As we watch the world around us becoming more polarized and political, it would be too easy to become ensnared into tribes whose visions are culture-bound and limited by self-interest and self-identity. We are divided on many issues like the Presidency, immigration, changes in climate, technology and social issues (just to name a few) and are further challenged by misinformation meant to cater to the fears that divide us. The same technology that provides more connection also seems to provide more isolation and loneliness. Our news cycles seem to be filled with increasing conflict and growing problems in society and environment.
But our news feeds tend to lack one crucial perspective. When God gave us responsibility for the stewardship of the earth, he did not revoke that responsibility after our rebellion, and we continually suffer from the results of our rebellion. But God did not abandon us. The transcendent God is ever present among us and is continually at work within the world and within the transcendent people He created in His image.
We have a tendency to get absorbed with all the problems around us and let our view of the world get limited by what we see. But there is a fix to our limited viewpoints. We need to fix our minds, not on the tumult around us, but on the one who transcends not only that which we can see but on all that we do not see. But keeping our focus does not come easily. Like Peter, who was able to walk on the waves to Jesus until he became distracted by the winds and waves, we too can become distracted by the tumult around us.
It is all too easy to look at the tumult around us and become discouraged by fears of what the other tribe will do or how the world around us seems to be going in the wrong direction and worried about the kinds of changes going on in the world. When things are going so wrong and seem overwhelming, a common way of coping is to bury ourselves into our “tribe,” and find reassurance in simple answers and common enemies. Another avoidance tactic is to avert our attention from all the problems around us. Particularly as Christians, we can find ourselves “worrying about where not to look.[1]”
While these kinds of solutions can provide comfort by offering simplicity and avoiding complications, they also allow fears and discomfort to persist. Whenever we avoid problems by simplifying them or avoiding them, we subconsciously know that the problems are still there, leaving our fears undiminished. We can only reduce our fears by acknowledging them and confronting them head-on.
But it is natural to avoid the many problems confronting the world around us because so much is truly beyond our own abilities. Fortunately, there are resources available to Christians that can help us develop our awareness of resources that are beyond ourselves and our circumstances. Because we often have a limited view of God and how He is at work in the world around us, our faith needs to increase in proportion to God, who is so much bigger than we often imagine. God is bigger than our needs, bigger than the problems we see around us and bigger than we can imagine.
Our imagination needs help. The same article that cautions us against worrying about where not to look, talks about medieval thinkers who thought that imagination was what we received, in the same way that wax “takes on the shape of whatever seal, or stamp, is impressed upon it. Imaginative forms, such as images and stories, are like seals that imprint themselves on us. We are transformed by—and into—what captures our attention.[2]”
If we want to be aware of what is transforming us and to be honest about what we fix our attention on, we need to examine our habits. Our habits will tell us what is shaping us, shaping our thinking, and shaping our spirit. It is those habits that will reveal the things we really love[3], the things that are truly shaping our hearts.
If we examine our habits, and hence our hearts, and see the need for change, we can find help in spiritual disciplines. Spiritual disciplines are intentional activities in which we open ourselves for God to work within us, allowing Him to transform us increasingly into His image. Spiritual disciplines allow us to develop new habits which help us focus on God and help us to see God at work amid all the activity around us.
There are many ways that spiritual disciplines can help us develop our imagination. If we pray for those people who bother us, we will be able to develop more concern for their well-being and become aware of God working in their lives. If we study the Bible ready to receive the Word of God in our lives, then we can become more aware of how God is at work in the world and within us. If we practice serving God by serving others, then we may develop a sensitivity to how God is at work through others.
When we see the greater reality of God at work around us, our imaginations are no longer bound by the immediate confusion and distress around us but are instead open to the possibilities and opportunities of how God can work in and through us. We want to be less like Elisha’s servant who could only respond in fear to the enemy forces surrounding him, but more like Elisha who was able to reveal the forces of God (2 Kings 6:1-17).
Viewing creative art or reading books that challenge our thinking or books that are unrelated to what we are thinking about can enhance our imagination. We may be able to imagine how people in the past solved problems like what we experience today. Discussing issues with other people – particularly those people who think differently than you do – can help us see problems from different viewpoints. Prayer and Bible study can make us more aware of God’s work in the world and help us gain a wider perspective by helping us see that the problems in front of us are not all that is. Many more examples of spiritual disciplines may be found in my book Dancinginthekingdom.com Chapter 15.
We cannot learn to live in the reality of God at work in, around and through us, even when we can’t immediately see the work of God, we can develop a faith willing to acknowledge the mysterious ways in which God is working above and beyond all that we can imagine. We can be open being surprised and to experience awe in God’s and His work in the world. In the words of Ryan Pemberton, we can “bear witness to a different future, we need a Christianity that undergoes the crucible of unknowing … welcoming the unsettling mystery of God, and the profound mystery of our fellow human beings. Only here can we experience grace[4].”
The more we engage in spiritual disciplines and develop our spiritual imaginations to see the work of God, the more we can become aware of the love and grace that God has shown to us and to all those around us. That kind of awareness will allow us to not be caught up in the short-sighted confusion and violence of a world that is unable to receive and acknowledge the work and the grace of God – instead we will be able to rest in the Lord and to experience the Sabbath rest that God has intended for us.
[1] Davis, Lanta. “The Art of Fashioning the Soul,” Christianity Today. 16 July 2024 “http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2024/july-web-only/art-imagination-becoming-by-beholding-excerpt.html”
[2] Ibid.
[3] Smith, James K.A. “You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit” Brazos Press, 2016
[4] Pemberton, Ryan J. “Appreciating the Art of Divine Surprise” Christianity Today “www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/december-web-only/mary-christmas-awe-imagination-poetry-art-divine-surprise.html
Transcendent Touched 