I have an anxiety disorder and among the many ways this manifests, one way is my ability to imagine worst case scenarios. Otherwise known as catastrophic thinking, or catastrophizing. I have had enough go “wrong” in life in my three and half decades on this planet that my brain and nervous system try to prepare for the next crisis by thinking ahead. “What if [insert whatever horrible thing my mind can come up with].” Over and over and over again, my brain does this.
Recently, as I was chiding my active imagination and praying about it, I had an epiphany. It occurred to me (with the help of the Holy Spirit) that my imagination is not the problem. In fact, my ability to imagine a future beyond what is current reality is very much a good thing. Something God gave us from the beginning!
You see, an oft overlooked detail of Genesis is that the Garden of Eden is where life had potential to be everlasting and whole – it was the Garden where Shalom (peace, wholeness, completeness) existed. If you read carefully, it seems the ancient Hebrews considered outside of the Garden of Eden as still a bit of a wild wasteland and it was the humans, made in God’s Image to partner with him in ruling Creation, who were going to help spread Eden out (Jesus’ Great Commission in the New Testament brings this full circle). Genesis 1:28 says God blessed them and told them “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.” You see, the job wasn’t done yet. God was inviting humans into Creation with Him. This requires an ability to imagine a future beyond what is current reality. The ancient Hebrews considered pre-creation not so much as nothing, but as a wild wasteland, or a deep, dark abyss. They used images that evoked a reality void of any meaning and purpose. Being able to imagine order and meaning out of chaos, tameness and purpose out of wildness, and beauty out of darkness is hard-wired into us – we are God’s Image Bearers after all!
However, evil and brokenness have hijacked our brains so instead of picturing shalom, we picture the worst-case scenarios, awaiting the next horror story to appear on our screens. When something does happen because of chaos, we tend to just add it to the list of reasons why the world is going to hell in handbasket and we cry out “Lord come back soon!” This has only gotten worse as our screens have become more prolific. We are constantly met with bad news at every turn. Evil and chaos are winning our minds by convincing us this is all there is to reality instead of remembering that God brought order out of chaos and invited (and still invites!) us to participate in the flourishing of Creation.
What if instead, we responded to bad news with our imaginations being used for good? What if when presented with a “worst-case scenario” we thought: “what if order belonged here? What would that look like? What if healing, wholeness, and shalom made their home in this situation, what would that look like? What would New Creation look like here?” … and then we either did something about it or prayed for that?
The power of our imagination isn’t bad or the problem. But what we focus on is important. This is why Paul tells us in Philippians 4:
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all people. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things. As for the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
Whatever is true, honorable, right, pure lovely, and commendable, think about these things! What if we actually did this and not just put the phrase on our coffee mugs? What would become of our minds and nervous systems if we used the power of our imaginations to foresee GOODNESS instead of brokenness. This doesn’t mean we bury our heads in the sand, ignoring the brokenness. No, we acknowledge and grieve the present reality, but what if our ability to imagine the future isn’t to protect us from bad things happening but to imagine New Creation? What if, instead of constantly being on the lookout for the next bad thing to happen to us or the world, we imagined the Garden’s flourishing extending out to all the earth? And, what if, when bad things do happen, instead of saying “Ugh! See, everything’s horrible, always is, always will be. Why won’t Jesus come back?” we said “I know this isn’t the end. Things will one day be fully restored to shalom and I’ll pray about how I can participate with the Living God in that restoration work today.”
Let us embrace the power of our imaginations and recognize GOODNESS when we see it, and imagine shalom where it’s missing.
Thanks for being here, Dear Reader!
Blessings,
MM