Paul Tripp: You can't escape being a dreamer; it's what you were made to be. You have this ability to envision the future, to envision what could be, to actually see it with the eyes of your heart.

Kate Crowley: From Paul Tripp Ministries, this is Right Here, Right Now, connecting the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life. Here now is Paul Tripp.

Paul Tripp: I know exactly what you're thinking. I know because you're just like me. As you face the opportunities, responsibilities, pressures, and temptations of everyday life, like me, you tell yourself, if you just understood some things, life would be so much easier.

If you just understood your husband or your wife better, if you could only understand why you woke up this morning, and your child had a new personality, if you could just figure out why in the world your boss is always critical, if you could just figure out why your neighbor seems not to be interested in relationship to you, you tell yourself that what you need is explanation.

If someone could just explain to you why your friend said that, or why your husband did that, or your daughter refused to do that, then life would be a whole lot easier. But maybe it's not just explanation that you need. Explanation is about why, and how, and when, and where. Maybe you need something else.

Maybe there's something so fresh, so practical, so radical, that if you had it, it would completely change the way you look at life. What is that something? That something is called 'imagination'. You say, "What, Paul? Imagination! Are you kidding me? Isn't imagination for children or for adults who love Star Trek?"

Imagination is critical for all of us, and I will tell you this, if you don't have a lively and active imagination, if you don't have a lively and active imagination, you just won't live the way that God designed for you to live.

Music: "If I Were a Painter" by Norah Jones

And I'm dreaming of a place
Where I could see your face
And I think my brush would take me there
But only...
If I were a painter
And could paint a memory
I'd climb inside the swirling skies to be with you
I'd climb inside the skies to be with you

Kate Crowley: You're listening to Right Here, Right Now with Paul Tripp. Paul is beginning a new series called "Imagination." Thanks for listening, and you can hear Paul each weekday at 11 A.M. on WFIL. Please be sure to tell your friends. And for resources dealing with subjects like marriage and ministry, and this includes Paul's recent book, Lost In The Middle; go to paultrippministries.org. That's all one word: paultripp, spelled T-R-I-P-P, paultrippministries.org. More from Paul Tripp, Right Here, Right Now.

We Are All a Bunch of Dreamers

Paul Tripp: Well, I don't know if you've noticed it or not, if you look around, there's lots of evidence. You and I, we're just a bunch of dreamers. It didn't stop with Genesis 11 and the Tower of Babel. We all have our visions of our own personal towers to the sky. We all conjure up visions of our own personal earthbound heaven. And we are all committed to realizing what we've dreamed.

You're after a dream. You envision what could be. You have this amazing ability to envision what is not actually real, to see it as if it was real, to imagine it as if it was already in your life. And your dreams have an awful lot to do with why you do the things you do, why you say the things you say, the decisions that you make, the choices that you make, the relationships that you pursue, the things you find happy, the things you find sad, the things that propel you, the things that irritate you. All of those things are attached to the dream that you hold in your heart.

Do you know that yesterday, somehow, some way, you chased that dream? Every morning, when we get up, we look at the pile of bricks we have been given, and with the mortar and trowel of our time and energy, we try to construct our tower of dreams. Sometimes our dreams are unrealistic and irrational. Those are the billion-dollar, life-would-be-forever-easy dreams. Some of our dreams are destructive and dangerous. Those are the vengeful, envious, bitter dreams. Some of our dreams are beautiful and God honoring. We dream of serving, and loving, and giving.

But there's one thing you won't escape. You will never, ever, ever, ever, and can I say it again, ever escape the fact that you're a dreamer. You started dreaming very young, and you've dreamed your whole life, that little game of pretend that the little girl played in her bedroom with her dolls becomes a lifelong habit.

And as an adult, those dreams are deeper, and more essential, and more profound. They become the fabric of the way that we all live life every day. The point is you can't escape being a dreamer; it's what you were made to be. You have this ability to envision the future, to envision what could be, to actually see it with the eyes of your heart.

And so, this is the utterly inescapable fact; there is always some grand vision that has your heart. You have been given the capacity to imagine; you have been given the ability to dream. You have been given the capacity to see with the eyes of your heart things that do not yet exist. You can see it; you can hear it; you can smell it. It's almost as real as if it were real. Dreams are powerful and dreams are influential. You have the capacity to imagine; you have the ability to dream, and it is both a wonderful and a dangerous thing.

Music: "Sting Desert Rose" with Cheb Mami

I dream of rain
I dream of gardens in the desert sand
I wake in vain
I dream of love as time runs through my hand
Sweet desert rose
Each of her veils, a secret promise
This desert flower
No sweet perfume ever tortured me more than this
Sweet desert rose
This memory of Eden haunts us all
This desert flower
This rare perfume, is the sweet intoxication of the fall

What Sets Human Beings Apart

Paul Tripp: I don't know if you think about what it means to be a human being. Maybe you've been a human being for so long you've quit thinking about what it means to be a human being. But one of the things that separates us from the rest of creation is our ability to imagine.

