their own hearts.
2. Creative arts can open the “eyes of our heart” to the possibilities of God.
Pictures and imagines can embody or incarnate values and principles in ways that help us visualize the reality of the kingdom of God.
We know we should exhibit the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. But what do these abstract concepts and values look like in real life? We can learn by seeing them portrayed in literature, music, film, or visual art.
For example, Henri Nouwen’s The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming was written as he sat for days viewing Rembrandt’s painting of the same name. Nouwen sat in front of Rembrandt’s painting as it hung in a museum in Moscow seeing with the “eyes of his heart.” And then, with great imagination, he wrote a beautiful book as he was inspired by the painting, to bring Jesus’ parable to life.
I love using movie clips to illustrate reality. A scene in the movie Patch Adams is a great example of imagination.
Patch is in a mental hospital. He goes to a fellow patient to ask about understanding reality. The fellow patient holds up four fingers and ask Patch how many fingers he sees. When Patch answers four, the fellow patient says, Now, look beyond the four fingers and see a bigger picture. How many fingers now. He reluctantly says “eight.” The fellow patient says “YES! Now you see beyond, you see a bigger picture.”
That is imagination!
What do I need to see that I’m missing?
What if God is trying to show me a different perspective through the circumstances and/or people in my life?
The question “what if” is always in play and invites us into a journey of adventure to discover God’s plan for our life. However, some of us are stuck in “if only” living marked by regret, feelings of guilt, fear, and doubt.
God can turn your “if only” mindset into a “what if“ attitude, where your faith looks forward to the future with holy confidence.
I have recently been inspired by Mark Batterson’s book “IF: Trading Your If Only Regrets for God’s What If Possibilities”. “If” is a powerful little word. And, when you ask the question of “What If” you enter into the journey of imagination that is part of the Christian adventure.
I want to challenge you to imagine what God is doing in your life. If you will, you will be changed in your Biblical thinking and actions.
The development of imagination is the first step toward faith.
Imagining what the Holy Spirit can do in our life and in our community prepares us to perceive with our senses what faith tells us is true.
Finally, I’ll leave you with an imaginative quote from the one of my reading mentors, the late and great theologian Francis Schaeffer,
“The Christian is the one whose imagination should fly beyond the stars.”
I hope you use your imagination to see what God is doing and wants to do in your life. You may be one decision away from a different life! May you see with the eyes of your heart.
*Click here to follow along as I teach a weekly series: “Imagination: What IF?” at Men’s Round Table!
Phil Hardin works as a Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with Hardin Life Resources practicing in both Jackson, MS and Fairhope, AL. Phil’s heart is for men to personally experience God’s redemptive plan through sharing their story with a community committed to whole, authentic living. Check out Men’s Coaching Weekends to learn more.
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