How Your Imagination Helps You See
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - We are coming off of our national conference,
00:00:07.160 | which was dedicated to the life and legacy of C.S. Lewis,
00:00:09.740 | who died 50 years ago this fall.
00:00:12.860 | It was a great time, with a lot of helpful messages shared,
00:00:15.480 | and all of those messages are now online
00:00:17.420 | at desiringgod.org.
00:00:19.180 | And one of the big themes of the conference
00:00:20.700 | centered on the imagination,
00:00:22.400 | and how faith and theology
00:00:23.900 | require the use of our imaginations.
00:00:26.800 | Pastor John, do you have any takeaways from the conference,
00:00:29.280 | or things you're thinking about post-conference,
00:00:31.320 | on the imagination?
00:00:33.200 | - Yeah, a lot was said in the conference on Lewis
00:00:38.200 | about the imagination.
00:00:39.760 | What is it?
00:00:40.920 | And so on.
00:00:41.820 | One feature, it seems to me, of imagination,
00:00:45.880 | is the ability to see the value,
00:00:49.400 | or the wonder, or the glory of things for what they are.
00:00:54.400 | In other words, just see ordinary things
00:00:57.160 | for the wonder that they are.
00:01:00.280 | Which means that, in a sense,
00:01:02.040 | maybe that shouldn't be called imagination.
00:01:04.320 | We usually think of imagination
00:01:05.760 | as thinking of ways of describing things
00:01:08.440 | that are different from what they are.
00:01:10.720 | And that's true.
00:01:11.560 | In fact, I made a case for that.
00:01:14.720 | But because of the fall, Clyde Kilby,
00:01:18.760 | my teacher of literature in college,
00:01:21.640 | he said one of the saddest effects of the fall
00:01:24.840 | is that we get tired of things.
00:01:27.160 | So we go to the Alps, see 'em for the first time,
00:01:31.000 | we're stunned, speechless.
00:01:32.800 | We rent a little chalet at the foot of the Alps,
00:01:36.340 | and for three mornings we get up amazed,
00:01:38.780 | and the fourth morning we're watching television.
00:01:41.240 | And he says that's an effect of the fall
00:01:46.640 | that will be taken away.
00:01:48.680 | Won't that be wonderful?
00:01:49.640 | In the age to come where we never get tired of anything.
00:01:52.840 | Which means that now we need powers of imagination,
00:01:57.600 | not just to think of things that are not,
00:02:01.120 | but to look at the things that are
00:02:03.160 | and see them for what they are.
00:02:05.960 | There's the fresh thought that I had.
00:02:08.880 | Just looking at what is there
00:02:11.840 | and being amazed at what it is,
00:02:14.280 | not just thinking of things it's like that it's not.
00:02:18.240 | And this is what Lewis was so good at.
00:02:22.820 | He was described as having an omnivorous attentiveness,
00:02:27.820 | a phrase that I love so much.
00:02:30.740 | He was awake to the wonder of things.
00:02:34.140 | He saw more in ordinary things than I do,
00:02:37.780 | and therefore when I listen to him or read him,
00:02:40.060 | I see more things.
00:02:41.380 | He lived with a kind of sensuous expectancy.
00:02:46.380 | I just thought of that phrase yesterday.
00:02:50.140 | That is, his senses, by sensuous I don't mean sensual,
00:02:53.860 | I mean sensuous, having to do with the senses.
00:02:55.940 | His senses were expectant.
00:02:58.140 | Like if he saw a tree, he would see something fresh and new.
00:03:01.660 | If he saw a little slug inching its way along the sidewalk,
00:03:05.600 | leaving a silver trail, he'd see something new.
00:03:09.100 | He would have thought that,
00:03:12.240 | I think Lewis would have thought that boredom
00:03:15.940 | with the world is a sin.
00:03:18.180 | It insults the glory of creation.
00:03:22.340 | So here's one example,
00:03:23.500 | and this is what made all this stuff pop
00:03:26.620 | in the last few hours.
00:03:28.880 | One great example is that Lewis stood in God-exalting awe
00:03:35.340 | of what it means to be human,
00:03:39.780 | just what it means to be human.
