Having an imagination must be pretty important in hope. Cause I really think there is a strong dose of imagination in hope.
I used to think I didn't have much of an imagination, but I have always been very hopeful, so I guess maybe there is an imagination in me somewhere. I suppose my hope is built on what I know as well, so there is probably a little bit of both in hope. Imagination, as well knowing and believing something.
I love having the hope of Jesus and knowing that he does work and wants to work in us and that someday we get to spend everyday of our lives with him tending the beautiful garden called Heaven that he has for us. Do we get to tend the garden? Seems like people that tend gardens like to. Will he let us do stuff we like to do now there? Maybe we can only imagine.
I was taught by my fundamentalist teachers that hope is "a confident expectation", that is, for something that is sure to happen. Further, I was taught that the only way to be certain of something to happen was in God's Word. It really had nothing to do with imagination. It was really more like that booklet you can pick up at the post office to help you fill out your taxes.
I think I got hosed two ways by this.
First, this idea that only what is written is true, and only what is written can be counted upon...it just kind of made me want to check out, shut down my heart, and connect dots with my faith.
Second, the idea of confidence and assurance of what is to come...this really took the excitement, the adventure, the romance away from my relationship with God. It turned it into something more like my relationship with my banker. Or my attorney. Or my boss.
But what if God is inviting me as a friend or as a lover or as a son into this creative, redemptive work He's doing? What if God actually has an imagination? What if He hopes for things?
This is the thing that is brewing in me these days--the centrality of hope in a follower's life. So simple.
However, it seems logical for someone to ask me, "Why do you have hope?" (Which is very much like asking, "Why do you believe?")
And the answer isn't rational. I have hope--not because I have reasoned it out, or because it seems logical to me, or because the resurrection of Jesus was proven to me--it's a lot simpler than that.
I have hope because my heart is pulling for it to turn out the way God has invited me to imagine things to be. The stories told by nature, by human activity, by our writers and artists and musicians, by the writers of sacred verse all tell the same tale.
They all tell the same story. And that's the story that God is inviting us all to pull for.
We stayed at a YMCA camp in Colorado this week. On one of those big inspiration-style posters behind the front desk are these words...
Faith is not believing that God can—it is knowing that He will
Knowing He will what?
I know exactly what they mean. If you "stand" on his "promises" that are written in his "word" then God will perform them for you.
But have we truly reduced faith to that?
I continue to be swept into a God-centered version of faith, which continues to make statements like I found on that poster opaque. When I was squarely at the center of my story, I looked for things like promises and principles that I could count on to work out for me, especially when I exercised what I called faith in them. I was pulling for me. Hope was that my skin be saved. Imagination was for making my dreams come true.
But what of God's dreams? What of his skin?
Now, I find myself wanting to be in his imagination, for him to work his imagination out in me. I find myself hoping to be found in him, and to be lost in him. I find myself wanting to contribute my life to the story he is telling. And in doing this, my imagination is being set free.
Having an imagination must be pretty important in hope. Cause I really think there is a strong dose of imagination in hope.
ReplyDeleteI used to think I didn't have much of an imagination, but I have always been very hopeful, so I guess maybe there is an imagination in me somewhere. I suppose my hope is built on what I know as well, so there is probably a little bit of both in hope. Imagination, as well knowing and believing something.
I love having the hope of Jesus and knowing that he does work and wants to work in us and that someday we get to spend everyday of our lives with him tending the beautiful garden called Heaven that he has for us. Do we get to tend the garden? Seems like people that tend gardens like to. Will he let us do stuff we like to do now there? Maybe we can only imagine.
I was taught by my fundamentalist teachers that hope is "a confident expectation", that is, for something that is sure to happen. Further, I was taught that the only way to be certain of something to happen was in God's Word. It really had nothing to do with imagination. It was really more like that booklet you can pick up at the post office to help you fill out your taxes.
ReplyDeleteI think I got hosed two ways by this.
First, this idea that only what is written is true, and only what is written can be counted upon...it just kind of made me want to check out, shut down my heart, and connect dots with my faith.
Second, the idea of confidence and assurance of what is to come...this really took the excitement, the adventure, the romance away from my relationship with God. It turned it into something more like my relationship with my banker. Or my attorney. Or my boss.
But what if God is inviting me as a friend or as a lover or as a son into this creative, redemptive work He's doing? What if God actually has an imagination? What if He hopes for things?
Hosed indeed. Me, too.
ReplyDeleteThis is the thing that is brewing in me these days--the centrality of hope in a follower's life. So simple.
However, it seems logical for someone to ask me, "Why do you have hope?" (Which is very much like asking, "Why do you believe?")
And the answer isn't rational. I have hope--not because I have reasoned it out, or because it seems logical to me, or because the resurrection of Jesus was proven to me--it's a lot simpler than that.
I have hope because my heart is pulling for it to turn out the way God has invited me to imagine things to be. The stories told by nature, by human activity, by our writers and artists and musicians, by the writers of sacred verse all tell the same tale.
They all tell the same story. And that's the story that God is inviting us all to pull for.
Jon,
ReplyDeleteI can get on board with that.
transitive?
imagination=>hope=>faith?
We stayed at a YMCA camp in Colorado this week. On one of those big inspiration-style posters behind the front desk are these words...
ReplyDeleteFaith is not believing that God can—it is knowing that He will
Knowing He will what?
I know exactly what they mean. If you "stand" on his "promises" that are written in his "word" then God will perform them for you.
But have we truly reduced faith to that?
I continue to be swept into a God-centered version of faith, which continues to make statements like I found on that poster opaque. When I was squarely at the center of my story, I looked for things like promises and principles that I could count on to work out for me, especially when I exercised what I called faith in them. I was pulling for me. Hope was that my skin be saved. Imagination was for making my dreams come true.
But what of God's dreams? What of his skin?
Now, I find myself wanting to be in his imagination, for him to work his imagination out in me. I find myself hoping to be found in him, and to be lost in him. I find myself wanting to contribute my life to the story he is telling. And in doing this, my imagination is being set free.
Christ in me, the hope of glory.