Excerpt 2: Holy Imagination
An insight into Chapter 13 - Holy Imagination
(from The Radical Recall to Rest © 2025 Joshua Paul Barker / A Curious Follower)
There was a tree in our garden I was convinced was magical. Its branches arched just enough to climb, and once you were high enough, the world looked different. Not just because of the view, but because of the stories that lived in your head.
At one point, my brother and I decided the shed behind it was an underground bunker. We lined it with essential supplies, weapons, anything we might need as we waited for a fictional invasion we’d entirely made up.
It wasn’t pointless. It was practice.
Imagination wasn’t escapism – it was agency. It was our way of shaping the world around us. Of believing that something more was possible. And maybe it still is. Because imagination isn’t something we grow out of. It’s something we stop trusting. We learn to edit ourselves. To be reasonable. To prioritise what’s practical. We exchange wonder for worry, creativity for caution. And before long, we start calling it maturity. But deep down, the longing remains.
That wild, curious, childlike part of us still knows how to dream. It’s just been buried under deadlines, expectations, and the slow erosion of possibility.
But what if God is still inviting us to dream like children?
What if holy imagination isn’t naïve – it’s necessary?
And what if exploring with God isn’t about having all the answers... but learning to wonder again?
Holy imagination isn’t fantasy. It’s not a way of escaping reality or pretending things aren’t hard. It’s not about running from the world – it’s about learning to see the world differently. More clearly. More truthfully. More like God might see it.
It’s the Spirit-led ability to look at what is, and still believe in what could be. It’s the courage to hope when things feel stuck. It’s the quiet faith to ask, “What if God isn’t finished yet?” It’s standing in the middle of something dry, or broken, or ordinary – and beginning to imagine what might grow there. Not because you’re sure how, but because you’re sure who.
Holy imagination doesn’t ignore the mess. It meets it with open hands. It asks real questions. It dreams, not because everything is easy, but because God is still at work. And it invites us to be part of that, not by having all the answers, but by being willing to listen, and wonder, and say yes to something bigger than ourselves.
This is the kind of imagination we see in the prophets – people who stood in ruins and spoke of vineyards. People who imagined return, even in exile. People who looked around and saw chaos – but still dared to believe that God could make something new.
And it’s the imagination Jesus lived, too. He spoke in stories. He called the overlooked. He imagined a kingdom that arrived quietly, like yeast in dough or a seed in soil. He didn’t just see people as they were – He saw who they could become. And He invited them to step into that story.
Imagination like this isn’t childish – but it is childlike. There’s a difference. Childish imagination resists reality. Childlike imagination steps into it, with curiosity and courage. It creates without worrying about being impressive. It dreams without needing to know how everything will work out.
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Nothing in Pharaoh’s court had prepared Moses for what came next. Nothing in his wilderness years had trained him for what to do when the only way forward looked impossible.
And then…God speaks.
Not with a strategy. Not with a backup plan. But with a simple instruction: “Raise your staff.”
That’s it. Just lift the thing you’ve been carrying. Stretch it out over the water. Do something that makes no logical sense…and trust Me with the outcome.
It sounds absurd. And yet Moses obeys – not because he understands it, not because it’s in the manual, but because imagination met obedience. Because faith dared to trust a whisper over what his eyes could see.
And then, the sea parts.
That moment wasn’t a strategy session. It was holy imagination in action. Moses didn’t know how it would work – he only knew who had spoken. He imagined a way through where there wasn’t one, not because he was a visionary, but because he was willing to respond.
Sometimes that’s how God leads. Not with clear-cut steps or neat conclusions, but with strange instructions in impossible places. Not with detailed roadmaps, but with a question: Will you trust Me here, even when this makes no sense at all?
Holy imagination doesn’t ignore reality. It just refuses to be limited by it. It lifts the staff. It steps into the sea. It says yes when fear says no. It responds to the God who makes paths where there were none, not because we’re qualified, but because He is faithful.
So maybe that’s the invitation for us too – not to wait for clarity before we move, but to be open enough, wild enough, to trust the whisper when the world says, “That’ll never work.”
There’s more to this chapter, of course – more wondering, more wrestling, more practice. But this is just a glimpse. A window into the middle section of The Radical Recall to Rest – EXPLORE – where we begin to imagine what life might look like if rest wasn’t just about slowing down, but about seeing differently.
If something in these words stirred something in you, I’d love to invite you to journey deeper. The Radical Recall to Rest is available for pre-order until 3 November, and every copy will be signed and posted personally. It’s more than a book to me – it’s a conversation I’d love you to be part of.
And that’s what A Curious Follower is, too. A growing space for those who want to live with more curiosity, attentiveness, and wonder – for those who are tired of noise but not of meaning.
Josh | A Curious Follower
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Let’s keep imagining what might be possible when we slow down, listen closely, and follow curiously.