My imagination and I embarked on
another adventure one day. At ten years old my creativity had not yet been
hampered with reality. “What if” never came along to bother us at such times.
We happened upon a multi-layered
wire walker’s practice apparatus, commonly referred to as a barbed wire fence in
my neighborhood. My imagination commented, “The wire looked strong and taut.
Why not try it? After all,” it said, “the ground isn’t far away if you did fall
– but you won’t.”
I decided to climb near a post
because I had something to hold on to. I stood up. So far so good. I slid my
tennis shoe clad right foot out tentatively like the circus acts. Now, I had to
balance and bring my left foot around and in front of my right foot. The wire
was getting wiggly but I managed to get my left foot in place. I started to
shift my weight.
When the stars dissipated, I
found my jeans were hung up on the highest of the high wire practice set. I
couldn’t pull myself up to them. The more I tried to free myself, the more
securely I my jeans wrapped around the barbs. My imagination pulled up a chair
(imaginary of course) and offered advice. It also encouraged me by saying that
my family would eventually find me, hopefully before I starved to death.
The only way I could free myself from the awful grip of this
predicament was to free myself of the jeans. Once I had wriggled free I stood
up, untangled the pants, checked myself for any serious wounds and re-trousered
myself. My imagination thought this was extremely funny. I threatened to leave
him home next time. But then the next adventure would turn into a boring walk.
Whenever I read this passage I
think of this event. The fence was not stable whatsoever. I learned something
that day. I did not listen to my imagination when he suggested that in the
future. I have also learned that if my faith is waffling back and forth like
that strand of wire I will fall – and that is not fun.
“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:8.
© copyright Kevin T Boekhoff
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