>> DAVID NASSER: Man, what a great time we've
had the last couple weeks, right? Rich Wilkerson coming. I don't know what you think about when you
think about Rich Wilkerson's time with us, but Rich Jr., the one thing that just continues
to stay in front of me that God gave him to give all of us was to just don't ever underestimate
God. Don't ever underestimate the power of God. Don't ever underestimate the love of God. And then past Rich being with us, it was so
amazing to have this one-day revival with pastor MacDonald, and then to have Francis
come and unpack just solid theology, right, about the glory of God through the suffering
of man has just been such a gift. And then today, and tonight, to be able to
sit under the teaching of really one of the great teachers of our time, you know, Erwin
Raphael McManus. It's just such a gift, and we love you, brother. We told you a little while ago in the greenroom
that many of us have had our lives just impacted by your writing, by your teaching. You certainly have done well in pouring into
this generation, and we get to now thank you in person. Erwin is a clothing designer. He's a songwriter. He's a pastor. Honestly, he's just a very creative being
that does incredible things for the glory of God. He's just a guy who's very available to students. We just, honestly, are just grateful that
he would take the time to come all the way from LA, from the west coast to be with us
today. Can we put our hands together for the great
Erwin McManus? >> ERWIN MCMANUS: Wow! I'm not sure which way to face, but it is
so exciting to be here with you guys, and for me it's extraordinarily shocking that
I would be here. About six or seven years ago I found myself
in a personal crisis- maybe a crisis of faith. I didn't grow up in the church. I didn't grow up as a person of faith, and
when I made a decision to follow Jesus I didn't know He had a massive organization all over
the world. I had never really been aware of the church,
and becoming a follower of Christ was not an easy experience for me. And I started writing books and became more
public, and I don't know if you know this, but there are a lot of mean people out there
who use Jesus' name as their identification. And about seven years ago I sat down with
my wife, and I told her I think I'm going to shift careers. I'm going to step out of any public space,
and I'm going to become a filmmaker and fashion designer. I'm going to spend the rest of my life as
an artist. And my wife, who's incredibly amazing and
supportive, said sure; go write ahead. And so a year later I had a fashion company
and a film company, and I was flipping out any kind of public space for ministry, and
my wife looked at me an said: "Hey we need to talk. It seems like you've moved on to a different
life, and we need to have a conversation." I said, "We had this conversation, remember? A year ago when I told you I was going to
become an artist, and I was going to step out of ministry, and you said sure go right
ahead." And she said, "That doesn't count, because
I didn't think you could make it." And a huge part of it for me was many times
it seems as if we have conversations about things, but we never actually stop and think
about them. We've become a people of clichés that say
things that everyone says, but never dig deep to see if we really believe what they mean. And for me belief has never been easy. Even though I think I love the whole journey
of faith, believing is hard. For some people believing is easy. They just believe so naturally. My wife is like that. She has a powerful belief, but for me belief
comes at a huge cost in my life. And I started looking for a place I belonged,
and I don't know if you've ever felt in your life that you just didn't belong on this planet;
you didn't belong with this species. And so one of my friends who is a scientist
and an artist came to me, and he said, "You need to apply for this community called TED. It stands for technology, entertainment, and
design. There's some of the best thinkers. There's scientists and botanists, and biologists,
and designers." And I don't know, have you ever heard of TED
at all? So it was before it went public, before they
had the TED Talks, and you have to apply. So I thought, okay, I'm going to apply to
TED, and see if I can get in. I want to be a part of this community. I want to be a part of a place that pursues
truth and is open to exploration, and so I applied and they turned me down, because evidently
you have to be good at something and some kind of expertise or something. And when they turned me down I was a little
discouraged, but I applied again, because I'm relentless if I'm anything. And so I applied a second time, and they turned
me down again, but I'm comfortable with rejection because I used to date. So I went ahead, and I applied a third time,
and I kept changing my story and changing my story. And each time I extricated anything about
my faith and just put more work about my work as an artist, and they still turned me down. And so then I heard about this thing called
