Think Again!

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

themselves, we are not empowering, but enabling. This is why our motto at TUMI is borrowed from Home Depot, “You can do it, we can help.” You have to be willing to be misunderstood if you are going to empower others. You must have confidence in your own calling, the resourcing of the Holy Spirit, and the ability of others to cultivate their own imaginations. Beware of unhealthy dependence. Imagination Is Formed by Anguish Imagination is not all sweetness and light. In fact, imagination is formed out of a deep longing for things to be different, a discontentment with the status quo. If you ask, “Why can’t I shake this persistent grief?” it shows that your imagination is still alive; you haven’t fallen victim to the numbness of preservation. Your anguish will drive you to liberate what has become enslaved, to contribute to the collapse of preservation’s status quo. Think about the Israelite nation crying out against Egyptian oppression. Imagination was cultivated once the people had suffered enough to consider leaving the security of Egypt, envisioning a new future as a new people (Exod. 3.9). Imagination envisions a fresh situation, a hopeful set of circumstances. Your work of the Kingdom is to have eyes to see what is bound, seeing into the despair of people, and imagining a different situation. On the way to my office in South Los Angeles, as I come up from the subway at the corner of Wilshire and Vermont, sometimes I stop for coffee. This is one of the busiest and most diverse intersections in the world. Several ethnic groups walk through the massive courtyard, changing buses, going to school, or rushing to work. I see people of all ages, socioeconomic levels, and occupations. They are lawyers, nurses, students, homeless people, and construction workers. I think about their thoughts