An Introduction to Activities
The Sanctified Imagination - Part 6
Quick Recap
We are currently in our series on the Sanctified Imagination (similar to, but different than, our series on a Theology of Video Games). Our imagination is that place in our minds in which all thoughts, images, and senses dwell (whether from ourselves or elsewhere).
Our imagination is built up of a number of “Building Blocks”, or the things we give our minds so that we can imagine the future and live into that future. A Sanctified Imagination is one that is being fed building blocks of the Kingdom and can imagine (and live into) a Kingdom future.
In this article, we begin our conversation on the second building block, “The Activities We Participate In”.
When my wife and I were first married, I couldn’t successfully hang a curtain rod. My tool collection was made up of a drill my mother-in-law had given me for Christmas and a toolbox with the basics (i.e. hammer, screwdriver, and maybe some pliers).
I reasoned that I was more an “academic” than a “tool guy”.
But this “academic” needed a murphy desk in order to write. We had a small home, and a normal desk just wouldn’t do. But purchasing a new murphy desk (which attaches to the wall and can be collapsed when not in use) was outside of our budget. Being a teacher, it turned out, did not pay well enough for new furniture purchases.
So my wife and I decided we would build our own murphy-style desk. Armed with a hand saw, a YouTube video, and a whole lot of naivety, my wife and I got to work. After a whole afternoon, we had a somewhat functioning desk that looked as though someone had sneezed walnut stain all over it.
The desk didn’t last long, eventually falling out of the wall (see the above mentioned curtain rod hanging abilities). Yet, surprisingly, I fell in love with the process of making something semi-functional out of wood. And so, after the desk I found a new building project, and then another and another.
Ten years and a few hundred dollars of Facebook Marketplace tool purchases later, I have a modest workshop and an ongoing list of projects.
I tell this story to make a point that may, at first glance, seem obvious. The person I am today is vastly different than the person I would be if I had not begun woodworking.
To which an appropriate response may be, “Well, Phil… duh.”
I get it, but humor me for a moment. Really process the fact that I am different person because of my hobby. And I’m not just referring to my competence working with tools and wood. I’m different on a deeper level. On the level of what it means to be me.
I am…
more patient (hopefully).
a bit more self-assured (for good or bad).
more prideful (I enjoy that “look at what I did” feeling too much).
Consider who I may have been if I had spent those many hours in the workshop doing something different. I could have scrolled on my phone, played more games with my boys, read the western classics, exercised, or learned to bake.
Each of those things would have shaped me differently and I would be different today because of it.
Whether good or bad, my time invested into furniture building hasn’t had a neutral affect on who I’ve become. And the same would be true had I used my time for anything else.
And none of that is (necessarily) problematic. It just is.
The problem comes when you and I are unaware of how our activities (work, family time, hobbies, investment in church, etc.) are shaping us. Formation isn’t problematic, ignorance is.
Where We’re Going
Our second category of building blocks which relate to the Sanctified Imagination are those related to the activities we participate in. For clarity, we’ll define activities as that which a person does. There is action, motion, and engagement of the body and mind in a way that is deeper than media consumption (though yes, there is plenty of crossover).
In the same way that media forms our imagination to consider the world — and indeed reality — in a particular way, so do our activities. In the coming weeks we’ll discuss this building block from a few different angles:
The effect of work
The pursuit of hobbies
The places we go
Activities related to community (church life, family life, romantic relationships, etc.) we’ll save for our last building block, “the communities we cultivate”.