“Reality is a multi-layered unity. I can perceive another person as an aggregation of atoms, an open biochemical system in interaction with the environment, a specimen of Homo sapiens, an object of beauty, someone whose needs deserve my respect and compassion, a brother for whom Christ died. All are true and all mysteriously coinhere in that one person.” John Polkinghorne, One World: The Interaction of Science and Theology, 1986

I should tell you since we are using Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s list of 10 qualities that Creative people share, he is not a Christian. As a matter of fact, he believes that religion is a protective device that man created in order to cope with the inability to find happiness (my paraphrase). He builds his premise of flow off of Greek philosophy and observation. I have no problem with that as I believe that he has scientifically built a theory on what he has studied and then shown forth his findings based on the evidence produced. In other words, just because we look through a different bias doesn’t mean that his science is incorrect. My bias will simply cause me to apply it differently. This brings us to our next quality:

4. Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality.

The ability to imagine, or dream, is a necessity for joyful living. It allows us to move beyond our fixed mindsets. We were created for growth and expansion. We start off this life as an infant and grow into adults. We come into the Kingdom the same way. We are reborn as infants in Christ and need to learn to leave that spiritual infancy behind as we grow in wisdom and understanding. We are continually being changed into the image of Jesus throughout our spiritual walk. Expansion is a key component of the Kingdom. Our earthly awareness of the Kingdom was born through the seed of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. In its infancy, the Kingdom grew through the twelve men that were discipled by Jesus during his time on earth. Since that moment in history, God’s Kingdom has been advancing and expanding throughout every generation. Why? Because, Father has placed eternity in our hearts. (Ecc 3:11).

Because we are all in this continual process of change, our perceptions of the environment around us will be vastly different from one another. For the Christian, our reality is heaven itself. We must be grounded in what God is decreeing from His throne, not what the negative circumstances of life try to continually teach us. We must also be able to bring the reality of heaven into the natural world around us. This takes an imaginative person willing to color outside the restrictive lines so that others can see beyond the familiar patterns. Without this, the unique shades of colors, that only others can bring, may never be used to paint the bigger picture needed for Kingdom expansion.

Your kingdom dreams are important! The attempt to bring them into reality will certainly challenge the status quo, and your own fixed mindset. But can I say to you – that’s a good thing! It’s how we grow. Be grounded in truth Creative One, don’t veer from the throne room of heaven. But, don’t be afraid to bring the realities of the Kingdom into the natural realm through your creative dreams. It’s where joy resides, and a joyless life has nothing in common with the reality of heaven.

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.” ~ Dr. Seuss

Psychology Today article:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/199607/the-creative-personality