You see, unlike the rest of the animal kingdom, we don't operate by instinct or biological causality. We have been given, by the Creator, this astounding ability to see worlds in our minds that may not yet exist. Now it's probably a gross understatement to say that this powerful ability gets right to the heart of who we are as human beings and how we operate every day, day by day. But that's exactly what it does. This ability to imagine, this ability to dream really does get right to the heart of who we are and how we function.

Do you know that there was a reason for God designing you with this ability to imagine? Have you thought about it that there's a specific purpose in your ability to dream? You see, you and I, in the essence of the purpose for our creation, we were made for relationship with God. We were not made for an independent existence. We were not made for other purposes. The highest, grandest, most glorious purpose that any human being could ever have, and that purpose was in the mind of God, is that we would have relationship with Him. This relationship is, in fact, our job description. It is, in fact, the place where you find your identity, and meaning, and purpose. It is meant to be the deepest, most profound motivation for your everyday life. You and I were made for relationship with God. It is the reason you and I have been put on earth.

But we've got a big problem. We've got a fundamental problem. Here it is, listen carefully. There's a huge gap between God and us, a huge gap between God and us! We live in the physical world of sight, sound, and touch. We are physical beings in a physical world. We do live in a material world. But God lives in the spiritual world of unseen realities. Now, how can a physical being have relationship with a spiritual being? There's a great gap between them. How will those two beings ever be able to bridge the gap?

So God, in His creative artistry, in the knowledge of His will, God gave us Spirits so that we could see Him, so that we could know Him, and commune with Him. We are not just physical, material beings; we are spiritual beings as well, and that Spirit that lives inside of the body, that heart that lives inside of the physical you, was created so that we would have the capacity, the ability, to bridge the gap and relate to a God who is a Spirit. You see, the primary function of the Spirit, the inner man, is the ability to imagine. That is, to see God.

Now maybe you're thinking, "Paul I'm just confused. I thought imagination had to do with fairy tales and fantasy novels. I thought imagination had to do with Harry Potter and science fiction. I thought that's what it was about. I thought imagination had to do with a little child in the backyard pretending that he's a cowboy, or the little girl pretending that she's a princess. I thought that's what imagination was about. What in the world does imagination have to do with God?"

Well, you need to listen to this definition. I think the reason we don't think imagination is important is because we don't understand what imagination is. And so whenever we're up against it, whenever there are things that are difficult for us, whenever we're confused or suffering, whenever difficulty has come into our door, and trials have obstructed our pathway, what we tend to do is think, "I need explanation. I need to understand more."

And although that's good, although explanation is a good thing, and God explains to us many things, explanation is never enough. Because with all the explanations in the world, you will never, ever dispense mystery and confusion from your life. Let me say it again, "For all the explanation in the world, you will never, ever successfully remove mystery and confusion from your life."

So listen to this definition of imagination. "Imagination is, in the real sense of what we're talking about, not the ability to conjure up what is unreal. No! Imagination is rather the ability to see what is real, but unseen." Let me repeat that again for you because I think it is terribly important. "Imagination is not the ability to conjure up what is unreal. No! Imagination is rather the ability to see what is real, but unseen."

You see, there is a world of unseen realities; that world is as real as the chair you may be sitting in, or the walls you may be looking at, or the radio you may be listening on. That world of unseen realities is not unreal. It's just unseen because it's a spiritual world. It's not a physical world of sight, and sound, and visibility, and touch, and taste.

So God gave us this ability to see what cannot be seen so that we could have a relationship with Him even though we can't physically see Him or physically converse with Him. God wants us to be able to bridge the gap. God wants us to know Him, and to love Him, and to worship Him, and to commune with Him. God actually wants us to have a relationship with Him. So, He's given us the capacity to imagine. We have the capacity to love God even though we've never seen Him and are unable to touch Him.

So we human beings are dreamers. This ability gives us station and dignity among the rest of creation. We don't just give glory by means of our existence, like the stone, the bird, the flower, the tree, the mountain or the river. No! We can see and commune with Glory Himself even though He cannot be heard and cannot be seen. We can have real relationship with God. We can really know Him; we can really love Him. We can really fellowship with Him. We can be in true, real community with Him.

What an amazing thing! What a profound ability. Why were we given that ability?...Because relationship with God is the thing that we were made for. It's the reason we were put on earth. It is fundamentally our identity and so unique in all of creation. We've been given this wonderful and dangerous ability.

