Think Again!

144 • Think Again: Transformation That Yields a Return on God’s Investment

firewood. Pharisees wanted rules to follow, but Jesus interpreted the Law in a way that gave freedom and cultivated imagination.

Preservation is not about creating but maintaining. It inspires no one and leads to tiredness, boredom, and lethargy. Prolonged exposure to preservation is dangerous because it atrophies your imagination, turning you into a victim of circumstances. You can become blind to your own shallowness. Preservation gravitates toward permanent solutions that require no imagination. In the Kingdom the only certainty you have is that there will be uncertainty. The Mission Impossible team asked Ethan, “What is the plan?” He replied, “The plan is that the plan is going to change.” Since there is no permanent solution, imagination has to resist preservation. Imagination Attracts Critics As you resist preservation, do not be surprised when you attract critics. Preservation is intolerant and hostile to imagination, because it threatens what they are trying to preserve: their status quo, their life’s work, their source of notoriety. Your imagination calls into question the pretense of their agenda. Imagination, hope, and wonder are threatening for people who want to be left alone in the quiet comfort of their situation. People may say they want to be freed by your imaginative ideas but they probably prefer to remain complacently in their present situation. When false gods are threatened and ridiculed, they fight back. To cultivate imagination is to launch a revolution . Preservation attempts to create the pretense that their little world is sufficient and so it is severely resistant to self-criticism. They falsely assume they hold the gold-standard that others want to imitate. They are self-deceived, thinking their influence will live on You must crush preservation if you want to cultivate imagination.