Issue 393
You may not be allowed to, but you have the ability right now to close your eyes and take your thoughts almost anywhere or to any time. You can think of a lion, then turn it green; you can pretend you are flying unaided or you can swim under water.
Without leaving your seat, your thoughts can travel to ancient Rome, Greece or Israel. It is because God has given you a brain big enough to do this that you can also write a story, paint a picture, create a PowerPoint, build a wall or assemble a spreadsheet. You can teach a child, lead a team, inspire a group or simply enjoy a story.
You can do all these things because you have an imagination. It is the ability to make real, inside of you, what does not necessarily exist. You can make the impossible possible and the improbable live. Some of you may make your entire living from your imagination, earning your money by providing external expressions from your vast inner library, gallery, or, dare I say, your inner Amazon bookstore?
For some of you, your imagination is an immense source of entertainment and fun, for you and those around you. Powerful though it is, its power can also turn toxic. That which is your friend, can become a thief of the present. Your soul ability to take your mind into a dream land can take you into nightmare scenarios. Stress specialists have a word for this – awfulizing. This hybrid word describes your ability to imagine a possible disastrous future. As you awfulize, your attention and gaze is drawn to that image of doom and your present is stolen while you are not looking.The cleverer you are, the better you will be at awfulizing.
To combat awfulizing, which is future-focused, it is advisable to look into the past, at Jesus of Nazareth and capture timeless lessons for the now.
Remember, as you look, that for most of his years, Jesus knew that he was heading to an awful death. Yet he managed to stay in the ‘I AM’ present. Maybe his first skill was to keep an eternal perspective: “Before Abraham was I AM” was his view of the past, but “I AM the resurrection and the life” was his view of the future. He never lost sight of the beyond, the eternal, the Meta.
Before you write this off as a soft skill, consider this: whatever deal you do or don’t do today, the most important deal of your life is done – and it’s a ‘win-win’; whatever mistake you make today, it is covered already; whatever news you hear today, the future is hallmarked by good news; whatever loss you experience today, you will always make a net gain. The big issues are sorted. Does that make a difference?
Maybe it would be worth noting that Jesus lived in a perpetual state of trust. The bottom line was that he trusted his Father. He advised his followers to recognise that their Heavenly Father knew what they needed. Awfulizing the future is the opposite of trusting the Father.
One thought as this series ends: it seems to me that Jesus was a person of immense courage. There is a view that fear is a sin. It all depends how you define it I suppose, but Jesus was a real human being. You tell me if all human beings fear being tortured for 18 hours. Sweating ‘like drops of blood’ seems to me to be what courage is about. It is the ability to face a really awful or difficult situation and overcome.
Have a great summer, staying present and overcoming the thieves.
Psalm 111:10
10a The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom
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Geoff Shattock
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