TED Global. They were going to do their first TED in the
country called Tanzania in the city called Laruccia, and I'd never been to Laruccia,
Tanzania, but I thought to myself I think fewer people will apply to the TED in Tanzania
because it's so hard to get to. See, you may not be able to tell, but I'm
actually a Latino, and if you know anything about Latinos that you can lock the door,
but that's okay because we'll go around it; we'll find an open window. And I think this is TED's open window, so
I applied to TED in Laruccia, Tanzania, and I got accepted because so few people applied. But then I had to get to Africa. So I flew to South Africa, because I wasn't
really sure how to get to Tanzania. Then, I went from South Africa to Tanzania,
and then they had some kind of warning about Yellow Fever, and you had to have the right
vaccinations. And you can get into Tanzania without those
vaccinations, but you couldn't get out of Tanzania without them. And I thought, oh that's okay; that's next
week's problem. So I just flew into Tanzania, and I was there
at my first TED, and I was so excited. But have you ever been some place you knew
you did not belong, and you were terrified that everyone there would know really quickly
that you did not belong there? And it was one of those moments, that I'm
an extreme social introvert. I'm one of those people that's socially awkward
and doesn't know what to do in a room, and if you put more than three people I start
having an anxiety attack. And my children and my wife have always been
embarrassed by that, and so I'm on the phone with my kids walking into TED, and my son
and daughter are coaching me on how to relate to humans. And so my daughter is saying, "Okay Dad, move
toward the people. Go inside." My son's like, please just give me a pep talk. "Dad you've always wanted to go to TED. You wanted to meet these TED people. Don't go stand in a corner. Dad, just people will like you. You need to believe people will like you." And my daughter goes, "Okay, make eye contact." And I go, eye contact, it's confusing. If you don't make enough it doesn't help. If you make too much it's really weird. And then my daughter said something I’ll
never forget. She said, "Look for someone who needs a friend
more than you." Am I that desperate? My son said yes. And I thought, no, I have a better strategy. I'm going to look for the nicest person in
the room, because kind people can't tell you they don't want to talk to you. So I looked around, and I saw this older woman. She was older than me, and I was pretty much
the oldest person there, and when I saw her I thought she looks so kind. And she got in line at the buffet line, and
so I got in line right behind her, and I said, "Hi my name is Erwin. This is my first TED." And she told me her name and her history,
and then I said, "Do you have anyone to eat with?" She said no, so we sat down at a table and
started eating together, and it was one of those round tables that seats about 10 people. And immediately eight other people sat with
us. I thought, wow, I'm at TED, and there are
10 people sitting at a table with me. I'm meeting humans; this is so exciting! And me and this woman just talked for an hour,
but have you ever talked to someone who no matter what you want to talk about, they just
want to talk about whatever they want to talk about? You know what I'm talking about? It just doesn't matter, and so you want to
talk about the political situation. They're talking. "Yeah I'm really worried about the Washington
Redskins; they're not doing very well." And you're like, "My girlfriend just broke
up with me." He goes, "Yeah man, I'm broken hearted about
the Redskins too." I mean no matter what you talk about they
just want to talk about whatever they want to talk about. She was like that. No matter what I talked about she kept talking
chimpanzees, which I thought was really strange. And I go, "You know, I'm really worried about
the situation in China, because the political dynamics." She goes, "You know, chimpanzees have political
organizations?" Oh. And I started talking about like human relationships
and she goes, "You know, chimpanzees have relational systems too." And I tried to talk to her about chimpanzees,
but I ran out of material within like the first two minutes. But she kept going and going. After an hour I looked at her and said, "Jane,
can I ask you a question?" Because I thought, who knows so much about
chimpanzees? There's only two people, and they're both
named Jane. One's related to Tarzan, and the other on
is a woman named Jane Goodall, so I said, "Are you Jane Goodall?" She goes, "Of course I am." And I said, well that explains the whole chimpanzee
thing. And every single person I met from that moment
forward was expertise in a species. They had spend their whole life studying one
flower that cured a disease, or migration of bees through Central America that solved
a huge global problem, and now I'm sort of a TED fanatic. I've been to over a dozen TEDs around the
