PDM Committee - year end function 27.11.2006

On Monday night, the PDM Committee had their year-end function in the PDM office.

Ps Jackie

The food...quiche, bacon & corn muffins, pizza, cocktail viennas and cheese. Not in the picture is a cream chocolate cake and a pecan tart for dessert.

Oh - there we go. There's the chocolate cake!

Oh, and Eugene and Ps Jackie

Madelaine, Barry, Anthony and Teresa - all looking very serious.

Wonder what that was about?

Michael, Francoise and Eugene

And, last but not least...

Dion and Marcia (I'm glad to see still tanned after Thailand)

Imagination is more important than knowledge!

A person who has imagination is actually able to see things that are invisible. I am not one hundred percent sure who first said that imagination is more important than knowledge but, I believe Albert Einstein is credited with the quote. I am confident, however, that many other people before him knew the value of having a dream, seeing the impossible and attempting things never before done!

God created us to be creators. When I was in seminary, I had a professor who told us that the first thing that we ever learn about God is found in the opening words of His book..“In the beginning, God created..” The professor said that when we are in a creative mode, trying to bring about things that have never been done before, we are in a mode that is perhaps more like God than at any other time. When you create things that are helpful to other people, you are imitating the very God of the universe who created everything that is visible around us.

To know that I have the ability to create something that will help people, encourage others, or be a blessing to someone’s life, is really a phenomenal concept. And just think..it all begins with my imagination.

One of my favorite things to do is to read stories about how things came into existence. I have a book entitled, “Mistakes That Worked.” The author’s incredible research points out how many things had their beginning in someone’s imagination. Even though the ideas did not seem to work at the time, they eventually were discovered to be wonderful inventions.

One of my favorite stories was about chocolate chip cookies. A woman who was baking cookies for a friend put chocolate morsels in the cookies thinking that they would melt and the cookies would be totally chocolate. When she removed them from the oven, she was surprised to find that the chocolate morsels had not melted at all! They had stayed intact and although soft, the cookies had not turned entirely dark or chocolate in color, and that the chocolate chips had remained in place.

The woman was ready to throw away the whole batch because she was certain the cookies were ruined. But, it was late and her friend was waiting for the cookies so they decided to try them anyway. The friend took one bite of the cookie said, “These are the best cookies that I have ever put in my mouth!”

Of course, we all know what a big hit that “mistake” was! How many of us can even live without chocolate chip cookies?!

I also love the imagination of the old English cook who enjoyed cooking potatoes. He had one particular patron who loved the fact that he cut the potatoes very thinly. One night the patron asked the cook if it were possible to cut them even thinner. The old cook decided that he would cut the potatoes so thin it would be hard to recognize that they were even potatoes! Then he fried them and called them “potato chips” and thus, imagination brought about another new creation.

Can you see why I like these stories? They illustrate how someone’s imagination created an invention that has been a help, a blessing or an addition to all of our lives.

New creations are constantly being invented. Most of our grandparents who are still living today have seen the world change more in the past 100 years than it has been changed in several thousand years! And all of this is as a direct result of someone’s imagination.

Let me encourage you this week to become more of a creator. Begin to imagine what CAN be done. Look at possibilities that have never been done before or tried before. Why not become the creator or inventor of one of these ideas yourself? All it takes is a little imagination and it may take you and, perhaps the whole world, to a brand new level.


Tip: Imagination is more important than knowledge!

By Robert Rohm Ph D.
Personality Insights, Inc.
www.personalityinsights.com