imagination

Something that has been a constant ponder for me over the last few weeks is the topic of imagination. This is an oddity firstly because thoughts normally hover above me while I live below them, wishing them to land on me, and secondly because thoughts normally disappear rather rapidly after I have thought them and seldom land on me again anytime soon.

This has not been the case with this thought.

Imagination. Power of the mind. The powerhouse of the brain. The creative stimulant that gives meaning to the black and gray of reality. Without the imagination, marketers would be jobless. And the mental experience of living would be capped from both ends. Here's what I mean: My strongest emotions are born in my mind. My strongest desires are housed there. My dreams and longings find their home in my mind where the imagination takes them, and meticulously reworks them into something that I cannot ignore.

It's my imagination that keeps me up at night.

Satan knows this quite well and that is why he attacks our imagination:
- Possibly the most obvious... "Don't you want to...." or "Wouldn't it be nice if...." or "Imagine if you could..."
- Envy... "Imagine you were him..." "Imagine you had what he had..."
- Greed... the art of imagining you had what you want...
i think the list goes on (and because no one reads a long blog, i think i will stop right there)

It's sin that appeals to our imagination. It's lust that takes my mind to the cliff where I imagine myself flying free as a bird into the open sky only to find that Lust never gave me wings. He only promised me I could fly.

So you would think that if sin can meet us in our power to dream, maybe God will meet us in our power to think and fight on a separate battlefield? No way! God speaks to the powerhouse of a humans' self-influence. God speaks imagination. He speaks it best.

I remember the day I was found by God. I remember they joy of being hand-picked... it was 7 years ago now. But i remember knowing in an instant that I can change this world for him. I remember my mind coming alive and i remember not being able to sleep... so aware was I that God was birthing something deep inside me. My imagination kept me awake that night and it has not let me forget. Even as I remember this my imagination comes alive. It longs. It dreams.

The coldness of my darkest spiritual hours can be made warm with the memories of Him.

"Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things." Isaiah 40:26

God must own your minds, otherwise the Devil will. The power of your imagination will always work... either for you, or against.

a reflection

the longer i don't look in the mirror the more i forget who i thought i was

money

money doesn't rule the world... it rules the hearts of those who love the world.

motive

God doesn't care about who gets credit. Man cares about that. God cares about who wants credit.

a morning ponder

The fight is won and lost on the battlefield... I guess we all have different battlefields and we focus on being successful in these areas.... our activities... our relationships.... our work.... I reckon we spend too much time fighting our way in these roles and choose to ignore the Hardest Battle. Your strongest enemy is yourself and his strongest weapon is your mind. How do you fight your mind when it itself is telling you that it is not necessary?

But sometimes I get a glimpse of my mind's absurdity. Just on rare occasions there is a shadow in my mind so convincing that I am forced to acknowledge that the sun is shining somewhere else. There is something far far brighter than the illumination my mind thinks it has. There is something out there constantly proving me wrong.

Standing alone I am king
Looking down I am smug
Looking up I am servant

character

"Character development comes through two things: Inspiration and Discipline. Inspiration because we all need to be motivated and discipline because Motivation standing alone is an unarmed soldier. He whispers cunningly to his fellow soldiers. He tells them to keep going while he himself fights only when he feels the urge, and with the pricetag of personal assault this is not very often. Motivation fights for his own glory before fighting for the cause of another. If this is true of Motivation then best I watch my own back because i know Motivation will not. That's when i trust my most faithful ally. Discipline. He takes more steps in a day than Motivation takes in an hour and yet Motivation will always ridicule Discipline reminding him that he is slower. Discipline listens to the hurried and uncalculated words of Motivation knowing that sometimes he says something encouraging, but silently Discipline knows his own strength. He, more than any other soldier, is the reason for wars won and battles victorious. Discipline, my ally. My strongest friend."

stock market lesson

Like anything that is big, complex and daunting, it is always better to isolate a segment of the whole, however small, and analyse that and come to know that portion. I was thinking in terms of the stock market but how true is this of God?? Sometimes he just seems so large and incomprehensible that i just stay away. Why don't i just focus on a part of Him, remembering that the whole is never contained within the limitations of the isolated portion but also remembering that something of the nature of the whole is revealed in the segment. I look at the way that the price of petrol affects the share price of transport companies- it is a simple underground financial relationship.... BUT it is rise and fall. It is risk and return. It is supply and demand. It speaks to me of the core of the whole financial world even if merely in hushed whispers...

If God doesn't speak then it is only because I am not attentive to the subtle screams telling me of his character.