“I long to see imagination released from its prison and given its proper place among the Sons of the new creation.”- A. W. Tozer
“Nothing is more practical than finding God. That is, falling in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything. It will decide . . . what mazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”- Joseph Whelan, SJ
Summer Joy Gross concludes Chapter 18 of The Emmanuel Promise as she observes that praying with the senses is punctuated all through the Old and New Testaments. Most significantly, Summer states, praying with the senses transforms from black and white to technicolor as we experience our flesh and blood Jesus in the Gospels.
In addition, when placed in the hands of God and fueled by the Holy Spirit, the imagination functions as one more way to experience communion with God. Also, the imagination serves as the canvas where creativity does its best work. Because the Creator gives us a paintbrush and invites us to play.
Above all, Summer notes, our imagination needs redemption and retraining. For, off its leash, imagination turns to worry as it runs toward the highway. And doubt occurs when malnourished, because it fails to feast on the power of God. Therefore, to transform from worry-driven to Christ following, imagination needs to feed on the wonder of Emmanuel’s presence.
In conclusion, St. Francis de Sales once explained:
‘By means of the imagination, we confine our mind within the mystery on which we meditate, that it may not ramble to and fro, just as we shut up a bird in a cage or tie a hawk by his leash so he may rest in the hand.”
Finally, as Richard Foster observed, this practice fosters our experience of the Lord’s perpetual presence as radiant reality. Instead of theological dogma.
Today’s question: What most helps you feel imagination released from its prison? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Crying out – bid for attachment”
