Imagination is one of the great duties of the Christian mind. But not all uses of imagination are a Christian duty. Some are quite the opposite. Imagination is also not the only duty of the Christian mind. The mind is also in charge of observation, analysis and organization functions.
Imagination occurs when the mind goes beyond observing, analyzing and organizing what’s there, and imagine what you don’t see, but can it be there?and can explain what we see (as in the case of most scientific research). Imagination also occurs when the mind imagines a new way of representing what already exists (as in the case of creative writing, music and art).
- There is an incredibly creative but deceptive and even pathological imagination.
- The book of Proverbs creatively describes this kind of deceptive creativity.
- For example.
- Proverbs 26.
- 13?16:.
The sloth said: A lion comes, a lion in the streets. As the door turns on his gummys, so the sloth is in bed. The sloth puts his hand on his plate and doesn’t bother to put it on. in his mouth Is he the wisest sloth in his own eyes than seven men who know how to react well?
These quaint verses (imaginative!) There may be four different sayings, bound just because they talk about sloths, but I suspect there’s more to this group than that.
The imagination of the sloth is in full swing in verse 13, invents, by his own wonderfully imaginative head, a situation that does not exist to justify his laziness to get up and go to work: “There is a lion in the streets”!He doesn’t want to leave. Then your imagination comes into play and creates a situation where you can’t get out. That’s misleading. He uses his imagination to lie.
But it could be worse than that. You can even believe in your own imagination. The two middle sayings underline the depth of this man’s laziness. He stays in bed. The greatest extent of your progress towards a productive goal is like a door on the hinge. Get out of the way. But no progress.
“How do you turn the door on your gummy, like this, the sloth, in bed?
When he gets to the breakfast table, he’s so lazy he can put his hand on the plate, but he can’t take it out. This man is on his way to hunger. You can’t eat.
“The sloth puts his hand on his plate and doesn’t want to bother taking it to his mouth. “
The point: indolence leads to self-destruction
But then comes the most impressive thing. This man thinks he’s brilliant. Are you more impressed by the acumen of your imaginative powers (?Is there a lion in the streets ?!) Only for the true wisdom of seven sages.
“The sloth is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who know how to react well. “
That is, his capacity for imagination has reached such high levels of creativity and intelligence at the service of his laziness that he has lost touch with reality and lives in his own cage of masterful creativity, so I said that imagination can be pathological. This is not a Christian duty, but a Christian deertion. Sin has hijacked the imagination and made it a slave to self-deception.
So let’s move from this destructive use of imagination to the Christian duty of imagination. I say imagination is a Christian duty for two reasons. The first is that jesus’ golden rule cannot be applied without it. He said, “What, then, do you want men to do you too?”(Matthew 7:12). We have to imagine ourselves in their shoes and imagine what we’d like them to do. Compassionate, kind and helpful love depends a lot on the imagination of the one who loves.
The other reason I say that imagination is a Christian duty is that when a person speaks or writes or sings or paints the truth impressively, it is probably a sin. God’s supremacy in the life of the mind is not honored when God and his amazing world are truly observed, properly analyzed, clearly organized, and communicated in a boring way.
Imagination is the key to ending this boredom. We have to find ways to tell the truth as it is, and it’s not boring. God’s world? Does imagination evoke new words, new images, new analogies, new metaphors, new illustrations, new connections to tell the glorious old truth?Whether it’s the world or the word of God. Imagination is the faculty of the spirit that God has. has given us to beautify the communication of her beauty.
Imagination can be the most difficult work of the human mind and perhaps the most divine. It’s the closest thing to creating from scratch. When we try to express the beautiful truth, we must think of a model of words, perhaps a poem. We must design something that has never existed before and that does not currently exist in any human spirit. We need to think of an analogy, metaphor, or illustration that doesn’t exist yet. Imagination should strive to see inside the mind when it is not yet there. We need to create combinations of words, music and visual shapes that never existed before. We do all this, because we are like God and because he is infinitely worthy of new verbal, musical and visual expressions.
A university, or a church or family, attached to God’s supremacy in the life of the mind, will cultivate many fertile and some great imaginings. And how the world needs a God-filled spirit that can say god’s great things, sing the great things of God, and touch God’s great things in a way that has never been said, sung, or touched before.
Imagination is contagious. When you’re close to someone (dead or alive) who uses it or has used it a lot, you tend to pick it up, so I suggest you go out with contagious people (alive or dead) overflowing with imaginative ways of expressing things. (The Bible is perhaps the most imaginative prose book in the world, not because it creates a reality that does not exist, but because it expresses this reality in so many surprising expressions. )
Imagination is also like a muscle. It gets stronger when you bend it and you have to bend it. He doesn’t act naturally, he expects the will. I encourage you to use that muscle in your mind. Strive consciously to express the precious truth in a remarkable and useful way. Think of a new way to tell an old truth. God is worthy. ? Sing to the Lord a new song?(Psalm 96: 1; 33: 3; 98: 1; 144: 9; 149: 1; Isaiah 42:10)? An image, a poem, or a style figure. together the sin of people annoys God and his incredible works and ways.