world and across the US, and I just felt as if I was showing up without my material. And I told my wife, I said, "I need a species. I cannot go back to TED without a species. I just always feel so naked." And when they ask me what do you do, and I
just make things up, and pick a different thing each time. And finally I just started saying, I do a
lot of things but nothing well. And they go, oh, you're a writer. Which actually is what I am. I am a writer, and now I know why I write,
because I can't do. And I said, "But I need a species, honey." And she goes, "What do you mean? " I said, "I just need a species I know something
about." Then it hit me. All of my life I've been a human, and humans
are my favorite species. I love humans; I love observing humans from
a distance, and they're fascinating. And so I thought, what is it that makes us
uniquely human? And I know here, at this particular convocation,
you probably focus so much more on who God is, but I want to take a few moments and talk
about who you are. You see, I think that we have spent so much
of our energy trying to develop layers of theology, but have a very thin and shallow
understanding of humanity. And what we need more than a theological breakthrough
is that we need an anthropological breakthrough. We need to know who we are, and if we can
understand what it means to be human maybe we can make sense of this whole phrase in
the Scripture that says that you are created in the image and likeness of God. What is it that makes us distinct from every
other species? What makes a human being different than a
giraffe, or a kangaroo, or an aardvark? I want to read a passage of Scripture, and
I want you to hear it, hopefully, from a different vantage point today. It's in Hebrews chapter 11. I'll read verses one through three then verse
six. It says, "Now faith is confidence in what
we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was
formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. And without faith, verse six, it is impossible
to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he
rewards those who earnestly seek him." Now, to begin with, verse six is kind of unfair,
because it says without faith it is impossible to please God. And why in the world would God make that the
criteria for humans, but for no other species? I don't think rabbits are sitting around going,
"Am I doing this right? Am running by faith?" I don't think that orangutans are going, "I
don't know. Is this the life of faith or not?" I don't think roses are concerned about whether
they're living by faith. Nothing else on this planet, no other species
created by God, is held to this criteria that you have to have faith to please God. So why would God hold humans to this standard
and no other species that He created? See, I think we use faith as the language
that really becomes more magical than actual reality. See faith, if it's necessary to God, restores
to us our humanity. See if it requires faith to please God, it
means that the life we live as a species without faith makes us less than human. And in fact, we have a language for that. We call it inhumane. Isn't it odd that we talk about things that
are inhumane? How can a human do something that's inhumane? Because if we're human, then everything we
do is humane; everything we do is human. I mean have you ever watched the National
Geographic Channel? See a lion pounce on a gazelle, tear it by
the throat, eat lunch without cooking it, or pay leaving a tip, and no one talks about
that lion being in-lion. They say, what an awesome, powerful creature. You don't look at a lizard watching a bug
fly through the air, stick out that tongue, suck it in, eat it, and go mm; that thing
is evil. It's a lizard. If a human did that, well, it'd be terrifying. See we humans are the species created with
the highest intention, yet we're the only species that have the potential to live without
intention. Faith pleases God, because it restores our
humanity. I want you to see with me how it does that. Beginning in verse one it says, "Now faith
is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." You ever read a passage of Scripture, and
it doesn't actually make any sense? But you pretend it makes sense, because everyone
else is acting like it makes sense. So you all go on living as if you understood
it, but it never really makes any sense at all. See, this passage does not express what we
experience in reality. Now faith is confidence in what we hope for? I wonder how many of us really have confidence
in what we hope for. See, if you're like me, I have confidence
in what I have not what I hope for. In fact, it's easy to have confidence in what
I have not confidence in what I hope for. In fact, most of us have no confidence in
what we hope for so we live in despair, in regret, in fear, filled with anxiety and stress,
because we do not have confidence in what we hope for. We have confidence in what we have, and we
don't like what we have. Have you ever had a friend who hated the person
