Friday, December 14, 2012

Sailing on Shopping Cart Seas

I have wondered of late whether imagination is dying out in America.  We have Netflix, HBO, Cinemax, Blockbuster Video, Red Box, Theaters, Nintendo, Sega, DVD’s and MP3s.  You really don’t have to wonder if you don’t wish to.  We have so many avenues to emotional input that we hardly have to think anymore.  When was the last time you enjoyed a sunset or the company of a friend where you just talked about life rather than the latest thing on TV?  Some of the greatest inventions have begun when two friends got together and someone said, “What if we were to…”


It was late the other night when I had turned off my Android phone and MacBook Pro.  The Kindle was powered down and my wife was asleep while I reveled in her soft breathing as the day’s concerns were brushed away in slumber.  It was quiet in the house for the first time all day and I remembered a moment of time in my youth when I was able to board a sailing ship and slip away from schoolwork and those things that had been troubling me.

Our house in Seattle had a large EL shaped basement with ping pong and pool tables.  This particular night my parents were upstairs watching TV and I was preparing for a wonderful voyage over the ocean.  My sailing yacht was an ancient shopping cart rescued from a dumpster and refurbished by my father.  I lined it with pillows and quilts (it was cold on the ocean) and snuggled down into the cockpit.  With my hand on the rudder (broomstick), I pushed off from the dock (pool table) and began my adventure. 

Several months before I had shot the rapids (Roosevelt Avenue) in this same boat and had fully healed up after landing it on the rocks (104th Street Curb).  Tonight I merely wanted to breathe a sigh of contentment and imagine my travels from island to island in my limited inland sea. 

It’s funny how much fun you can have in a room with finite dimensions when your mind provides the scenery and magnifies the distances.  As a child I used to imagine my favorite cartoons in my head after being put to bed.  Now I was hearing the lap of waves against the hull of my happy ship while taking care not to capsize in rough seas (a very real concern on the concrete floor). 

One thing I love about serving God is that He is not limited by our human frailties.  God will provide vision where there can be none and overcome your lack of ability through His limitless bounty.  Every nation that has ever had a spiritual Christian revival has also experienced a revival of invention and great imagination.  There may be nothing new under the sun but there is always something new under the SON.  Your Father’s great pleasure is to grant you those insights.

You will never discover these great miracles by watching your favorite show on Wednesday night but you just might by spending some quiet time with God on the ocean of your imagination.  Your Heavenly Father seizes on these precious moments and infuses you with vision and understanding.  He creates links between what is and what could be while you sail on what might be.

My hope and prayer is that all of you will find your own sea of discovery and in so finding will learn that God is still in the business of working powerful miracles in times of quiet reflection.  Take time to be rested and then imagine what might be on the sea that rolls out before you.

The greatest have often turned a daydream into a vision for the future.  Sail away into your place of revelation and allow the Lord to work a miracle in your life.  He’s waiting to meet you there.

Bishop J

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