AWAKENING TO A NEW IMAGINATION
AWAKENING TO A NEW
IMAGINATION
We reimagine our
lives by awakening to new images and possibilities. Creativity and imagination
are essential rhythms of the spiritual life. The promise we have of restoration
and new life should awaken new visions and dreams.
Imagination is a subversive
practice in an age that is fixated on certainty and inevitability. Imagination
does not seem reasonable or rational to those who equate imagination to
fairytales and whimsy. Simply put, imagination is the capacity to see future
possibilities in pictures. If I ask you, “What will you do tonight between
nine and ten?” you will likely call to mind pictures of
possibilities— going to the freezer to get a bowl of ice cream, reading a
book, watching television, sitting in front of a computer, sleeping, or talking
or walking with someone. We were made with the innate ability to image the
future in pictures.
Imagination
is integral to our decision-making function as human beings. Often our minds are
filled with conflicting or counterfeit images or dark imaginations. We suffer,
not from a lack of imagination, but from a scarcity of generative and hopeful
images of ourselves in the future.
We are either limited or liberated by
the use of our imaginations. The news that our creator is present and active in
the world invites us to reconsider or reimagine what we have envisioned,
expected and planned for our
lives.
In his sermon on the
mount, Jesus employed the repeating phrase, “You have heard that is was
said… but I tell you.” It is clear that his goal was to challenge
our long held images, assumptions and expectations.
We reimagine our lives by
adopting a new allegiances and identity. Generally we move toward our imagined
pictures of ourselves. We have learned to view ourselves, and the world around
us, in particular ways. Our tendency is to consciously or unconsciously adopt
controlling metaphors that condition our choices and responses. We may define
ourselves by an ethnic or cultural identity, by vocation (busness person,
artist, medical worker, minister, academic, technologists, contractor, laborer,
etc.), by location (rural, suburban or urban), by social class (wealthy, poor,
upwardly mobile), or by a role we adopted earlier in life (obedient child,
rebel, clumsy, smart). These roles help us simplify our decisions, but they also
place limits on our ability to imagine new possibilities. If we continue to live
by the scripts of family, culture or class, we limit our imagination for living
in the newness of the kingdom. Are you open to imagining yourself outside of
these controlling metaphors? The offer of collaborating in the creator’s
agenda is an invitation to transcend our limited notions of identity.
I’ve become very aware of
how much we communicate through the persona of how we dress. Particularly in
urban areas, clothing functions as symbolic shorthand for communication. Your
appearance either builds a bridge or creates a barrier with other people. Once
we had a friend stay with us while he was doing an internship at a downtown
investment banking firm. Everyday he walked to the subway station wearing a suit
and tie. He looked out of place in our neighborhood, and was often harassed and
threatened. He was communicating more than he knew by the way he dressed. How we
choose to dress, though somewhat superficial, reveals something of the social
persona we seek to fulfill.
One
night at 2 a.m. I awoke to the knock of police at my door. Shining a flashlight
in my eyes, the officer apologized and asked if we had heard any gunshots.
Across the street someone had been murdered, execution style, with a pistol to
the head. Looking past the officer I saw the street taped off where
investigators and medical examiners were searching for clues. I stood on the
steps for a long time watching and thinking about what had just happened. I lay
awake most of the night wondering about what was needed of me in a neighborhood
where people are routinely killed. I realized that I had been letting the
propriety and respectability of my social class shape my imagination more than a
vision for living as a courageous healer in the world. As I dozed in and out of
sleep and prayer, John the baptizer kept coming to my mind, a dreadlocked wild
man dressed in camels hair, calling people to repentance. That night I
strengthened my resolve to defy convention and live with more abandon,
creativity and imagination. I asked God for new pictures of myself to guide me
towards new adventures. I saw myself walking the streets of our neighborhood, as
John the Baptizer, without fear or propriety, inviting people into new ways of
peace.
Posted: Wed - May 31, 2006 at 02:05 PM