You and I can cross the great divide between this the physical and the spiritual and commune with God. Yes we can. We can cross the bridge between the physical and the spiritual and commune with God. We have imagination; we are dreamers. That gets to the heart of who we are as human beings because relationship with God is the one foundational thing for which we were created.

Music: "Great Expectations" by Steven Curtis Chapman

The morning finds me here at heaven's door
A place I've been so many times before
Familiar thoughts and phrases start to flow
Carry me to places that I know so well
But there I go where I don't understand
And do I dare remember where I am
I stand before the great eternal throne
The one that God Himself is seated on
And I have been invited as a son
Oh, I have been invited to come
And believe the unbelievable
Receive the inconceivable
And see beyond my wildest imagination
Lord, I come with great expectation

How Are You Investing Your Imagination?

Paul Tripp: So what are you doing with your capacity to dream? Every day, in some way, you make dream investments. Every day you're involved in imagination investments. What are you doing with the capacity to dream? How are you exercising your imagination? What have you been doing with your ability to see what cannot be seen? Is there someplace where, in your mind's eye, you are building the worlds that are not real? You are building your own towers to the sky.

We actually start exercising our imaginations very young. Yes, it is true, that game children call 'make-believe' is really a very profound thing. It is the imagination beginning to flex, and to grow, and to develop its muscles.

I was, years ago, as a young pastor, looking out the kitchen window at our little home in Scranton, Pennsylvania. And, I noticed my son, Ethan, was out there all by himself playing alone. He was just a little guy, and I felt badly that he was playing by himself, so I went out in the backyard.

I said, "Ethan, what are you doing out here all by yourself? Don't you want somebody to play with?"

And he responded, "I'm not by myself, dad, Joe is with me."

I looked around; I couldn't see Joe, I couldn't see anyone else. And so, I said, "Well, Joe who?"

Ethan said, now you have got to love this name, "My best friend, Joe Fakeoney!" Now isn't that just the best name for an imaginary friend ever, Joe Fakeoney? And as I talked to Ethan more, I realized that he had not only dreamed up and imagined Joe, but Joe's family, and Joe's extended family, and a whole community of imaginary people around him. Ethan was, in his mind's eye, not in that yard all by himself. He was in a vibrant community of a whole lot of people.

What an amazing ability! You see, he'd never been to school. No one had ever taught him how to do this. He had never taken imagination instructions and dream techniques. No, he did it because he was a human being.

There probably was, that day, no better indication of the fact that he was a human being than that moment of dreaming. Yet he is, and he was a little boy in pursuit of the dream. But you know what? That little boy is now a man, and Ethan still sees things with his mind's eye. He still dreams personal dreams, and he still lives in pursuit of the dream. He's not a little boy in the backyard anymore; he's a man, but he's a dreamer. And an important question for him and for you is what 'right here, right now' fills the eyes of your imagination? What 'right here, right now' do you dream about? What dream do you crave?

(Music Interlude)

You're probably not aware of it because it is so foundationally human; it's so natural. It's like spiritual respiration; you dream; you imagine; you envision, and you probably don't even know it. You do it every day, and you do it many times a day. It is, in fact, one of the most powerful capacities you have been given, and I want you to hear this. This is a very important principle: What fills the eyes of your imagination and what makes up your dream will determine what you say and do as you deal with the world of seeing realities that you live in every day. What fills the eyes of your imagination will determine how you deal with the world of seeing realities every day.

Maybe what you need right now is not more explanation. Perhaps what you need is more imagination. You see, your Lord created you with this amazing ability to see the unseen, and He gets great delight in opening our eyes so that we can see, really see Him. You see, because maybe what I need is not more answers. Maybe what I need in my life is to see God, because when you don't see God, you do and say things that you should never do, and you should never say. Ask God, 'right here, right now', to open the eyes of your imagination so that you could see him, and in seeing Him, have hope as you face what you face every day.

Kate Crowley: Paul Tripp and the "Power of Imagination" on today's program. It's from the series "Imagination," Right Here, Right Now.

Now if you would like to open your eyes to a new season of life, you can find it in the pages of Lost In The Middle, the latest book by Paul Tripp. That's, Lost In The Middle. Request your copy when you visit paultrippministries.org. That's paul T-R-I-P-P, paultrippministries.org.

While you are there, you can also listen to these programs again online or sign up for the daily podcast. CD copies of today's broadcast are available for only five dollars. Get these and other helpful resources at (paultrippministries.org, or call us at 800-551-6595. That's toll-free 800-551-6595.

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Next time, Paul continues to look at the "Freeing Power of Imagination." That's coming up tomorrow. I'm Kate Crowley, and for all of us at Paul Tripp Ministries, remember: In Jesus Christ, there really is help, Right Here, Right Now.