Revamping Our Imagination

Last night, I had an unusual conversation with my middle child - Micah. Desiree and I got back from an evening out together, paid the babysitter and then headed upstairs to pray with the kids who were already in bed. Josiah was pretty much out. Jordan pretended to be asleep, but as soon as I bent over her to pray, she jumped up and gave me a kiss goodnight and told me she loved me (she is so sweet like that!). When I slipped into Micah’s room, it was completely dark except for the small bit of light from the hallway nightlight. And that’s when my unusual conversation with Micah began. “Go away”, he announced. Now, the reason that is unusual (aside from the obvious offense that most parents would take from their kids telling them to “go away”) is that Micah says almost nothing. Many of you are either familiar with my blog or familiar with my family, know that Micah is profoundly autistic. His sentences are typically limited to, “I would like ___, please.” So that he would tell me to “go away” told me- a) “Hey, he’s talking more!” and b) “He’s doing something he doesn’t want me to catch him doing.” I found that he was doing a puzzle instead of going to sleep in his bed. So Micah was escorted to his bed where he made another statement unprompted by me. “OK, night, night. NIGHT NIGHT!!” which seemed to be his way of saying, “OK, get out my room so I can go back to my puzzle.”

That night, I had this weird dream. I was sitting on Micah’s bed with him and Keith Melugin, our High School Pastor at the church where I serve. And Micah was sharing with Keith all about his day. Keith would ask a simple question and Micah would just go on and on about what he experienced and what he was thinking and so on. I woke up this morning, pondered the dream for a moment and then jumped into my daily routine- took my shower, brushed my teeth, got dressed, kissed Des goodbye, headed to work, answered my voice and e-mail messages and headed to our staff meeting.

We now have two staff meetings per week instead of one. The Wednesday staff meeting is going through the business of the church. The Tuesday meeting (this morning’s meeting) is about developing community and spiritual formation on the pastoral team. And the starting point for our discussion was Ephesians 1:15-23 where Paul spring boards from this amazing doxology of the magnificence and grandeur of God’s redemption plan, to this prayer for the church. And what does Paul pray for the church? To have more money to do missions? To have more workers to do more evangelism? To create more Bible studies? Those are all good things, make no mistake!! But, Paul prays that God would give us wisdom and revelation “so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance among the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power for us who believe.” In short, of all of the things Paul could pray for the Church, he prays that God would renovate and expand their imaginations!! Having just told us in 1:3-14 of all of the amazing things God has done and is doing; how His all-encompassing plan is to draw all things stained by the curse together as one again, under the sovereign rule of Christ; how He plans to renovate heaven and earth and redeem it all…Paul feels the strong need to pray that our imaginations can catch a glimpse of the way things will be. It’s apparently crucial to our ability to participate with this kingdom overhaul to have our sense of wonder and vision overhauled first!!

This past Saturday, a couple of our elders and pastors joined the pastor at Bethel AME church in Chagrin Falls Park for a prayer walk. And as I walked down the street praying and looking around at the despair and poverty that afflicted this community, it was everything I had in me to try and imagine a place under the rule of Jesus. I need to have my imagination redeemed and expanded!! And I know how I do it for other things, like my physical senses. I often go to the parks and sit in the beauty of nature. I need places like that in solitude since my physical senses have been dulled. Having boxed for a couple of years and sustained four broken noses, my senses of smell and taste have been dulled. I am also colorblind, so my ability to see the vibrancy and subtleties of color are muted. I look for places where I can overcome having those senses dulled and have them reinvigorated again; places where I can see and smell and feel things more boldly and more powerfully.

That’s Paul’s prayer for us and that’s why we need to pray. There are only so many things we can do to expand our spiritual imaginations. But, ultimately, it is a gift from God that we ask for and pray for and have others pray for us!! Last night, I didn’t just have a weird dream about my Micah talking as though his little mind had been completely healed. I was given a gift from God, a way of seeing what I cannot see because my spiritual senses are dull and need revamping. I was given insight into what God wants for me, wants for His church, wants us to know from Ephesians 1:15-23 and how it can change the way we live life, do ministry and embrace the “spiritual blessings” that God has endowed upon us in this world to come that is here in part; a world we can scarcely imagine!