Imagination: Beauty and the Beast
Imagination is a SIN. I'm realizing more and more that I like to start blogs with some random umbrella judgement that could potentially be offensive.
I'm extremely creative. I used to downplay the gift, but as I get older and see how my vivid imagination has grown stronger and stronger over the years, I'm realizing, its much more powerful than I thought. In some ways, my imagination has become my greatest sin, because I've taught myself over the years to use my imagination for evil.
OMG, no I do not plot out horrible acts of violence against anyone, or mastermind schemes, or anything like that. My goodness, have we met?
When I was younger I found that I could picture anything. Pink Elephant standing on a high wire wearing a tutu and twirling a baton? Got it. I can picture it so clearly that I can think about the ramifications of this creature. How high does the wire have to be? What would you attach it to? Is it thick? Does it hurt the elephants feet? Did someone hand make this tutu? Or is there a store that sells elephant tutus? And how is she twirling the baton? with her elephant fingers? Is she a she at all? Or is this a cross-dressing baton twirling elephant on a high wire? How do you know if an elephant is a boy or a girl? ew...nevermind.
See? Its kinda fun! And I use my imagination a lot at work. I use it when I'm bored. I use it when I'm lonely. I use it when I write on this blog, and when I write music. Everywhere I go really. Its a beautiful tool. I am never without some kind of fun thought.
But my imagination can also be my greatest captor. I can weave together scenes of violent distruction, massive rejection, government conspiracy, personal conspiracy, ill-will, hatred, the list goes on and on. I use my imagination to envision scenes of people having so much fun without me, never missing me, or mocking me or throwing darts at my face on a dart board. Tragically, my imagination is most often used as an instrument of evil in my life to convince me that what my low self esteem thinks about me can be easily proven from the world around me. My imagination has tied events from birth to present to support every ill-thought I have toward myself. I'm actually quite talented at it.
The truth is, the world and everything in it is probably a lot nicer to me, and to you, than our imaginations would allow us to believe. But the only ONLY way we can overcome the nasty habit of tying our worlds events to the lies we'd like to tell ourselves, is to locate, declare, and abolish the lies themselves. I'm doing it right now, seriously, I have a list in front of me of all of the negative things I think about myself that are just downright lies. I know they are lies because God himself says otherwise.
Its time to hear truth about ourselves and allow our vivid imaginations to find all the ways that God is constantly trying to prove THOSE. Instead of the other way around.
I'm extremely creative. I used to downplay the gift, but as I get older and see how my vivid imagination has grown stronger and stronger over the years, I'm realizing, its much more powerful than I thought. In some ways, my imagination has become my greatest sin, because I've taught myself over the years to use my imagination for evil.
OMG, no I do not plot out horrible acts of violence against anyone, or mastermind schemes, or anything like that. My goodness, have we met?
When I was younger I found that I could picture anything. Pink Elephant standing on a high wire wearing a tutu and twirling a baton? Got it. I can picture it so clearly that I can think about the ramifications of this creature. How high does the wire have to be? What would you attach it to? Is it thick? Does it hurt the elephants feet? Did someone hand make this tutu? Or is there a store that sells elephant tutus? And how is she twirling the baton? with her elephant fingers? Is she a she at all? Or is this a cross-dressing baton twirling elephant on a high wire? How do you know if an elephant is a boy or a girl? ew...nevermind.
See? Its kinda fun! And I use my imagination a lot at work. I use it when I'm bored. I use it when I'm lonely. I use it when I write on this blog, and when I write music. Everywhere I go really. Its a beautiful tool. I am never without some kind of fun thought.
But my imagination can also be my greatest captor. I can weave together scenes of violent distruction, massive rejection, government conspiracy, personal conspiracy, ill-will, hatred, the list goes on and on. I use my imagination to envision scenes of people having so much fun without me, never missing me, or mocking me or throwing darts at my face on a dart board. Tragically, my imagination is most often used as an instrument of evil in my life to convince me that what my low self esteem thinks about me can be easily proven from the world around me. My imagination has tied events from birth to present to support every ill-thought I have toward myself. I'm actually quite talented at it.
The truth is, the world and everything in it is probably a lot nicer to me, and to you, than our imaginations would allow us to believe. But the only ONLY way we can overcome the nasty habit of tying our worlds events to the lies we'd like to tell ourselves, is to locate, declare, and abolish the lies themselves. I'm doing it right now, seriously, I have a list in front of me of all of the negative things I think about myself that are just downright lies. I know they are lies because God himself says otherwise.
Its time to hear truth about ourselves and allow our vivid imaginations to find all the ways that God is constantly trying to prove THOSE. Instead of the other way around.
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