00:03:42.220 | And he helped me in many ways here
00:03:44.940 | rise above my petty complaints.
00:03:48.420 | I tend to see a lot of people as frustrating and annoying,
00:03:52.540 | and that's just so lame.
00:03:54.980 | I mean, Lewis saw people as stunning.
00:03:59.020 | And here's the quote that blew me away
00:04:02.740 | and continues to blow me away.
00:04:04.620 | He said, "It is a serious thing to live in a society
00:04:08.300 | "of possible gods and goddesses,
00:04:10.580 | "to remember that the dullest
00:04:12.160 | "and most uninteresting person you talk to
00:04:14.200 | "may one day be a creature,
00:04:16.100 | "which if you saw it now,
00:04:17.860 | "you would be strongly tempted to worship,
00:04:20.460 | "or else a horror and a corruption
00:04:22.260 | "such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.
00:04:26.180 | "All day long, we are in some degree helping each other
00:04:29.980 | "to one of those two destinations.
00:04:32.320 | "There are no ordinary people.
00:04:34.540 | "You have never talked to a mere mortal.
00:04:36.900 | "Nations, cultures, arts, civilization, these are mortal,
00:04:42.280 | "and their life is to ours like the life of a gnat.
00:04:46.440 | "But it is immortals with whom we joke, work,
00:04:50.500 | "marry, snub, exploit, immortal horrors
00:04:54.980 | "or everlasting splendors."
00:04:56.860 | End of quote.
00:04:57.760 | Now, that's just stunning.
00:04:58.740 | Who else sees things like that?
00:05:01.060 | Who in the world says nations, cultures,
00:05:04.300 | and arts, and civilizations,
00:05:06.660 | these are like a gnat to a human being?
00:05:09.660 | I just think that's incredible.
00:05:11.180 | I mean, when you read it, you say,
00:05:12.520 | "Well, yes, that's true, they do.
00:05:14.200 | "They come and go, and human beings never go.
00:05:17.660 | "They live forever."
00:05:19.920 | And so he compares the two and say,
00:05:21.880 | "So which are you gonna be amazed at?
00:05:24.360 | "Political powers, and cultures, and arts,
00:05:26.480 | "and civilizations, or your neighbor?"
00:05:28.800 | I mean, that kind of thing is so revolutionary to your soul
00:05:33.560 | when you read it and you start looking at your wife,
00:05:36.240 | and your kids, and your neighbors,
00:05:38.040 | and everybody so differently.
00:05:40.700 | So the effect this has had on me
00:05:42.920 | is to make me pretty serious about life and people.
00:05:46.040 | And when I say serious, I don't mean unhappy.
00:05:50.240 | "Joy is the serious business of heaven," Lewis said.
00:05:56.400 | The opposite of serious, serious is not sad.
00:05:59.600 | The opposite of serious is silly,
00:06:01.560 | and frivolous, and flippant, and trivial.
00:06:05.200 | Lewis said, "We must play, but our merriment
00:06:08.680 | "must be of that kind," and it is, in fact,
00:06:11.500 | the merriest kind, he said, "which exists between people
00:06:15.120 | "who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously."
00:06:19.880 | No flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.
00:06:23.080 | So I came away from the conference, Tony,
00:06:25.780 | with things like that, more amazed that I'm alive,
00:06:29.700 | more amazed that I'm a human being in God's image,
00:06:33.100 | more amazed that I'm a sinner saved by grace,
00:06:36.280 | that I'm destined for eternal joys,
00:06:39.780 | and many of which I have tasted,
00:06:43.480 | and some scarcely tasted at all.
00:06:47.160 | - Yes, that is amazing.
00:06:48.480 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:06:49.920 | And thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:06:51.500 | Email your questions to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:06:55.660 | You can visit us online at desiringgod.org
00:06:57.720 | to find thousands of books, and articles,
00:06:59.200 | sermons, and other resources from John Piper.
00:07:01.480 | And now you can find all of the National Conference
00:07:03.740 | audio and videos all free of charge.
00:07:06.060 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:07:07.120 | Thanks for listening.
00:07:08.220 | (upbeat music)
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