Spiritual Imagination

Did this happen to you as a kid?

You watched an action movie or an episode of WWE and you couldn’t wait to go out and be that one character or member of the cast. Whether it was with friends, sibling, cousins or even sticks in the yard you were ready to fly like superman, swing from trees like Tarzan, enter the ring like Mr McMahon. (Insert your hero here.)

It happened to me one countless of occasions and some of my fondest memories with my friends growing up are the royal rumbles we had during sleep overs or the World Cup tournaments in a friends garden after school on a Friday. Man what a time it was.

What is interesting though is that the older I got the more those moments of magic and wonder disappeared. They were pushed out by the realities of this life and technology. Instead of kicking the ball in the yard we had FIFA tournaments on playstation. Instead of trying to RKO people in the pool I knew wrestling was just a form of acting. Instead of relating to an imaginary friend or imaginary world I lived in the present because that is what mature people did.

Recently I have been struck at how this has also happened in my spiritual life. Maybe you can relate. As a young believer all things were possible to him who believed, I needed just a mustard seed of faith and I could say to this mountain move and it would.

So that’s exactly what I did. I prayed for friends to become believers, I prayed to overcome certain sins, I prayed for the return of King Jesus in my life time and I lived with the disappointments of the things I prayed for not happening at all or taking longer than I believed they should. So as I reckoned with reality I prayed less imaginative prayers like: ‘God, help me to sin less today than I did yesterday,’ God, may that person at least say they recognise that you exist and God, please can I just make it to my death still faithful to you.

I lost my imagination and what that did is it made life harder. I could envision a life with the victories and stories I wanted instead I became what I like to call a realist. Seeing everything as it was. What has struck me though is that isn’t what the christian is called to, we are called to have an imagination, a spiritual imagination. We are called to see reality and defy it because a different and better reality exists and one day will be experienced by us.

So, I have begun to develop the practice of spiritual imagination where I try to imagine the world as God would have had it and as it will be in the coming of the new heavens and new earth. To use the same examples as before I imagine my life without the sin that I am battling. I try in my mind to play and live in that world trusting that the work Jesus is doing will result in something even more beautiful than I can imagine. I try to imagine the way my friend finally sees and experiences Jesus and is turned upside down because of it. I imagine the virtue they currently carry being amplified by the power of Gods spirit and then what they’ll be like when they overcome current challenges. I imagine that Jesus is rising from his seat to bring the new heavens and new earth. I imagine the way it will look and how I feel.

I do this not to escape my currently reality but to keep my mind and heart aware that there is a reality behind this visible reality that is so much more compelling and beautiful than I can imagine and if I can attune my mind and heart to it, I could taste some of its fruit today by being open to the endless possibilities available because of a God who knows no end and a King who can make all things happen.

I invite you to try and develop your spiritual imagination. It can truly awaken you to a different facet of thriving.

Enjoy