Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Monday January 7, 2008

As the Great Blonde and I sat in the cardio specialist's office to get the report from her stress test, I noticed a beautiful picture of an iceberg. The top part was above the water and absolutely gorgeous. The bottom, through some sort of near magical photography was equally gorgeous, yet held a mysterious attraction. I noticed that during our wait, 15 people actually got up from their seat and went and inspected the iceberg. I was number 16.

I was even more intrigued by the statement on the picture titled "The Essence of Imagination."

"What you can see is only a small percentage of what is possible. Imagination is to have the vision to see what is just below the surface, but invisible to the eye."

In days of old people were called prophets who could see that which was invisible to most naked eyes. The Bible is full of the stories of such people. History is the account of leaders who saw opportunity where others feared to even think such a thought. A few visionaries with grit left the relative security of hearth and home in Europe and set sail for what is now Plymouth, Mass. and saw a nation where they could worship God according to the dictates of their conscience. They did have the flaw that they expected everyone else to worship according the conscience of the Pilgrims! Yet where would we be absent their vision of something better.

Each day we are faced with settling in for the status quo, or letting imagination take our minds and hearts on a fantasy trip of how much better things could be if...

When I was a child Polio was the scourge of our nation. In the 50's I vividly remember everyone going around with masks on, much like doctors and bank robbers. Hardly a neighborhood was spared the agony of some child or parent being struck with Polio. I think all of us had a vision of some miracle happening and Polio no longer being a threat to our life. While we had the vision and could imagine a Polio free world, we did not have any of the necessary requirements to make the vision a reality. Hundreds of trained men and women went to work on the problem of Polio and in our lifetime Polio has become for the most part a non-issue in our country. This is not so in Third World Countries, though many in America are catching the vision of a truly Polio free world. Through a group that I belonged to for a number of years, I was able to help 13,000 children receive free Polio vaccinations.

The power of cooperative minds imagining something better is well documented, though underused. Not so long ago the computers that we take for granted were for the most part figments of the imaginations of a few visionaries. The computer I am typing this piece on, a mere 25 years ago would have filled the space of the entire house!! Now I carry even more power around in a small pouch, smaller than the wife's purse! I think she carries one of the old models in her purse.

It has been said that visionaries merely build castles in the air. May I repeat an old saw?

"Men who never build castles in the air, never build castles anywhere."

Larry Lilly Copyright (C) 2008 Use with credit.

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