Article July 5, 1999 Issue

How to overcome a fearful imagination

Spiritual truths prevent frightening images from taking over.

By Melissa Jane Hayden

Motivational speakers and self-help authors sometimes tell you that if you can imagine a possibility, you can make it happen. Imagination is pretty powerful if it can do that. But what about all the horrible things that can fill people's thoughts with worry and fear? Does imagination have the power to make those things happen, too?

In doing some research on the subject of imagination, I learned that one dictionary definition is "a mental conception or creation, often a baseless or fanciful one." I also turned to the Bible. The Bible has always been a source of inspiration and guidance for me, helping me understand more about myself and my surroundings through study of its healing message. A concordance indicated that imagination or one of its derivatives is used thirty-six times in the Bible, and it generally means the intent of someone's thought to bring about harm.

That caught me by surprise. I began to understand the larger message of those Bible passages: to dwell on the possibility of evil things, events, or circumstances, without challenging their validity is mesmeric. Doing so can convince us that such things could actually happen to us or to our loved ones.

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