Our Imagination Can Fuel Either Fear Or Faith

I read this as "the evidence of things not YET seen."

At 3:30 in the morning of July 5, as I was preparing for my trip to Charlottesville for open heart surgery, these words kept ringing through my mind:

Each step I take, I know that God will guide me.
To higher ground God ever leads me on,
Until some day the last step will be taken.
Each step I take just leads me closer home.

On the one hand, I found this familiar song encouraging, reminding me that no matter what the outcome, this unanticipated experience would ultimately result in something good. On the other hand, it introduced some foreboding as well. Could this be like a bad omen of something in the five-hour procedure shortening or even ending my life?

In the face of the unknown, our imaginations inevitably fill in the gaps of what we don't know, either enhancing our fear or adding to our faith. And in times like these, it's not hard to imagine everything coming to an apocalyptic end.

So when we are highly anxious we tend to be ruminating along that fear end of the spectrum, imagining all manner of worst case scenarios. In accordance with  'Murphy's Law' we assume that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, even terribly wrong.

On the other hand, when we are operating within the faith end of the spectrum, we are visualizing better than expected outcomes. This doesn't mean we don't recognize the possibility of things turning out badly, but we don't see that as inevitable. By faith, we see bad things as less likely to happen than good, and trust that God's odds are truly in our favor.

So I've decided to occasionally spend some time prayerfully preparing for the worst, but spend the majority of my time picturing things turning out reasonably well--and ultimately very well. And to believe that even if bad things happen, I will never have to face them alone, and that God, and God's people, will help me through whatever comes. Until the very, very best finally comes.

Imagine that.