What if I told you a healthy imagination was essential to being a good church member? You may think I need to read less Lewis and Tolkien and more 9Marks. But I’m serious. Imagination not only provides a door into the fanciful world of fairy tales; it also provides a pathway to understanding the pain and perplexities of fellow church members.
Cultural clichés hint at this point: “She lives vicariously through her children,” we say. We’ve even coined words to describe this imaginative ability. An “escapist” is a person who seeks distraction and relief from unpleasant realities by imagining themselves living a different life, often someone else’s.
As believers, our imaginations have been redeemed. They’re no longer primarily a way of escaping into the unreal, but rather a way of entering into the realities of fellow suffering saints.
The Bible is full of commands to do this:
Weep with those who weep (Rom. 12:15). Remember those in prison as though in prison with them (Heb. 13:3). Bear one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2). Consider how to stir one another up and encourage one another (Heb.10:24–25).
These commands implicitly require that we to some extent feel the grief of the stillborn, the paralysis of
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