Monday, August 27, 2007

Imagination Restored

Simple pleasures are easily drowned in the tsunami of hyper-media and overactivity that seems to be the modus operandi for our collective life. So many jam-packed days, weeks, months and years have passed since I've sat on a park swing experiencing the joy of utter trust and freedom - I can barely remember the feeling of childlike obedience. Why don't I look at the sky anymore?...gazing in marvelous wonder at the immensity of the world, dreaming of the beyond...the otherness of that which is outside of the heavens, outside my experience...sensing the cool presence of the Mystery's imminent wind. It is as if something is out to steal our imaginations and his tactics, at least for me, have been quite successful.

Imagination is everything! We are reduced to mere machines without visions and dreams. Our connection to the Really Real is severed and our joy becomes an empty mirage. Life is flattened, faith is void, relationships are broken, creation is predictable and dead, and we are thrown back on ourselves as the ultimate source of is-ness. Some force is driving us in this direction. Internal or external I don't know where it comes from, I simply know it exists and twists our thinking leaving our vision skewed and myopic.

Praise the Word that lives and speaks calling us back home. Yet, we've been damaged, abused, and broken. How do we know that we can trust the Voice? The cost to seek the Truth is high - it is not in the Wal-mart bargain bin - and we don't know if we can accept something so unprocessed, so raw, real and pure. It might damage our delicate digestive system to eat flesh and drink blood - we're too civilized to participate in such a scandalous meal. Yet, we can't escape the Wind and with every breeze we are shaken to the core. We hide inside and turn on the AC - but we continue to see the trees move and hear the rustling leaves.

Can we face Reality or will we simply blow away like yesterday's news? In ourselves, we can't. It is only in the One who was and is and is to come that we can gaze at the sky again. In Him our imaginations are restored and our joy is made complete. Abide in Him, look to the heavens and swing in the park - that is true freedom that nothing can steal away. Until next time - Blessings in Christ ~ RLS

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know if you read Frederick Buechner or not, but this sounds so much like him! Great stuff Richard.

Richard said...

Thanks Monty...I've read a little Buechner, but not much. This was really just off the top of my head...stream of consciousness kind of - as I went back and read through it...I was thinking that I should spend some time working on it and turn it into a poem...I haven't written a poem for quite a while. Anyway, thanks for the encouragement. Blessings ~ RLS