Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Challenge your Imagination

I think than challenging one's imagination is an awesome habit for humans.  It usually burns bright in us as children but ebbs away as we get older, tethered to the practicalities of jobs and mortgages, frightened by past failures and, slowed the limitations of an aging body and mind.  It can also be darkened by misuse.

Our heroes are those who radically challenged their imaginations--Nobel prize winners who break boundaries in science and literature; adventurers who conquered continents, scale mountains, plumb the depths of the ocean, or rocket into space; artists who bring music, paintings and sculptures into being.

Our imaginations are one of the ways in which God made us in his image.  The ultimate artist, He created light, color, sound, texture, movement--brought into existence with His spoken word.

Imagination is a cool way to explore the Bible.  In Andy Deane's Learn to Study the Bible, one of the methods* he recommends is to "put yourself in the shoes of one of the characters" of a Bible study.  This can bring familiar Bible stories and characters to life as you stand in Moses' shoes as God parts the Red Sea, as you stand in Peter's shoes for the first time he sees Jesus after the crucifixion, as you stand in Joshua's shoes when he first sees the Promised Land.

It may mean you have to do some research to understand the situation, background, and customs of the time, but it's worth the time to "experience" the event.

*Method 28, "Vantage Point," page 153. 

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