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Imaginations Should Be Exercised

February 20, 2017 by James D. Witmer 20 Comments

What is imagination good for? And why do we need imaginative stories?

The real world is full of beauty. Normal lives are full of drama. And beneath it all is Truth; bright, hard, sharp as the point of a spear.

So why make stuff up? Why read (or play at) things that aren’t real?

Because a healthy imagination is necessary for love.

Jesus said,

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (Matt 7 & Luke 6)

The sum of the Law and the Prophets! And it requires putting yourself in place of someone you have never been, imagining how you would want to be treated. If you think this is easy, you have:

1. never been married
2. not worked with many people
3. perhaps not yet been born

It’s not just the sacrifice of love that’s hard. It is getting far enough outside ourselves to remember that other people experience the world differently, and have needs, desires, and insecurities apart from ours.

The less imagination we have, the less we are able to empathize with those in need. And the less we empathize, the more likely we are to miss the deeper issues. (Issues in the old sense, that of waters which seep up from subterranean deposits, poisoning clear streams with the alkalines of rejection or fear.)

If we cannot imagine, we are likely to see others’ sin as alien (and worse!) than ours. To say, “There, but for the grace of God, go I” depends on a vibrant imagination. It needs the ability to see similarities between ourselves and the fallen, and to understand by imagination what our sinful natures would do without divine mercy. Without imagination, this saying becomes the prayer of a Pharisee: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.”

I have heard imaginative work rejected because it “has nothing to do with my life.” In other words, including swords, dwarfs, and orcs makes a story irrelevant because they are outside our personal experiences. But this is a false distinction, as C.S. Lewis shows in An Experiment In Criticism:

The most unliterary reader of all sticks to ‘the news’. He reads daily, with unwearied relish, how, in some place he has never seen, under circumstances which never become quite clear, someone he doesn’t know has married, rescued, robbed, raped or murdered someone else he doesn’t know. But this makes no essential difference between him and…those who read… fiction. He wants to read about the same sorts of events as they. The difference is that, like Shakespeare’s Mopsa, he wants to ‘be sure they are true’. This is because… he can hardly think of invention as a legitimate, or even a possible, activity.

Rejecting imaginative stories (and play) atrophies the “muscles” we need to love each other, by refusing to see the world from a different perspective. It encourages the assumption that our perspective, our way of life, is most important.

Only after surrendering to a story, walking in someone else’s shoes, can we recognize their triumphs, struggles and sins as fundamentally human, and therefore akin to ours. But if approached with humility, this discovery of kinship can uniquely encourage and convict us.

Remember that Jesus taught with stories. By compelling us to identify with his characters, He provided a relational knowledge of God that transcends facts. We teach that God is merciful. Jesus told a story about a Master who paid slackers a full day’s wage (Matthew 20:1-13). If we enter His story with our imaginations, we find ourselves responding emotionally, and are challenged by finding with whom in the story we most identify.

The object of faith is not what we should learn, but who we should become. Answering it takes imagination. And imaginations should be exercised.

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James D. Witmer
James D. Witmer
James is a second-generation homeschool dad with a lifetime experience reading stories in books and in the outdoors. He’s the author of children’s books A Year in the Big Old Garden, Beside the Pond, and The Strange New Dog, and continues to write about adventure, backyard wildlife, and realizing there are no ordinary places.

You can find him at JamesDWitmer.com or on Instagram @JamesDWitmer.
James D. Witmer
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Filed Under: Fostering Imagination, Uncategorized, Valuing Imagination Tagged With: C.S. Lewis

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Comments

  1. Alyssa Ramsey says

    June 25, 2012 at 7:40 am

    I love your connection between imagination and empathy. It makes a lot of sense to me as a mom, trying to help my kids care about people and places whose existence they can barely comprehend. Without imagination, their world stays so very small, and they care so very little. Thanks for this reminder.

    Reply
    • James Witmer says

      June 25, 2012 at 3:31 pm

      Thanks, Alyssa!
      I see it at our house too: One asks “How do you think mugging your sister and stealing her doll made her feel?” and the process of imagination, identification, and dawning empathy is almost visible on their little faces.

      Reply
  2. James S. says

    June 25, 2012 at 12:14 pm

    This is great! The reason why I keep going back to Tolkien is because I can see parts of myself in each of the characters he writes about. Ditto to the imagination/empathy as well.

    Reply
    • James Witmer says

      June 25, 2012 at 3:33 pm

      Thanks, Mr S! Glad you enjoyed it, and yes: seeing ourselves in a character can be encouraging and convicting by turns.

      Reply
  3. Julie @ Wife, Mother, Gardener says

    June 25, 2012 at 3:10 pm

    I love this: “It’s not just the sacrifice of love that’s hard. It is getting far
    enough outside ourselves to remember that other people experience the
    world differently, and have needs, desires, and insecurities apart from
    ours.”
    Thank you for writing this post!

    Reply
    • James Witmer says

      June 25, 2012 at 3:34 pm

      You’re welcome. =) As you know, I often need to read what I write!

      Reply
  4. S.D. Smith says

    June 25, 2012 at 3:57 pm

    This is just a wonderful post. I need to hear it and long for it to be heard widely. Great job, James! You are such a fine writer and your words serve others. Thank you!

    Reply
  5. livingoakheart says

    July 3, 2012 at 9:16 pm

    “Normal lives are full of drama.”
    THIS IS ME AT WORK. I have way too much fun there… I think I have done a decent job of hiding it from my boss.

    Reply
  6. Vincent says

    July 17, 2012 at 7:55 pm

    Spot on, James. Spot on! And the allusion to Simon and Garfunkel only made it ten times more my favorite! Once again, your perspective is enlightening, challenging (in a good way), and refreshing! Write on, I say! Write on!

    Reply
  7. Ethan Smith says

    February 20, 2017 at 3:43 pm

    Mr. Witmer,
    I cannot agree with you more! So often people will discount fictional literature because of it’s seeming irrelevance to daily living. But with beautiful prose you have given us an alternative perspective and I want to thank you for this expose of the true worth of fiction.
    Ethan Smith

    Reply
    • James Witmer says

      February 21, 2017 at 9:01 am

      Glad you liked it, Ethan. Thanks for the kind words.

      Reply
  8. Josiah says

    February 21, 2017 at 8:09 am

    I appreciate your insights James! Thanks for writing this with generosity and clarity.

    Reply
    • James Witmer says

      February 21, 2017 at 9:01 am

      Thanks, Josiah!

      Reply
  9. James Witmer says

    February 21, 2017 at 9:00 am

    Thanks, Scott!

    Reply
  10. Heidi says

    February 22, 2017 at 10:49 am

    Wonderful. Thank you.

    Reply
  11. Patty Sommer says

    March 6, 2017 at 2:43 pm

    Your list of three was brilliant! My life-long pastor’s dad {that had ministered in various ways over many, many years} used to say that he hoped the next place God called him would be to the unpeopled corners of the earth! What a gift God gave us to help serve others when He gave us the imagination. Thanks, James.

    Reply

Trackbacks

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  4. The Warren and the World, Vol 2 ‹ Story Warren says:
    June 29, 2012 at 6:21 am

    […] James wrote about the greatest benefit of active imagination: real love • David shows, doesn’t tell, the difference between fostering and inspiring imagination in children • Sarah expresses the beauty of being sent outside • Loren reviewed Edward Tulane — I need to read this book […]

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