they were dating? Come on, you know what I'm talking about. The girls go, "I just can't. He's just so insensitive. He's just a jerk. Sometimes I don't even know why I'm dating
him." And you're all going, "Why are you dating
him?" And she goes, "I just- he just makes me so
mad." You're like, "Break up with him." But she's not going to do it, you know why? Because she doesn't have confidence in the
guy she hopes for; she has confidence in the guy she has. Same with a guy, man. You ever heard these guys talk about like
the girl they're dating as if she's just a placeholder? See the reality is you'll date someone you're
miserable with, because you have more confidence in what you have than what you hope for. Some of you here, you're going to work jobs
you hate, and you're going to hold on to jobs. I know people who do this, and they go, "I
just hate my job. I hate my boss. I hate my job; I hate everything about it." I go, "Why don't you just quit?" They go, "I can't just quit." I go, "If you hate your job go find a job
you love, or make a job you love." But the reason they keep the job they hate
is because they have confidence in the job they have, not the one they hope for. See I know all kinds of people who hate their
lives. They go I just hate my life. I mean people ask me the strangest questions. If you could live in any city you wanted to
where would you live? I go, I can live in any city I want to. I am a free man, and I choose to live in LA. I hear all these Christians go, I'm here because
God wants me here. Man, we act as if God is the ultimate torture
of our souls. See if you don't like the life you have chose
a different one. But we have more confidence in the life we
have than the life we hope for. See faith is confidence in what you hope for. Now the beautiful thing about hope is that
hope does not exist in the past; that's regret. Hope does not exist in the present. Hope only exists in the future. In fact what the Scriptures tell us is something
gives you hope, but what you have is no longer a source of hope. See, you as a human being are designed as
a future-oriented creature. See when you have confidence in what you hope
for it means you always have confidence in the future. It means you have more confidence that the
future will be better than the past. You cannot life your life if you believe that
yesterday will be better than tomorrow. If you do not believe that tomorrow is filled
with possibility, with opportunity, with beauty, with wonder, with adventure, with amazement. If you are a person that does not believes
that tomorrow is worth living for you will not be living a life that created you to live,
because a human being is to live their life with confidence in what they hope for. You're a future-oriented creature, but it
also says that faith gives us an assurance in what we do not see. Now, again, I think we have more assurance
in what we do see. How about you? Do you have more assurance in what you don't
see? Or do you have assurance in what you do see? See I have assurance in what I do see, and
I have to work at having assurance in what I don't see. So if we have two chairs, and there's one
chair I can see and one chair I can’t see. And you offer me one and offer David one,
I'll say, "David you can have the chair that we can't see, because you have more faith
than me." And so I'll sit in the chair I can see, because
that's my limit of faith. If you offer me a Honda Civic that I can see,
or a Lamborghini that I can't see, as much as it would be great to have that Lamborghini,
I'm going to take the Honda Civic I can see, because I have more assurance in what I can
see than what I can't see. But here, you saw how faith shifts us and
makes us future-oriented Christians that, feeble humans that confidently hope for, but
also assurance in what we do not see. You're supposed to live in the invisible. To be human is to live in the future invisible. What makes humans different than every other
species? See what we don't see about humans is that
in the same way that bees create hives, and ant create colonies, humans create futures. See one of the amazing things about you as
a human being, created in the image and likeness of God, is what you can do, that no other
species can do, is that you can actually materialize the invisible. Doesn't that sound like a super power? But I'm telling you, you actually materialize
the invisible, but it's so natural to you that you are unaware that you do it. Look at this verse, verse three. It says, "By faith we understand that the
universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was
visible." Now this is important. See what science tells us- I love science-
is that everything comes out of something, and something came out of nothing; that's
the big bang. And what we know through empirical proof is
that everything comes out of something, but then we have to believe that something came
out of nothing. But what people of faith say is that everything
came out of something and that something came out of nothing, but God created it out of
