If you’re going to be a creative, few things are more important than imagination and inspiration. They become even more important when you add a faith component to the mix. I really got a handle on this several years ago when I was invited to present at a church planting conference.
H.I.M.
I got a call from the conference office asking me if I would be a presenter. They already decided on the theme: H.I.M. which is an acronym for Hope, Imagination, Mission. Two of the keynote speakers were already in place. They were both well known in the ministry world and they were going to tag team on the theme of mission. Because of this, two speakers were needed, one for Hope, the other for Imagination.
I was having a hard time deciding, so my first impulse was to say, “No need for another speaker, I’ll do both.” It was not a matter of ego, so much as it was the two topics are extremely interconnected. Their response to me was they had already contacted another speaker, but because I had done a lot of work with this conference in the past, they were giving me first choice.
Choose Imagination
Given the choice between hope and imagination, I chose imagination. My reasoning was simple. Think about the creative output coming out of so much of our world. Sure there are a lot of wonderful, uplifting things that are being created—books, movies, TV, etc., but there are also many things being produced that are just the opposite. There are things that are dark and depressing and pessimistic. You consume them and when you are finished, you’re upset, or depressed, or anxious, or terrified. As I thought of those “dark projects,” I had something of a revelation. Stories and programs that leave you in a dark place, prove you can have imagination without hope, but you can’t have hope without imagination. To hope is to imagine a brighter future.
Seeking Inspiration
Having chosen my topic, I set out to do the work of preparing my presentation. They wanted me to do my speed painting as part of the program, and I was delighted to do so, but it meant I had to come up with an image for imagination and that requires inspiration.
I’ve been involved in the visual arts and design for most of my adult life, and there was something I learned early on. Artists who wait for inspiration, starve. Inspiration is not to be waited for. Inspiration is to be hunted down. Now the good news is, I know the ultimate Source of inspiration. Our Creator God is that source. He has been, quite literally inspiring humanity since the very beginning. Genesis 2:7 (ESV) “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. God literally breathed life into us and we were inspired.
The Word is Inspired
God also gave us His Word through inspiration. 2 Timothy 3:16 (ESV) reminds us, “All Scripture is breathed out by God…” God the Holy Spirit breathed God’s Word into the writers of the Bible. Seems to me, if we want to be inspired, a great place to start is prayer. And so I began to pray.
Which Comes First
Sometimes people ask me, “Which comes first, the message or the picture?” In this case it was a little of both, with a few other things thrown in. In my prayers, I kept seeing Edvard Munch’s famous painting, The Scream, but that made no sense, at least initially, so I kept it in mind and went to the inspired Word. Surely the Bible would have a few things to say about imagination, and in fact it does. I typed “imagination” into a Bible search engine, and found that in the NIV (my translation of choice at the time) the word appears four times, and, to my dismay, each and every time imagination appeared, the connotation was negative. How could this be? (The word imagine does a little better, but even most of those are negative.)
Stuck
I have to admit I was starting to feel a little stuck. I knew in spite of the negative things that were coming up in Scripture, imagination has a lot of positive things to it. As a matter of fact, I am prepared to say that all the greatest man-made things in our world started out in someone’s imagination, and the greatest things in our world in general, have their origins in the imagination of God.
Lost Imagination?
I was looking for more inspiration on imagination, and my mind was drawn to the idea of people losing imagination. How is your imagination dear reader? If you’re like most adults, you may think it is disappearing. Think about it. When you were a kid, your imagination ran wild. You may have wanted the expensive toy, but if you didn’t get it, you’d make your own game out of rocks and sticks. Sometimes even if you got the expensive toy, you found it was almost more fun to play with the box. For some reason though, when we age, it seems like imagination fades in favor of practicality, and I want to know why?
Now some astute Bible scholar, may want to direct me to 1 Corinthians 13 for the answer. They would specifically send me to verse 11 “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” They would take this to mean imagination is in the realm of childishness and it is something to be outgrown. Respectfully, I say, “That’s a crock!” After all, Romans 4:17 reminds us that “the God in whom he [Abraham] believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” Isn’t that very essence of creativity and imagination? Imagination may be childlike (a favorable attribute in Scripture) but it’s not childish. it’s God-like. Could it be that imagination is part of being created in God’s image?
Imagination Found,
Your imagination is not gone and I can prove it. Have you ever been afraid of something you’ve never seen? That’s your imagination. Have you ever had an argument with someone in your mind, and the next time you see them you’re mad? That’s your imagination. Have you ever had a lustful and impure thought? That too is your imagination. These thoughts and many more, prove your imagination is alive, it’s just not well. Maybe what we need is to let God redeem our imaginations, and inspire us to imagine and seek the life He imagined for us when He made us.
Two Sides of Imagination
I was beginning to see a pattern. There are two sides to imagination, and as soon as that thought occurred to me, I had my inspiration. Shortly thereafter, I saw the connection to Munch’s famous expressionistic painting, The Scream. I would paint, two versions of the character from the painting. The first would be pretty much a direct copy but more in my style. The second would be virtually identical but with a few slight variations. By repositioning the eyeballs, raising the hands slightly away from the face, and turning up the corners of the mouth slightly, all while giving the background a cooler blue hue, the character was completely changed. I call the finished piece, “Two Sides of Imagination.”
Both characters use two of the most powerful words in the English Language, “What if?” The first character looks at the world and says, “What if I lose? What if I get hurt? What if I get sick? What if I die?” He sees the world through the lens of negativity and all he can imagine is the impossibility of life.
By way of contrast, the other character lives in the same world, faces the same things and uses the same two words, “What if?” but he sees things differently. “What if I try something new? What if I succeed? What if I win? What if I do something that changes the world for the better?” He still says, “What if?” but his “What if?” leads him to endless possibilities.
Which one, dear reader, are you?
The Song
Inspiration can come from unusual places. When I paint, I often listen to music. I usually seek tempo music as it helps me to begin to work fast. I started to listen to my favorite band, Rush, specifically a song called YYZ. It’s an amazing instrumental complete with a drum solo. Before long I was in the zone creatively, and the song itself was used to bring me to the point of the piece.
The Point
The thing about instrumentals is they have no lyrics—just rhythm and melody and beat, but as I listened, there was something more. The song itself was significant. The song’s title, YYZ is not just some weird, abstract name. YYZ has a significance. The members of the band in various interviews would state that, after weeks and sometimes months on the road, it was always good to see YYZ on their luggage tags. You see, YYZ are the call letters of the Toronto airport and, for the members of the band, Toronto is home. As I listened to the song, I realized it’s a song about home.
The Greatest Reason for Imagination
For a Christian, home is one of the greatest reasons for imagination. This world is not our home. We have a much better home. It is a home, proclaimed in Scripture, and we know it is there by faith. The issue is, it is a place we have never seen. It is a place we have never been. As Mercy Me wrote, “I can only imagine what it will be like.” And there’s the rub. Heaven is real, but the only ways for us to see it before we get there, are Scripture, and our imagination. Come to think of it, even Scripture takes imagination in that, we need to convert the printed word into a picture, using this great gift God has given—our imagination.
One day we who believe will go to that place that we can now only imagine. It is a place beyond our wildest dreams. In the mean time, we live in this world with a calling and a purpose, gifted and equipped by our Master, to represent our home as Christ’s ambassadors. So seek God’s inspiration, serve Him in faithfulness, and imagine the possibilities.
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