What most of us want is a God who will solve our problems. It is no surprise that petitions and intercessions top the prayer charts in most American churches.\u00a0 Invite people to spend some time in silence opening themselves up to the will of God and folks will fidget.\u00a0 Give them a chance to role out their list and there\u2019s no stopping them.<\/p>\n
The same problem-solving God shapes the way in which most of us read the Bible.\u00a0 There is a reason that the Gideons have long offered a Bible with a problem-solving list of passages at the back of the book.\u00a0 If in trouble, read this\u2026if depressed, read that\u2026<\/p>\n
But does assaulting heaven with a laundry list of needs constitute \u201choly imagination?\u201d<\/p>\n
No.\u00a0 No matter how big the needs are, no matter how long the list might be, no matter how confidant you are that God will fill the requisition list \u2014 none of that constitutes holy imagination.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t misunderstand.\u00a0 There is nothing wrong with talking to God about our problems.\u00a0 But a non-stop conversation with God about our needs is not the same thing as a spiritual life and imagining a bigger, longer list of stuff for God to do does not constitute a holy imagination.<\/p>\n
A holy imagination is a life that is open, immediate, and raw \u2014 receptive and ready to respond to God on God\u2019s terms.\u00a0 An imagination open to what God wants to do \u2014 an imagination that isn\u2019t tied to me and mine, or here and now.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why when the prophet Joel anticipated a new future for humankind he didn\u2019t indulge the specifics of competing needs and well-defined futures.\u00a0 And he didn\u2019t imagine a future that embraced just his own nation, or the movers-and-shakers. Instead he described a generation of people immediately and vulnerably in touch with the will of God and filled with fresh imaginings:<\/p>\n
\u201cI will pour out my Spirit on all people.\u00a0 Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
\nyour old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.\u201d\u00a0 (NIV, Joel 2:28)<\/p>\n
By all means, talk to God about your needs.\u00a0 But save space when you pray or read Scripture for more than that.\u00a0 Save space to dream with God.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What most of us want is a God who will solve our problems. It is no surprise that petitions and intercessions top the prayer charts in most American churches.\u00a0 Invite people to spend some time in silence opening themselves up to the will of God and folks will fidget.\u00a0 Give them a chance to role […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-perspectives"],"yoast_head":"\n