nothing: ex nihilo. So actually we're saying the same thing that
scientists are saying, that everything came out of something and something came out of
nothing. But what the Bible says is different than
what science or Christians say, which is a little disturbing. It says: By faith we understand that the universe
was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. He does not say that is what is seen comes
out of that which did not exist. It says what was seen came out that which
was not visible, which is different. There is a difference between something that
is not visible and something that's not there. See, the oxygen is not visible, but it exists. Now when the Scriptures tell us that God created
everything that is visible out of that which is not visible, what is it talking about? When I wrote my first book, it had a subtitle
that said: Becoming the people that God dreams of. And the publisher sent me a note back saying
we can't use that. And I said, why? And they said, because God doesn't dream. I said no; God does dream. They go, no; God doesn't dream. You can't use that. And I said, but God does dream. They go, even if He does, you can't use it,
because Christians don't believe that God dreams. So I sent a different subtitle. It said: Becoming the people God has in mind. They said we love it. It's going to take you a little while, but
you'll see the absurdity of this. We believe that God has things in mind, but
we don't believe that God dreams. But here's the crazy thing about it. See, everything that God created came out
of that which is not visible. Do you no what's not visible? An idea, a dream, a vision. See, God says to Jeremiah: Before you were
born I knew you. He's saying you existed in the imagination
of God before you were a fetus in the womb of you mother. You were a dream in the mind of God before
you were an infant in the arms of your father. Where you come from matters, and you were
born out of a dream. And that dream was the dream of God, and God
imagined you, and then He created you. You were materialized out of the invisible
into the visible. And here's the beautiful thing: God gave you
that capacity. In fact, not only that, God gives you this
unique capacity so that you can usher in the future only He could imagine. God gives you dreams and visions. God gives you ideas and imagination, and in
this invisible space God begins to form the future that must be created out of you. But we're so terrified of this, because we
know how dark our hearts can become, and we've seen the horror and ugliness of what humans
can create. And so we become afraid that humans create,
because we're so destructive, but I want you to know that you cannot exist without creating. The question is not whether you will create;
the question is what will you create? See, every human being is an artist. You are both a work of art and an artist at
work. I want to take a real quick poll. How many of you would say, I am a creative
genius. Ok very, very fearful here. And so hold it up. If you're a creative genius just let people
live with it, okay? Very few of you. Maybe one percent of one percent. Okay, well you need to do better enrolling,
okay? Alright, let's try a different one. How many of you would say that you are a linguistic
savant? If you don't know what the word savant is
forget the first question, okay? Alright. Linguistic savants raise your hands. Okay, one. Even fewer. Okay, wow. Alright, let me try this, because I want everyone
to feel good. How many of you speak English? Raise you hands. Alright. I don't think "woo" is English, but that's
alright. That's good. Now here's the crazy thing. You speak English. English is one of the most difficult languages
in the world to learn, and you did not learn English when you were a PhD student, you did
not learn English before you got here to the university. You did not learn English when you in high
school, junior high. You learned English when you were two years
old. You were two years old! You could barely walk! You couldn't feed yourself. You couldn't flush the toilet. You could not get a job; you had no value
to society at all. You're completely dependent on you parents,
but you could learn one of the most complicated languages in the world. I'm telling you at the age of two, if they
had moved you to China you would've learned Mandarin or Cantonese. If they'd moved you to the Philippines you
would've learned Tagalog. They'd have moved you to Germany you would've
learned German. They'd have moved you to England you would've
finally learned English. You know why? Because when you were born you were a linguistic
savant. You just forgot, because you ended up conforming
to the expectations of those around you, and your brain shrunk based on the expectations
you had of yourself. But when you were born you were a linguistic
savant. I'm from El Salvador. I knew Spanish before I knew English, and
then I learned by the time I was five, six, seven years old. It was easy. I've studied German, and Korean, and Mandarin,
