The concept of imagination and the act of imagining is one I find utterly amusing and captivating. The delight in aspects of our human imagination and then God’s imagination which is the current fascination and topic for this entry. I woke up this morning with the above song on my heart, listened to it as I brushed my teeth and washed my face then it just struck a chord in my heart and mind. I’m always emphasizing how much we should use our imagination for God, yet I never thoughtfully considered how much He uses “His imagination” for us. I fell prostrate to just reverence God and thank Him for another day and begin to contemplate the above lyrics;
-Isn’t that just like a finite mind
Setting out with such righteous indignation
but now I’m at your feet
Please you look at me with some imagination…
I begin to just repent to the Lord for promises I have made in moment of righteous indignation and passion for His cause. I believe we can all reflect and remember a time we made promises we have not quite kept to the Lord. Not that we have sinned or walked away from God but that we may not be as fervent in His cause as when we first believed. Personally I know I have stepped off the accelerator in my undignified pursuit of God in some ways. Nonetheless, I realize God is still there with arms spread wide saying “I forgive and I receive you.” Just as Moses set out with the call of God and tried to accomplish it in His own strength and failed. However, when he stopped at the bush and turned aside God gave Him strength for the task despite his inabilities, and thats what amazes me about God! He looks on all of us with an imagination that surpasses the fleshy case we occupy. He sees the content of the heart and His anointing and focuses on the finished product. He sees us as we are to be in His light and not as we are in our own flawed reflections.
As a true artist, and creator he sees the finished product through the lump of clay. When we say “God I was running so fast, so strong, but my legs gave in and I tripped, I faltered, I failed!”, He speaks courage into our backbones. He tells us He sees us as winners, yet we still cry, “but, but, but, God I…” and He abruptly interjects and says, “keep running I give you strength and I supply the breath”. God’s acceptance and ability to see past what is seen is the infrastructure for our imagination and †faith and in the same way so that we †“see no one after the flesh”, but as He sees them, even as He see us. Our finite minds cannot fully comprehend this type of love but we bare witness with it in our hearts. Ask God to enlarge your imagination when perceiving family members and friends who may be on the wrong path. Ask Him to infuse you with His imagination, and understand He looks at you in the same way. Know He is gracious and sympathetic towards our weaknesses despite his infinite capability. Realizing, that He went to the point of suffering in the finite walls of a human body just to fellowship and commune with us. Understand He looks at you with such imagination…
But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness. (2 Peter 1:5)
I thought about what exactly to write to honor my father today and being there is much I could say, I decided to choose two words that best describes him in full, and those are; Perseverance & Resilience . My father is probably one of the most resilient men I know. I mean resilient in its utmost definition being able to spring back into shape after bending, stretching, and being compressed. Or having the ability to recover from difficult conditions and circumstances. For much of my life despite the disappointments and heartaches of our relationship, I have never seen my father throw in the towel on me and our relationship. Despite times I have slanged words at him that cut deep to his core and would have caused most men throw up their hands and surrender he took the blows and persevered.
My father never gave up and still hasn’t on striving to make me succeed past all he has done in his life. I believe that is a key definition of a father, one that yearns and also propels his child to achieve more than he could. As a child my father instilled the determination in me that I could learn whatever I wanted and always told me to never waste a dream. He taught me a tune that I grew up singing to myself consistently when my dreams seemed unattainable. It says
“I mine as well think big, why should any thought be small. I mine as well think big, if I’m gonna think at all…”
My father has verbally spoken millions of words over my life and most importantly pointed me to the heart of the greatest Father of all; Father God. Actually I remember at a time of frustration and hurt I emptied the anger and disappointments of my heart and soul on my father over a phone call as a boy. I yelled, screamed and cried my frustrations at him until I was empty and he never stopped me. Despite my words being almost like a hand that twisted his heart in directions it was never created to go, he endured the pain and allowed me to vent. He took responsibility for his faults and the wounds he created in my heart and did all He could to right his wrongs against the odds of distance and time. I remember him sending me this song on cassette by Fred Hammond after our phone call.
The actual song ends @ 2:55 and the remainder is a reprise
He always wanted me to know my Heavenly father was always present when he wasn’t able to fulfill his earthly duty. This effort alone is the reason I am able to write so highly of him, because despite falling short at times in his life he always pointed me to the the heavenly father who would never falter or misstep in His effort to demonstrate His love towards me.
Here is another short video to my father and some jokes of course (can’t let em off that easy)
“He splattered orange in the sunrise and cast the sky in blue
And if you like to see geese as they gather, chances are you’ll see that too.
Did He have to make the squirrels tail furry? Was He obliged to make the birds sing?
Or the funny way the chicken scurry? Or the majesty of thunder when it rings?
Why give a flower fragrace? Why give food its taste?
Could it be, He loves to see, that look upon our face?”
-Max Lucado (He Chose The Nails)
It’s so easy to start our day off tussling and bustling to get ready for work, school, and just life in general. Throw a bagel in the toaster or yesterdays lunch in the microwave to jump start your day, chug some oj, then rush out the door. Despite having days like this it is essential we attempt on a daily basis, to just stop and acknowledge the author of life. We always make time for what’s important to us despite having a packed schedule. For instance if someone asked us to make some time to help them dig up gold in their backyard, availability will magically grace our packed schedules somehow. Above all else God deserves the first fruits of our day. It’s possible to overlook the signals and signs God places in front of us throughout our day to grab our attention.
In our frantic rush to eat we forget to thank Him for His provision of food.
In our halt to the door we forget to thank Him for strength to run.
In effort to cut the corner on our path to the car we trample the flowers God designed in unique elegance to reflect His splendor.
We speed down the road and throw on sun glasses without even acknowledging the sun that helps us see and keeps us warm.
All the while God stands behind the scenes, yet His invisible qualities are screaming “I am here!”, awaiting to be acknowledged just so He can say, “I made it all for you”. When in actuality he could have created this world flat and grey and we wouldn’t have known the difference. Yet, He didn’t, He created the earth and heavens with qualities and abilities contained in them to speak and shout without the use of words. We could hear if we would just turn our radios down as we cruise to work, or take the earbuds out while we walk to school. So today make an effort to just stop and allow God’s creation to speak to you because He made it all “just for you.”
Be desperate for Gods presence with the same fervency you would seek to find oxygen above the surface of water as if you were drowning. We should awake with a diligence to enter God presence just as someone drowning attempts to get their head above the surface of the water for survival. It is foreign for man to live under water because it is not his natural habitat even so, the Christian doesn’t belong to this earth, and to live without knowing the God who created you should be a foreign concept among mankind. Just like we need oxygen that is outside of the realm of water the Christians needs the presence of God outside of the realm of this life. Not only is it unnatural for one to live in this life without the presence of oxygen, its impossible to be a Christian without the presence of God.
“For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” (Roman 8:14)
