On the heals of Martin Luther King, Jr. day this week, dreamers and visionaries were given a little encouragement to keep thinking about how the future needs to be different. Watchers of Spongebob may recall a favorite episode when Spongebob explains the use of “imaaaaaagination!” (I know, I know, I may have seemingly minimized Martin Luther with a following reference to Spongebob, but I’m trying to connect with a wider audience.) The point is that great things have happened in the past because men and woman believed that certain wrongs should no longer be in existence. They believed things were not simply as they saw them. They used their “imaaaaagination” and “had a dream!”
Dreamers, visionaries and people who are creative and innovative have something in common: imagination. When we think of imagination, we think of children. Children have this amazing ability to turn a box into just about anything. Put a cape on a boy and they are suddenly super-heroes.
Imagination plays into faith as well. Jesus said that we need to have faith like a child (Matthew 18:3). Faith is believing and putting your trust in those things which cannot be seen. Faith brings hope. Hope is what dreamers and visionaries embrace. It gives them the energy to see things past the hard times. This is not simply a hope that is based on nothing substantial. That is called a wish. Hope is based on something real, something to experience. Imagination makes it all possible. Imagination doesn’t have to mean fiction or fantasy. Here are the two main definitions from Merriam-Webster:
1: the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality
2 a: creative ability b: ability to confront and deal with a problem
Think about the impact of that for a moment. Even though imagination is usually in the context of positive change, what we think about, can cause us harm in the form of anxiety or cause us to sin in the form of idolatry or even adultery (Matthew 5:28). And yes, our imagination can bring peace, hope, confidence, and assurance when we think on things that are of God (Proverbs 3). What we are thinking about plays a huge role in our lives. It’s why Paul the apostle tells us to “renew our minds” (Romans 12:2) and to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5) because the real battle happens in our hearts and minds. It happens in our “inner being.” The battle happens with the unseen “powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).
We need to arm ourselves by filling our imagination with the things of God. Fill our minds with “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8 NIV) And when we fill our minds with God’s amazing power, it will go beyond our wildest dreams:
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 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,
21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Eph 3:16-21 NIV)
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