The other day I was at my desk working, and one of my daughters walked in. We had completed homeschooling and now it was their free time to play while I worked.
And, it happened... that two-word sentence left my child's lips and reverberated off my ear-drums. And like every parent that has come before me, I hated it.
"I'm bored."
*sigh*
At this moment, I had a choice. I could repeat the famous threat: "You're bored? I'll give you something to do..."
Or, I could remember that as one of her primary disciplers (my husband being the other) I needed to teach her about imagination. I needed to disciple her into one of the most innately human activities we've forgotten to foster.
Why do I need to teach my child about imagination? My little ball of wonder and creativity? My wide-eyed, innocent, 6-year-old girl who is literally a professional at play?
It often feels like the story we're writing here on earth, as individual people, is one of disappointment.
Certainly there are other, bigger stories. Like the greatest story. The Jesus story, of redemption.
But when we look at our individual lives and the hopes and dreams we had as little people and we consider what we actually ended up doing with our lives, we land in a lot of disappointment. Or worse, for some, the immediate lessons we learned were to never trust, hope, or want anything better.
We land with the belief that life is just full of disappointment.
We come to expect it. We become more pragmatic. More "reasonable" with our expectations.
We lower our gaze a little, and set our eyes on something more attainable.
And in today's culture (and probably every major culture preceding us) sin has corrupted us into denying our creative, imaginative selves.
At some point between the sweet age of 6 and the two kids, a spouse, and a mortgage, we learn to settle for a normal job with good benefits.
Well... some of us.
Entrepreneurs, though... we know disappointment well. We know failure well. But for some reason, we just dare to keep dreaming.
For some reason, every person who told us we couldn't, and every failed idea that didn't really get off the ground, just led us into another "crazy" idea.
Think about it. We're the people that go out, take risks, dream big dreams... the ones that others say "are crazy."
In a world of pragmatism and education and "enlightenment," we consider not what is, but what could be.
We have faced disappointment... over and over again. And yet, we choose to hope. We choose to believe that what is true today does not have to be true tomorrow.
In his book Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton said it so well: "The ordinary man has always been sane because the ordinary man has always been a mystic. He has permitted the twilight. He has always had one foot in earth and the other in fairyland."
As a fellow entrepreneur, I hear the words "fairyland" and you've immediately got my attention.
Where?! I want in!
Sometimes I lose hope. And sometimes I have a crisis of imagination. But, in the end, I'm built to move forward. I'm built to get up, dust myself off, and keep going.
And I've heard that from entrepreneurs all over the world.
I believe that entrepreneurs are acting on a part of God's character that is absolutely integral to bringing God's kingdom on earth.
What is so evident throughout the Bible, but what is rarely discussed is this: imagination. God is not just a creative God, He is the Father of imagination.
If you've ever read Chapter 9 of C.S. Lewis' Magician's Nephew, in which the great lion Aslan sings Narnia into being, you know that this author is among the many that have picked up on the imagination that comes at the heart of God's character.
In fact, he attributes his career to having his "imagination baptized" by reading George MacDonald's Phantases.
Imagination breeds creativity. Imagination is what allows us to see gaps and envision a bridge. It's what prompts us to connect people together... because we can imagine what would happen if those particular people started talking.
Read things like the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, and you begin to see how imagination was central to the way Jesus spoke.
Jesus repeatedly says"you have heard... but I tell you." Over and over He prompts the people to imagine with Him. He tells them what currently is and then imagines what is better. What is holier. What is right.
Over and over again, He paints pictures of imagination.
He instructs us to align with God's heart.
His imagination is a righteous, well-ordered one.
His imagination is redemptive.
This imagination that we're invited into with a holy Creator is one that imagines heaven on earth. This is the imagination that understands the "here, but not yet" nature of the Kingdom of Jesus.
Heaven is here... but it's also not yet. We experience the Holy Spirit, we see people healed, we feel the weight of the presence of God.
And yet, not everyone is healed. Not all relationships are reconciled. The Kingdom is now, but not in fullness.
Not yet.
Redemptive imagination comes out of our God-given gifting, and when properly oriented allows us to think with wildly redemptive vision.
The enemy high-jacks this imagination. He points us toward lesser things. Success. Money. Influence. Counterfeit kingdoms that do nothing but breed disdain for the image of God, selfish ambition, and god complexes.
But redemptive imagination, the fairyland characterized and aligned with God's mercy, compassion, grace... that creates a future we desperately need.
I'll leave you with this, and then I hope you get lost in a daydream.