and French. Languages are easy if you understand where
you began. You were a linguistic savant who forgot your
potential, but you're also a creative genius that believes the lie that you are less. When I began writing this last book called
The Artisan’s Soul my wife came to me, and she had asked me to write a book again, and
when she saw me writing she was so excited- and I love it when my wife is excited about
what I'm doing. And she goes, "You're writing again!" And I said, "Yes, I'm writing a book." She goes, "What's it called?" And just called it Artisan at the time and
I said, "Artisan." And she said, "You're just such a genius. I don't even know how I got the privilege
of marrying you. When I walk in the room in your presence I'm
just inspired by you." Well she didn't say any of that. That's what I imagined. What she actually said is, "Great! A book for people like you! What about the rest of us?" Which is why I tell you the other story, what
she should've said. I said, "This is exactly why I'm writing this
book, because you have believed the lie that creative people, imaginative people, artist,
inventors, dreamers, and then there's the rest of us that are simply supposed to sit
back and admire what they accomplish." But the reality is that every human being
is created in the image and likeness of God. That every human being has the capacity to
materialize the invisible; that every human being is designed by God to imagine a future
that does not exist, and then find the courage and passion to turn that future into reality. God has left you on this planet, because He
has one strategy of ushering in the future He imagines, and that's you. So many people sit around going, God do something. God look at the condition of this world; do
something. God look at the suffering and injustice; God
do something. And I'm convinced God is screaming; He's shouting
from eternity saying: I have done something. I created you. Now you do something! A
few years ago I was invited to Columbia University. Well I didn't know it was for a debate; I
thought it was for a conversation, but they had their senior scientist and the head of
the department of Humanities. It was a Kantian philosopher and then me. And I was really distressed that I was representing
God. And there's a packed room at the university,
and the topic was "what can be known" which I didn't know was the topic. That would've been good to know. And the scientist began with this very prepared
presentation saying what can be known is what is empirically provable. I thought, that's good. That's good. And then the Kantian philosopher said what
could be known is human action. I though, that's good too, and then it got
to me. I said, well, what can be known is I should
be better prepared. See, but the problem is I'm not an expert
in what can be known. In fact, I don't even think knowing is as
important as imagining, because the things we think we know we find out later we didn't
know; we just thought. So I don't know if what can be known is what
needs to be known. In fact, we humans are so layered at knowing. Have you ever noticed that? I know that two plus two equals four. I know that there's red there and green there. I know that my wife in Los Angeles loves me,
and they're not all the same. There are different layers of knowing. In fact, we humans know things we're not supposed
to know. I was out of town for a couple of weeks, and
I flew home. I walked in the door. My wife Kim said, "Would you take out the
garbage?" Which is her way of saying I love you; I missed
you. Glad you're home. I know that. I know that. Deep in my heart I know that, and so she said
will you take out the garbage, and I said I just got home. Can I just rest a few minutes? Which is my way of saying. I'm so happy to be home. It's good to see you. So I sat down, and I got a phone call, and
these guys said, "Erwin, man, we got a court. Do you want to play basketball?" And I said wait a minute; wait a minute. Let me talk to my wife, and so I went to Kim
and I said, "Honey, after I take out the garbage can I go play basketball?" Do you hear that? Okay, okay, because like I have all these
voices in my head and noises, and they're not always real. And so, okay. And so I said, "Honey after I take out the
garbage can I go play basketball?" Okay good, it's gone. And she goes, "Oh no, you're way to tired. I would never let you go play basketball. You're so tired." I said, no, no I'm reenergized. I don't know. I can take out the garbage and go play basketball." And my wife said, "Okay let me understand. You've been gone from home for two weeks. This is your first night home, and you want
to go play basketball with the guys." And I said, "When you put it like that it
sounds bad, but you know how important it is to have male bonding." And she said, "Sure, go right ahead." But now when she said, "Sure, go right ahead,"
I knew she didn't mean it, because I'm so good at knowing things. Layers and layers of knowing. I knew that when she said, "Sure, go right
