One of the great duties of the Christian mind is imagination. But not
all uses of the imagination are a Christian duty. Some are exactly the
opposite. Nor is the imagination the only duty of the Christian mind.
The mind is also charged with the duties of observation, analysis, and
organization.
Imagination happens when the mind goes beyond observation, analysis,
and organization of what’s there, and imagines what is not seen, but
might be there — and what might explain what we do see (as in the case
of most scientific research). Imagination also happens when the mind
imagines a new way of portraying what is already there (as in the case
of creative writing and music and art).
Imagination Hijacked
There is imagination that is incredibly creative, and yet deceptive,
even pathological. The book of Proverbs creatively portrays this kind of
deceptive creativity. For example,
Proverbs 26:13–16:
The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road!
There is a lion in the streets!”
As a door turns on its hinges,
so does a sluggard on his bed.
The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.
The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes
than seven men who can answer sensibly.
These picturesque (imaginative!) verses might be four distinct
proverbs only related by the fact that they are all about the sluggard.
But I suspect there is more going on in this grouping than that.
“When a person speaks or writes or sings or paints about breathtaking beauty in a boring way, it is probably a sin.”
The imagination of the sluggard is in full swing in verse 13. He
invents, out of his own wonderfully imaginative head, a nonexistent
situation in order to justify his lazy unwillingness to get up and go to
work: “There’s a lion in the streets!” He does not
want to go out. So his imagination kicks into gear and creates a situation in which he
can’t go out. This is deceptive. He is using his imagination to lie.
But it may be worse than that. He might even believe his own
imagination. The middle two proverbs emphasize the depths of this man’s
sloth. He stays in bed. The greatest extent of his progress toward a
productive goal is like a door on a hinge. Movement. But no progress.
As a door turns on its hinges,
so does a sluggard on his bed.
When he manages to get to the breakfast table, he is so lazy he can
get his hand into his dish, but he can’t get it out. This man is on his
way to starvation. Won’t work. Can’t eat.
The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.
The point: sloth leads to self-destruction.
But then comes the stunner. This man thinks he’s brilliant. He is
more impressed with the shrewdness of his imaginative powers (“There’s a
lion in the streets!”) than he is with the true wisdom of seven sages.
The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes
than seven men who can answer sensibly.
In other words, his powers of imagination have reached such levels of
creativity and cleverness in the service of his sloth that he has lost
touch with reality and is living in his own masterfully crafted cage of
creativity. This is why I said the imagination can be pathological. This
is not Christian duty, but Christian defection. Sin has hijacked the
imagination, and made it the servant of self-deception.
Minds at Their Most God-Like
So let’s turn from this destructive use of the imagination to the
Christian duty of imagination. I say that imagination is a Christian
duty for two reasons. One is that you can’t apply Jesus’s Golden Rule
without it. He said, “Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do
also to them” (
Matthew 7:12).
We must imagine ourselves in their place and imagine what we would like
done to us. Compassionate, sympathetic, helpful love hangs much on the
imagination of the lover.
“Imagination is the faculty of the mind that God has given us to make the communication of his beauty beautiful.”
The other reason I say that imagination is a Christian duty is that
when a person speaks or writes or sings or paints about breathtaking
truth in a
boring way, it is probably a sin. The supremacy of
God in the life of the mind is not honored when God and his amazing
world are observed truly, analyzed duly, organized clearly, and
communicated boringly.
Imagination is one key to killing such boredom. We must
imagine
ways to say truth for what it really is. And it is not boring. God’s
world — all of it — rings with wonders. The imagination calls up new
words, new images, new analogies, new metaphors, new illustrations, new
connections to say old, glorious truth — whether from the world or from
the word of God. Imagination is the faculty of the mind that God has
given us to make the communication of his beauty beautiful.
Imagination may be the hardest work of the human mind. And perhaps
the most God-like. It is the closest we get to creation out of nothing.
When we try to express beautiful truth, we must think of a pattern of
words, perhaps a poem. We must conceive something that has never existed
before and does not now exist in any human mind. We must think of an
analogy or metaphor or illustration which has no present existence. The
imagination must exert itself to see it in the mind when it is not
there. We must create word combinations, and music, and visual forms
that have never existed before. All of this we do, because we are like
God and because he is infinitely worthy of ever-new verbal, musical, and
visual expressions.
Make a New Song to Sing
A college — or a church, or a family — which is committed to the
supremacy of God in the life of the mind will cultivate many fertile,
and a few great, imaginations. And oh, how the world needs God-besotted
minds that can say the great things of God and sing the great things of
God and play the great things of God in ways that have never been said
or sung or played before.
“God is infinitely worthy of ever-new verbal, musical, and visual expressions.”
Imagination is contagious. When you are around someone (alive or
dead) who uses it a lot, you tend to catch it. So I suggest that you
hang out with some contagious people (dead or alive) who overflow with
imaginative ways of expressing things. (The Bible may be the most
imaginative book of prose in the world. Not because it creates reality
that is not there, but because it puts that reality in so many
surprising expressions.)
Imagination is also like a muscle. It grows stronger when you flex
it. And you must flex it. It does not usually put itself into action. It
awaits the will. I encourage you to exert this muscle in your mind.
Make conscious efforts to express precious truth in striking and helpful
ways. Think up a new way to say an old truth. God is worthy. “Oh sing
to the Lord a new song” (
Psalm 96:1;
33:3;
98:1;
144:9;
149:1;
Isaiah 42:10)
— or picture, or poem, or figure of speech. Let’s flee together from
the sin of boring people with God and his amazing works and ways.
