Running late. No time to look for something to read on the two hour bus ride. I race down the basement steps anyway, and sort through some dusty volumes. Grab a small paperback copy of My Utmost for His Highest. Perfect size. Won’t weigh down my purse as I Christmas shop in New York City with my daughter, Kelly, a NYC resident. I arrive at the station just as the bus pulls in, board, and settle down with my book.
Years have passed since I read Oswald Chambers. The revisit refreshes me. I don’t stick to December entries, but skip around. The February 10th title tugs at my writer’s heart. “Is Your Imagination of God Starved?”
Over fifteen years ago I began my journey as a writer when God invaded my imagination with a book plot for preteens. I labored on the manuscript over a decade, learning how to write in the process. I wrote, rewrote, attended writers conferences, and joined critique groups. Now my masterpiece hovers like an airplane in a holding pattern as I wait to hear from agents and publishers. Rejection letters are my traveling companions.
The word “imagination” speaks distinctly to me. God gives us an imagination, and wants us to use it to connect with Him and know him better. Oswald Chambers said the Jews in Isaiah’s day had starved their imaginations by gazing on idols. Hmmm. Times haven’t changed much. My heart grieves when I see some of what we gaze upon on television and in print. I think this is why God called me to write—to help young people open up the window of their imagination in a godly way.
Chambers points out the answer God gave to Isaiah. “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who has created these things” ( Isaiah 40:26). In other words, Isaiah asked them to look up at the heavens. The New American Standard version says, “Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars.”
We need to ponder what God has made. “In every wind that blows, in every night and day of the year, in every sign of the sky, in every blossoming and in every withering of the earth, there is a real coming of God to us if we will simply use our starved imagination to realize it,” Chambers says.
My book opens with the protagonist gazing at the Star Field screensaver on his computer, imagining he is flying through space to an exotic destiny. Zach wants to be a part of something great—something beyond himself. He would like to be a basketball legend like his dad, a former college star. On his journey to find what he’s looking for, he finds Who is looking for him.
Zach represents us all. We yearn for something more. If only we would realize God wants to come to us. Zach’s trek with God takes him farther than his Star Field daydreams. God comes to him in a way that is beyond his imaginings.
Some say that all are not called to great adventure in God. I believe we all have the capacity for it. God will meet us in the most improbable places—like on a shopping trip to New York. It begins when we look up.