ahead," what she meant is if you choose to go play basketball with these guys, it's going
to be so cold and miserable for you here when you get home. See, we know things we're not supposed to
know, and Jesus said to Peter, "Who do you say that I am?" And Peter said, "You're the Christ, the Son
of the living God." And Jesus said, "Flesh and blood have not
revealed these things to you, but my Father who's in Heaven." See when Jesus said flesh and blood have not
revealed these things, but my Father is in Heaven. See Jesus saying you know something you're
not supposed to know. You cheated, because you know things you're
not supposed to. Have you ever known things you're not supposed
to know? Have you ever known something in your gut
that your brain didn't validate it yet? I remember I was in Toronto-- So then one
of these students in Columbia sends me a question. When you were a child, you had imaginary friends:
Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, God. Why did you get rid of all your other imaginary
friends and keep God? Isn't that a great question? I love being asked questions like that in
public at an Ivy League school. And I said first of all, if you think I've
given up my imaginary friends you don't know me. I am never giving up my imaginary friends. They've been with me all my life. I'm keeping them. I trust them; they understand me. But you're right. I gave up Santa Claus, and I gave up the Tooth
Fairy, and God wasn't really my well-known friend as a child, but He was there on occasion
visiting me. But I have kept God. You see, when my son Aaron was a little boy
he wouldn't eat his vegetables, but he would eat dirt in the backyard. He wouldn't eat broccoli, but he would shove
rocks in his mouth. And we put him in the backyard, and before
we knew it we'd be fighting to pull those rocks out of his mouth right after dinner
when we were fighting to put the peas in his mouth. After a few months of this I said to my wife
Kim, "Honey, have you noticed that Aaron will not eat your cooking, but he will eat the
dirt and the rocks?" She didn't like that question. I was just asking, and finally I said, "I
have an idea. Let's just throw the food in the backyard,
and put him back there to play and see what happens. Because he'll eat some dirt; he'll eat some
peas. It will go better than it's been going" And
my wife said, "You should never be a parent." And just because he couldn't distinguish between
the rocks and the broccoli, between what was good for him and what was not good for him,
we didn't stop him from eating, we just taught him what makes him healthy. See when I was a child I had imaginary friends
that were created in my imagination, but that doesn't mean there isn't a friend that created
my imagination. See the reality is that the imagination is
the playground of God, is the only place that God can meet us to pour into us His dreams
for our lives. It's the only place God can show us a future
we could never imagination, because in your imagination you can be someone you've never
been. You can live a life you've never lived. You can create a future you've never known. In our imagination we can imagine a world
without poverty. In our imagination we can imagine a world
with justice. In our imagination we can imagine without
hunger, without homelessness. In our imagination we can imagine a world
where everyone is loved, were everyone belongs, where everyone knows the God who created them,
where everyone has value and meaning in their life. And this imagination, it haunts us. It drives us. It fuels us. I want you to understand today that you are
God's creation created to carry His dreams and His vision. That you are not only a work of art, but you
are an artist at work, and we need a revolution of creativity in this planet. We need to take the Bible back from those
who turned it into a manuscript of conformity, and we claim it as our manifesto of creativity. We need to find the freedom to be human again,
to allow God to pour into us a vision so profound, so powerful that it terrifies us. And God is looking for those men and women
who to refuse to accept life as it is, who refuse to accept the world as it is, who refuse
to wait for someone else to make the world better. God is looking for that person that will wake
up tormented if the world is not better, haunted that the world has not changed. God is looking for that person who will imagine
a world that everyone else will run to. And I guarantee you the moment you begin to
allow God to breathe into your soul the world He wants to create from you, through you,
with you, you will never be the same again. See, we were misled. We were told: I think, therefore I am, but
that is too limiting. I create, because I breathe. I breathe, therefore I create, because I am
created to create, imagined to imagine, because I have been created in the image and the likeness
of God. You have been created in the image and likeness
of God. Never, never underestimate the gift of what
it means to be human. God bless.
