Believing In What We Do Not See

Its not just technology junkies who should be worried about John McCain’s lack of familiarity with technology.

We should all worry. The problems is not, of course, that we need a President who is hooked to a Blackberry or who can out-Google some other head-of-state. The real issue is that we need a President who is capable of imagining, not only the possibilities that technology might bring, but also a way out of Iraq, an innovative solution to our healthcare crisis, and a vision for alternative, sustainable energy sources. When McCain says he has never had any desire to send an email, I don’t worry that he’s not capable of sending emails, but that he lacks the curiosity and the imagination to explore new realms of possibility.

Michael Phelps offered some historic wisdom on this issue of imagination. After winning yet another gold medal, and breaking yet another world record, Phelps told his interviewer that the first step toward breaking a record is to reimagine what is possible. For many years he had assumed that it was impossible to swim any faster, but then he and his coach decided to make his goal to swim several seconds faster than anyone had ever swam before. To do this, they had to believe that such a feat was possible. Once he overcame his own failure of imagination, Phelps met his new “impossible” goal.

In my day job, I spend a lot of time working online, researching the depths of information contained there. I am by no means a computer whiz, but I blog and Facebook and Picasa, so generally I think I understand the implications of technology. But on two occasions in the last six weeks, I have been reminded of my own failure of imagination. Twice I told the team that I work with that a project was simply too ambitious, that completing it would require more human resources than we could afford to spend. Much to my surprise, I discovered that in both cases, I was terribly wrong. With the help of the tech department, tasks that I thought were impossible could be done in very little time. Whole new worlds of possibilities were now possible. What other projects had I pushed aside because I assumed they could not be done?

As Christians, we believe in that which others call impossible. We believe in rebirth through baptism, the movement of the spirit, and the crazy notion that one person died so that all others might have life, (and have it in abundance). We should be experts in reimagining what is possible.
Moreover, its not enough to use our imagination to expand the realm of possibilities. We must also be willing, like Phelps, to charge into that formerly impossible future, to claim it as our own. We must not only believe in the kingdom of heaven promised by Christ, but we must boldly live that new kingdom into being, even when the world says it is not possible.

Many have said that politics is “the science of the possible.” If this is true, it is critical that we ask not just what the candidates have achieved already, but what they believe is possible. Will our next president have the courage and vision to take this country to previously unimaginable heights or will he insist that business-as-usual is as good as it gets?

I am proud of the Democrats. This election cycle they have boldly proclaimed that formerly impossible things are now possible, and they are fighting to prove it so. The two leading contenders for the nomination were both formerly-impossible choices. With any luck, this November, what is possible will be officially redefined.