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| You can do good... |
Here’s the thing: an imagination is a terrible thing to waste, but it can also be a royal pain in the ass.
As previously mentioned, I devour books like a toddler downs candy on Halloween. I get lost in the pages of dialogue, adventure and far-away places. I fall in love with characters, laugh with them and cry for them. When I write, I write as if uncovering a story and getting to know the characters, not as if I’m making it all up.
When I dream of something, I tend to dream pretty big. Tilden and I have this thing we call “dream-scheming”. The dream is outrageous enough to be completely unrealistic, but just for funsies we think of completely rational ways in which it could come true anyway. I am a pro at dream-scheming.
As you’ve read, however, such a well-developed imagination can be an enormous pain in the ass. It leads to expectations, and those often lead to disappointment. Disappointment leads to disillusion, which forces us right back into imagination’s arms. We never really learn…it’s a vicious cycle.
But here’s something God has been teaching me: He’s the one that gave me my imagination; He created it. Anything I come up with in this puny little head of mine, He can outdo faster than you can say, “I’m engaged to Jake Gyllenhaal” (if only). When I look back, though things might not have played out like I imagined, I wouldn’t change a thing.
You see, my dreams and schemes have a very narrow scope. I think of me, my life, one event, one lifetime…God things big and eternal. His plans involve everyone, every life, all events, and eternity. So while my musings on how exactly I’m gonna get that proposal from Mr. Gyllenhaal may be fabulous, they’re so incredibly narrow. It’s like trying to plan a cross-country road trip with a map of only one city.
Dreams are wonderful, and an imagination truly is a terrible thing to waste. But our unlimited, unbound imaginations are undeniably limited and bound when compared to the ultimate creative mind…God’s. So dream and imagine, friends, and then watch as God puts all your plans to shame with something even greater.
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| ...but God can do way better. |
