Children's Play and Creativity

When you watch a child play there will come a time when she will become bored. Her ideas for playing have reached a standstill. Usually, the child will walk around in a kindof daze looking for some idea, some new way of playing, something, anything. They might even come to their parents during this time. However, if left alone during that time (during that "boredom"), creativity will usually come. Something will spark an idea, something not connected before, and play will continue with serious vigor. Imagination comes out of the windows. They are again in their world of play.

Watching children play has proved to be a nourishing thing for my class and sermon preparation. In using some of these ideas, creativity is sparked like I've never experienced before. Let me explain.

I get to a place in my class and sermon preparation where I get bored. I don't see any connection between the text and life. The text is just one of those toys I've played with a thousand times. Nothing is there. It is at this moment when many teachers or preachers reach toward other outsiders, like parents so-to-speak who can help us "play" with the text. This is not a good move at this point.

When I get bored with the text, I stay there and begin to use my imagination, however vain I think the effort might be. For me (not necessarily for everyone), my dry erase board becomes a canvas for my imagination. I do a little bit of free association as I walk around the room bored with this text I keep reading aloud. Any image, idea, word, connection (no matter how outlandish) goes on my canvas. At some point, creativity happens. Sometimes it doesn't happen for a while. I might even have to go to something else (some other text) knowing that I will come back to my boredom.

Ever since I have started this, God has faithfully ushered in creativity. Even in how to present the text or arrange the class time. It is funny how this has sparked a new era, so-to-speak, in my ministry preparation.

Thank you, Lord, for loving me. Thank you, Lord, for blessing me. Thank you, Lord, for making my job such a joy. You are so faithful to sustain.

The Next Golf Level

"Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."

When I was younger, golf was a fun sport. I loved the challenge. I enjoyed trying to hit the best possible shot. Getting up to the ball I would look toward my target with enthusiasm. Sometimes my shot would end up close, most times way off. Through high school, my skill improved enough that most of my shots were close, even though I knew I could improve considerably.

As I entered college, my golf coach helped me take my game to the next level. He taught me how to visualize my shot before I even addressed the ball. I began to imagine the flight path of the ball. I could see the slight fade. I knew it would clear this part of the hazard and not go too far left. I saw the ball staying below the tree tops so the wind wouldn't take it. I imagined stopping the ball just short of the pin so I could have an uphill putt. I didn't want to put too much spin so it would bounce hard in the fairway. The ball would start off low to stay below one tree, but then get high enough to go over the next. I began to see these shots. There were so many shots that I just knew I would be hitting them exactly where I wanted them. The practice was there to make that a possibility, but my game went to the next level when I began to see the shot before it happened.

A lady who works on campus came to my office today. She had a question for me. Working with international students, she had one ask her what keeps her going through the stress and worries of life. She asked me what I would have told this student. I told her my thoughts. She began crying saying that she felt like Peter who denied Christ. She obviously felt like she blew it big time! That God was ashamed and, perhaps (she didn't say this exactly), her soul was in danger. We talked about the opportunity and prayed that God give her abundant opportunities to talk about Jesus and her own faith with international students.

So many of us go through life getting up to the ball and just hitting it in a general direction. Sometimes we might not even hit the ball in our enthusiasm! While it is good to at least hit the ball and to spend time practicing, we are merely going through life with a basic game.

To take our Jesus walk to the next level we need to visualize our shot before we hit it. We need to look at others (our leaders are a good place to start) and consider their way of life. We need to actually see ourselves talking to that person next to us in class. We need to imagine smiling at someone as we hold the door open. We need to feel the chair we will sit in as we read Proverbs 26 at 6:38am. We need to feel the person's shoulder in our hand as we will pray over the next person who asks us to pray for them instead of putting them on a list (prayer is personal). We need to imagine ourselves paying complete attention to the next person who needs our attention; we won't be looking around at other people wondering how to get out of the conversation. We need to see the opportunity before the opportunity comes. We need to cry out to God to open our eyes to the abundant opportunities he puts before us all the time. 

Imagination and practice go a long way as we seek to take our Jesus walk to the next level. What do you need to visualize yourself doing today?

Praying New

I must tell you that this last week has been a great journey in prayer for me. With the help of Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline I have discovered praying with imagination. Let me explain.

He uses the example of praying for a husband and wife and their marriage. The husband has been having an affair for some time and it has become public. You commit, he says, to pray for their marriage over the next thirty days. Using you imagination to pray for their marriage. You imagine that every time the husband sees the woman with whom he has had an affair he is filled with disgust. You imagine that when he sees his wife he is overwhelmed with love for her and wants to do everything he can to mend their broken relationship. You see them able to laugh together again, you hear them discussing hurt feelings, you imagine the pain of the affair being taken away.

I decided to try this new type of praying out. Kayla has been a pain in the rear, Tanya has had enough, and when I get home I feel the stress in both Kayla and Tanya. It has not been good. In fact, it had grown to a point that I was feeding off it too. Late one night I prayed with my imagination. I saw Kayla waking up without screaming while beating on the door she can't open yet. She was filled with contentment and ready to discover another part of her world. I felt the joy that Tanya felt when she would see Kayla in the morning when she got up. I saw the smile on her face. I imagined that breakfast and lunch were pleasant without whining and asking for "appi" (apples) all the time. I went through the whole day imagining what I prayed for. It was actually hard to do. And it took a long time to do it! But, when I came home asking how the day was, I knew the answer already because I had already felt it and imagined it before it happened. It is unlike anything I had experienced before.

When I told Tanya how I had prayed, she was encouraged. I told her that I was happy to work with God that day to make the day go so well. That is how I look at it. I am working together with God through my imagination to bless others. Wow! That is what it means to be "God's fellow workers" (1 Cor 3:9). I can't wait to tell other stories of how God and I have worked together to bless others. Until then...may God give us wisdom.