Use your imagination!

As I lay on the pier looking into the crystal clear waters beneath me, I feel like I'm gazing into a huge aquarium, with beautiful, colourful fish darting past. I see some children running after each other. Their laughter is contagious! Their house is very small compared to North American standards. Most of the Belizean houses are smaller and raised up a few feet from the ground on stilts. The school 'boat' takes the kids off to school in San Pedro about nine miles away. I can't quite imagine what it would be like to live here year round, but it makes for a lovely, relaxed vacation!

These kids have so little! Probably a couple of toys or books. Are they happy? They run and laugh and play. They appear to be very happy. Our kids have so much -- rooms filled with toys! And yet they complain of boredom! 'There's nothing to do!' I remember years ago when my children were little, I ran across an article talking about the benefits of boredom for children. It struck me as being funny but the premise was that boredom spurs creativity. If we don't become bored we do not invent, imagine, and look outside of ourselves. I remember saying, "good!" when one of my children professed a state of boredom, "now you can be creative!"

I'm starting to think that the human imagination is at risk of extinction! Not just for children but for adults. We need to imagine -- to dream, to pretend, to think about possibilities, to create! Our society is so eager to avoid stillness that it seems to equate stillness with boredom, or even worse, laziness --considering it to be 'unproductive.' And heaven forbid that we not be busy or appear to be busy at all times! "What have you been up to lately?" is a common question. Why do we think it's praiseworthy to say, "Oh my, I've been so busy"...and go on to list the many endeavours we have undertaken or how we are filling up our time with this and that. Is it because we find our sense of worth and value in what we do or have done? This is a faulty base to build your self-worth on!

Psalm 46:10 reads, "Be still and know that I am God." To be still literally means to 'cease striving.' Isn't it productive to cease striving? To take care of oneself? To get to know God? Is it even possible to know God when we are so busy and distracted and entertained? The word entertain actually means to hold the attention of by amusing or distracting/diverting. In this culture of entertainment overload, it becomes increasingly difficult to practice stillness (a discipline that will only be used if you choose it!).  Stillness is also a conduit for creativity and the imagination. The less we use our imaginations and draw from what's inside us, the less satisfied we become.

Why is this? Maybe we were meant for something more than pleasing ourselves and being entertained. Perhaps our boredom is supposed to make us uneasy and cause us to think of other things, concepts, ideas, etc. To long, to dream, to envision -- perhaps stillness is a practice that we ought to pursue. Maybe we are creatures of imagination who require less stimulation and ease then we presently experience. Next time you are tempted to 'get busy' and 'be productive,' consider what it is you actually want to achieve. Do you want to add to the list of things you have to do or do you want to invest in the spirit and soul and mind that God has given you to use -- and possibly to connect more fully with Him?

Just imagine!