Yesterday the pastor at our church gave a children’s sermon about imagination. She asked the kids if they had good imaginations. Everyone raised their hands. Then she asked the adults the same question. Very few raised their hands.
And it’s true. Using your imagination is something we get as kids and using your imagination is a practice thing. Use it or lose it. And now we have a multitude of ways to use our time. Our imagination gets lost.
Many a time I have picked up my phone to do a bit of research about something I’m writing and got distracted by social media or emails. By the time I have checked out all of my notifications I’m out of time or, worse, I have forgotten what I was going to write about. Sometimes it comes back to me and sometimes the idea is gone.
For example, in the middle of writing this post, I found it necessary to look at the pictures I took the other day. Then I found pictures on my phone I thought I had lost. And then I remembered I was using my imagination to do some writing and thought about how easily I can get distracted.
I could be annoyed with myself. But I’m choosing not to beat myself up over this. Instead, I choose to laugh at myself and hope that there are people up there who have experienced this and will laugh and relate. I choose to be happy I spent some time getting my thoughts down on paper and that I will continue to do so through all the distractions and busy-ness. I will be happy I go to a church where using our imaginations to create a better world is part of the sermon. And, even though I was distracted, I still created something I wanted to share.
