Think Again!

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

Effort Imagination also takes effort. It demands discipline, ambition, and courage. God is pleased when you try and fail but displeased when you play it safe, burying his treasure in the ground. The lazy steward was right to say: “I knew you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed (Matt. 25.24).” God wants you to be diligent, using your imagination so he can receive a return on his investment. He wants a harvest as a result of you sowing the seeds. He expects you to be clever and work hard to get the job done. Imagination takes effort . Failure Imagination also involves failure. Many ideas you attempt will not work, some at a laughable level. But God can redeem everything. Innovators value failure because they learn from it. A plant that goes to seed can be the source of a plentiful harvest in the future, so you should cast seed and see what comes up. What seems like a spark of genius might fall flat. Then, to your surprise, a different approach works. Some of my best ideas have come upon second and third attempts. Imagination takes failure . Bringing It All Together When you aspire to yield an ROI for God, cultivating imagination is more about bravado than technique, more about courage than information, and more about confidence than procedure. It is not just studying the Bible, it is applying biblical truth in creative situations, producing fruit that glorifies his name. You are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God. You are the light of the world (Matt. 5.14). You are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared beforehand that you should walk in them (Eph. 2.10). With unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, you are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory