Walking with Father recently, he brought up the subject of fear.
There are some
things in the world where a healthy respect is appropriate. That’s
not the issue here.
We as a species have
the ability to imagine what might come about, and, if we want to, to
fear that. The fear that begins with, “But what if….” is real.
That’s what Father
brought to my attention this morning: the process of imagining what
might happen, what things could maybe turn out like, even what surely
will happen except for something trustworthy intervening.
The picture he
showed me a picture of a very high, transparent bridge. A man on the
bridge had suddenly looked down and saw nothing between him and the
river hundreds of feet below. He freaked out.
That fearful man
didn’t have all the data, but he was responding at least an approximation of reasonably, based on the limited data that he had.
Then Father took a left
turn.
“That man on the
bridge was imagining what would happen if there really was nothing
beneath him.”
I scratched my head
and thought about it. We walked in silence for a while.
After a while,
Father reminded me of my (not insubstantial) skills at imagining what
may happen and responding to those imaginations with fear or regret.
There are maybe a lot of us that are pretty good at that.
He kept turning
left. “These people who imagine what might happen and respond with
fear, these people have a powerful imagination. That’s a powerful
gift.”
I confess that I
haven’t had much patience for myself or for others when one or the
other of us imagines a “what if” and responds in fear. That
process has really irritated me, and sometimes I’ve responded in
anger or frustration or legalism or some such.
But today, Father
showed me the other side of that situation.
I’m going to have
to reflect on this a fair bit. Now it’s time to learn to use that
powerful tool for the kingdom.
Imagination is a
tool. Use the tool for good.
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