As my sisters and their friends watch “Ender’s Game”, it got me thinking about fantasy worlds and the imagination. You see, when we are young we are told to use our imagination. It’s encouraged. Our parents give us tools to sharpen and expand it.
We are told that the imagination can take us to lands that don’t exist anywhere other than the mind. We are allowed to believe in Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy because it’s good for us to be happy. Kids desire a care-free world where the good guy always win.
Then, you grow up. What happens to the imagination? We are told to hide it, to let it go. So it diminishes, or at least goes underground.
But it never dies.
One thing few realize is that, just like everything else, the imagination is supposed to mature. Grow up. The imagination is supposed to be refined, not canned.
And as it grows, its name changes. The adult’s imagination is called vision.
Adults are no different than kids in that we all desire the good guy to win and the world to be right. This desire produces fantasy worlds in the child (imagination), but it is supposed to produce action in the adult (vision).
However, it often doesn’t because we are told we can no longer dream past a certain age. So we go throughout life with no drive, no hope. No vision. We are told to be realists, pessimists. We look at wickedness and say, “Well, that’s just the way it is.” That’s not dreaming. That’s not a visionary speaking.
That’s the voice of someone who has been told to destroy his or her imagination. It’s a dark, cold, gray world without hope.
Come back
Bring back the imagination. Dream again. Before we can change the world, we have to have a goal. Then we can move.
End human slavery? Go for it.
Demolish abortion? Sounds great.
Find a cure for cancer? Why not?
Live like Jesus day in, day out? Nothing’s stopping you.
Pick up your sword and let’s go. Build the imagination. Kickstart a vision. Fight for a world that would make our Lord and Savior proud.
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