{"id":1021,"date":"2010-03-24T17:50:51","date_gmt":"2010-03-24T17:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2010\/03\/trace-elements.html"},"modified":"2010-03-24T17:50:51","modified_gmt":"2010-03-24T17:50:51","slug":"trace-elements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/03\/trace-elements.html","title":{"rendered":"Trace Elements"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"020_23.jpg\"<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Imagination, that restless ghost<\/p>\n

Will not stop haunting me,<\/p>\n

Will not stop hunting me,<\/p>\n

Or leave me in peace. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Its voice is insistent<\/p>\n

Persistent<\/p>\n

Consistent<\/p>\n

Resistent<\/p>\n

To my lethargy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Like rain beating <\/p>\n

On my window<\/p>\n

Sometimes just tapping<\/p>\n

Sometimes rapping<\/p>\n

Sometimes loudly banging, <\/p>\n

Never ceasing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why does it nag me so?<\/p>\n

Does it really not know<\/p>\n

There is no creation ex nihilo<\/p>\n

Since the beginning?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What’s the point of having a muse<\/p>\n

When you are not amused?<\/p>\n

And wish to be left alone<\/p>\n

Not in your thoughts<\/p>\n

But thought less.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

John said<\/p>\n

‘Imagine there is no heaven’<\/p>\n

That would indeed take a creative imagination<\/p>\n

For one created out of God’s imagination<\/p>\n

In God’s image.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is imagination<\/p>\n

The voice of God<\/p>\n

Tasking us with being<\/p>\n

Co-Creators<\/p>\n

Not just re-creators?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Or is it just trace elements of the mind<\/p>\n

Wandering<\/p>\n

Wondering <\/p>\n

Worrying<\/p>\n

Wanting to escape the hardware<\/p>\n

Called the brain? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I imagine so…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But then I always did have a vivid imagination. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What’s that whisper<\/p>\n

That breath<\/p>\n

That wind<\/p>\n

That spirit<\/p>\n

That still small voice uttering?<\/p>\n

 <\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

‘Be still, and know that I am God….’<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Imagine that. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Know God, know peace<\/p>\n

No God, no peace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BW3  <\/span>March 22, 2010<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Imagination, that restless ghost Will not stop haunting me, Will not stop hunting me, Or leave me in peace.   Its voice is insistent Persistent Consistent Resistent To my lethargy.   Like rain beating On my window Sometimes just tapping Sometimes rapping Sometimes loudly banging, Never ceasing.   Why does it nag me so?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nTrace Elements - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/03\/trace-elements.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trace Elements - 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}