photography by JODIE BRIM CREATIVE
So, it’s February. How many of those New Year’s Resolutions stuck?
Moving right along….
How many of you already feel that, despite your best efforts, nothing has changed? A month into this new year, does everything feel monotonously the same?
I hear you. I do! Stay with me.
The mind is a most remarkable machine. This God-given, living hard drive performs in ways that researchers still cannot fully fathom. But, all the extraordinary things our minds can do fall into two categories. Our mind remembers, and it imagines. That’s it. For real!
Now get this: the average human thinks about 75,000 thoughts a day. (Whew! I’m tired!) But, for most people, 91% of these 75,000 thoughts are the same thoughts we thought yesterday. Yes, you read that right! In other words, more than nine out of 10 thoughts relive previous experiences. Almost none of our thought life imagines! ALMOST NONE!
What happened? Somewhere along the way in our youth, we transitioned from living in imagination (what can be) to settling down in our previous history through memories (what has been that we keep repeating).
Friends, we don’t stop imagining because we get older. We get older because we stop imagining.
Y’all, God created us to be creators! He built us to dream big dreams and do great things, truly!
Memory is surely vital to our living. But, we lean entirely too heavily on something incredibly more unreliable than we presume.
Do you realize that each time you recall a memory, you don’t recall that actual moment? Instead, you experience the last memory you retained of that memory. In reality, the more you repeat that remembrance, the more skewed the original moment becomes. Certain pieces get smaller while others get bigger.
If you experience delight, the more you recall that memory, the more you unconsciously exaggerate the bliss and tune out the imperfect pieces of life that surround that experience. (You know I’m telling the truth!) If you revisit a painful moment, the more you recall it, the more severe and impactful that wound becomes.
Listen friend, I’m not suggesting that you stop remembering. God gave us this capacity for our benefit. But, He never intended for us to spend almost ALL our time with our minds on “replay.” It’s no wonder we stay so frustrated – we want a different tomorrow while we keep reliving yesterday! It’s never going to happen!
If you are looking for change, your thoughts must go there before your life gets there. If you can’t imagine it, you likely will never experience it, either.
I audaciously believe that God has new doors of opportunity for you to walk through in this new year. He’s good like that! He dreams so much bigger for you than you dream for yourself.
But, we can’t see the new doors, much less walk through them, if we are still reflecting upon the doors behind us. What we keep rehashing, we will not forget or leave behind.
I know, I know. You can likely tell me everything you have stacked against you. You have rehearsed how bad things are and how impossible it feels for things to flip in your favor.
Hear me! The thoughts inside your head are battling for control of how you see your situation. Stop reexamining all the obstacles! Begin to imagine in graphic detail what real change could look like. Let that genius mind of yours lay the path for you to step into that new thing!
Friends, that’s the essence of Faith…believing God for what we cannot see until we see it! What has God imagined for you that YOU need to begin imagining for YOURSELF? It’s time to get to it! IMAGINE!
For comments or prayer, contact Dr. Lanier at PastorDebbie@HopeCommunityChurch.tv.
