114: Use Your Imagination

When you were a kid, what was one of your favorite things to play? Maybe you enjoyed playing with a particular toy, like a doll or stuffed animal. Maybe you liked building things with blocks or legos or train tracks. Or maybe you enjoyed more organized games like Red Rover, tag, or hide and go seek. I enjoyed all of the above, but for me, more often than not, playing meant the most when I was using my imagination.

I played School, where I was always the teacher. I played Airplane, where I was always a flight attendant. I played Store, where I was always in charge of the cash register. And if you’ll remember all the way back to remind{h}er 44, I even played my own version of Communion, in which I always found a way to be both pastor and parishioner. But my favorite way to use my imagination was most definitely while playing Zoo, where I was always a lanther.

Not sure what a lanther is? No worries. That’s because it’s an imaginary wild animal I made up as a kid. Similar to the way an actual liger is a mix between a lion and a tiger, the imaginary lanther is a mix between a black panther and a leopard. Lanthers have black fur with brown spots, and they are incredibly rare. Getting to see one in the flesh is a bucket-list item for many. So, obviously, when playing Zoo, a lanther was going to be my animal-of-choice. Pretending to be an animal that actually exists wasn’t an option for me.

As you can probably tell, my imagination ran wild as a kid. And I think that was probably true for most of us. As kids, we fell for the magic tricks. We let ourselves wonder with no need to figure it out. We created and pretended and told really good stories. Make believe and reality were deeply intertwined. Our world was full of endless possibility.  In many ways, as children, we needed our imaginations in order grow and develop and become.

But then, as we grew into adulthood, our imaginations began to shift a bit. They weren’t as welcome or accepted anymore; reason and logic became the norm, so that’s what we gravitated toward. In a way, growing up meant trading make-believe for unbelief in anything that couldn’t be proven or explained. It seems we put our imaginations away on a shelf somewhere, content to let them lie dormant and diminished.

Even so, the good news is, even as adults, our imaginations haven’t completely disappeared.

We still use our imaginations. We just use them differently. For example, Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue pointed out that, while we sleep, our imaginations surface in our dreams. They are very much an active part of our subconscious, even if we only remember bits and pieces. And, as one of my professors, Jan Johnson, suggests, an adult’s imagination often manifests as worry—all the what-ifs and worst-case scenarios. So, if you can dream while you sleep and worry when you wake, well, turns out, you can and do still use your imagination.

That is true for so many of us. But what if we could still use our God-given imaginations to help us grow and develop and become in the context of our faith?

Now, you might experience some resistance to those questions, because many of us believe that, since our imaginations are not real, they can’t be trusted. Fair enough. Our imaginations can be and have been misused and misguided, in a variety of ways. But that doesn’t mean imagination is altogether bad. As Jan Johnson puts it in her book, When the Soul Listens,

While some have labeled the imagination as destructive, this powerful part of our minds created by God can be a great help in our capacity to connect with God and be transformed. Rather than deny it or ignore it, we are wise to allow God to train it by being activated by the images and truths of Scripture.

I love the invitation here to allow God to train our imaginations. With wise guardrails and discernment in place, maybe our experience and connection with God and with one another can be enriched through the use of our imagination. Maybe we can channel our imaginations for good.

So what might it look like to reawaken our imagination through spiritual practice?

Well, there are probably lots of possibilities, but for this particular episode, I’d like to offer two. One that could be helpful as we seek a deeper connection with God and one that might help as we seek to do good and love our neighbor well.

First, we can use our imaginations to connect with God through Scripture. Similar to how your imagination might be ignited when you read a novel or watch a film, your imagination can be a helpful tool as you explore pages and passages of Scripture. While study and context are crucial, imagination can help bring a passage to life. You might try to experience a passage as if it were a movie, setting the scene and immersing yourself in the story. You might imagine and notice particular details, like the look on someone’s face or the tone in their voice.

Considering the types of sensations you might experience if you were a part of the passage could also be helpful. As you imagine yourself in the scene, what do you see? What do you smell? How or what do you physically feel? What do you hear in the background? What do you taste on your tongue? This kind of noticing can provide powerful insights as we bring our whole selves to a passage. As per usual, it takes practice and might not lead to anything profound right away. But the more we use our imaginations in the reading of Scripture, the more the truth held within it might come alive.

Using our imaginations in this way isn’t only helpful in terms of our connection with God; it can also help us as we seek to do good and love our neighbor well. Here’s what I mean.

The more we allow God to train our imaginations for good {maybe by interacting with God through Scripture, like we just covered}, the better we are able to practice the compassion and empathy of Jesus. So often, we are stuck in our own bubble, in our own little world. And it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that the experience of someone else might not match our own, for a variety of reasons. That being said, if we are going to care for, serve, and consider others the way God calls us to, more often than not, we will need to use our imaginations to put ourselves in their shoes.

How and why might their perspective be different than mine? What could they be experiencing? How might they feel? Are they afraid? Embarrassed? Excited? Exhausted? Why might that be and how might God be inviting us to come alongside?

Now, obviously, we can’t know the answers for sure, and that is something really important to keep in mind. Our perceived answers should never be used to discount how someone actually feels or what someone is actually experiencing. But, asking questions like that and humbly using our imaginations to help us consider the answer is an important step as we seek to love our neighbor. Just because it might not be our current, personal reality, doesn’t mean it isn’t real or worth caring about.

Using our imaginations can inspire us as we participate in God’s good work in the world. It can help cultivate a deeper connection with God and enrich the love and care we extend to one another. It turns out, God can and does use even figments of our imagination to lead us to what’s true.

So today, don’t forget to use your imagination. It just might prove to be a helpful tool as we continue to grow and develop and become the people God calls and invites us to be.