SACRED REIMAGINATION LEXICON

by P. Glenn

A index of reimagined terms explored through Sacred Imagination: (I’ve provided twelve at this time. More will be posted from time to time.)

1. REIMAGINED LEXICON SUMMARY

Salvation – From escape to emergence; from transaction to presence.

Grace – From favor bestowed to the breath between moments; unearned, unfolding.

Sin – From cosmic crime to misalignment; the forgetting of wholeness.

Heaven – From distant reward to the here-now sacred; intimacy with what matters.

Hell – From torment below to the ache of separation; a metaphor for disconnection.

Faith – From mental assent to meaningful trust; the courage to walk without knowing.

Repentance – From guilt-ridden return to conscious reorientation; a turning toward.

Truth – From absolute claim to relational unfolding; a dance between being and meaning.

Judgment – From final sentence to luminous seeing; a calling-forth rather than casting-out.

Glory – From unreachable light to essence revealed; the shine of presence.

Worship – From obligation to awe; not song to a throne but breath to the soil.

Blessing – From divine transaction to sacred recognition; presence, not privilege. 

(These 12 are developed more fully under four headings found below.)

2. REIMAGINED LEXICON: THE WORD - THE WOUND - THE SHIFT - THE OFFERING

Salvation

The Word
Salvation – once thundered from pulpits, etched in fear, reward, and exclusion.

The Wound
It was told as escape: from sin, from self, from death, from others. A transaction for safety. A prize for belief. A rescue that required surrender of soul to systems.

The Shift
In Sacred Imagination, salvation isn’t escape - it’s emergence. It’s not being pulled from the world but being reawakened to it. Salvation isn’t a place one enters, but a way one walks - with awareness, presence, and participation in what matters.

The Offering
Salvation isn’t a gate in the sky,
but the breath you take when you realize -
you’re here, still able to love,
still able to mean something,
still able to walk free without fleeing.

Grace

The Word
Grace – once spoken as divine favor undeserved, a holy pardon whispered over the unworthy.

The Wound
Grace became permission for power. It was gifted from on high, withheld at will, and twisted into reward. It was offered as a prize for shame, as if one had to be broken to be beloved.

The Shift
In Sacred Imagination, grace isn’t charity from a throne. It’s the breath between moments, the space where presence softens. It flows not from pity but from the profound awareness that life itself is a gift.

The Offering
Grace is the hush before forgiveness,
the light on a tired face,
the breath you didn’t know you needed
until it found you again -
not as favor, but as unfolding.

Sin

The Word
Sin – a word once carved into pulpits and bones alike, a moral failing marked against heaven.

The Wound
Sin became identity. It became original. It taught us we were born broken. It became a scorecard for shame, a weapon of control, a mark we were told we could never remove.

The Shift
In Sacred Imagination, sin isn’t crime - it’s misalignment. It’s the forgetting of wholeness, the disconnection from meaning. It’s the veering from presence, the silence of the soul’s song.

The Offering
Sin isn’t a label to fear,
but a call to remember -
to realign,
to return to what you know beneath the noise,
to find again the thread that leads you home.

Heaven

The Word
Heaven – the final destination, a skyward realm paved in gold, promised to the faithful.

The Wound
Heaven became exclusive, distant, earned. It taught us to endure the world rather than engage it. It moved meaning out of reach, made presence less than reward, and sanctified escape.

The Shift
In Sacred Imagination, heaven isn’t above - it’s within and among. It’s the here-now sacred, the touch of belonging, the breath of beauty that surprises you into reverence.

The Offering
Heaven isn’t beyond the stars,
but between the hands of those who love.
It’s the sacred surprise of presence,
the intimacy of what matters
when the moment is enough.

Hell

The Word
Hell – once a place of fire, torment, judgment, and eternal exile. The fear at the end of the story.

The Wound
Hell became control. It became justification for violence and silence. It was used to terrify, to bind, to break. It made doubt dangerous and difference damnable.

The Shift
In Sacred Imagination, hell isn’t punishment - it’s metaphor. It’s the ache of separation, the pain of disconnection from truth, from others, from self.

The Offering
Hell isn’t where you're sent,
but where you find yourself
when love is forgotten.
And even there,
a spark may flicker -
reminding you
you’re not alone.

Faith

The Word
Faith – once defined as belief without proof, loyalty to doctrine, assent to creeds.

The Wound
Faith became certainty. It became boundary. It silenced the questioner and rewarded the echo. It was confused with control and mistaken for knowledge.

The Shift
In Sacred Imagination, faith isn’t mental assent - it’s meaningful trust. It’s the courage to walk without knowing, the practice of leaning into mystery with open hands.

The Offering
Faith is the hand that reaches in the dark,
the step not guaranteed,
the song sung anyway.
It’s the walk of the myth walker -
not because it’s certain,
but because it’s sacred.

Repentance

The Word
Repentance – a heavy word, weighed with sorrow, apology, and self-reproach.

The Wound
Repentance became guilt’s twin. It was demanded, scripted, performative. It became a requirement to return - shame-laden and looped.

The Shift
In Sacred Imagination, repentance isn’t groveling. It’s reorientation. It’s seeing clearly, again, and choosing to walk differently. It’s the compass that turns us home.

The Offering
Repentance isn’t
the punishment for your path -

but the power to change direction
without losing your dignity.
It’s the yes
to your next becoming.

Truth

The Word
Truth – long hailed as absolute, unchanging, final. A sword, a wall, a weapon.

The Wound
Truth became territory. It was possessed, defended, enforced. It was used to divide, to exclude, to shame. It became less about meaning and more about winning.

The Shift
In Sacred Imagination, truth isn’t a conclusion - it’s a conversation. It unfolds through relationship, deepens through presence, and dances between being and meaning.

The Offering
Truth isn’t
what you shout from certainty,
but what you uncover in wonder.
It’s what remains
when all masks fall away -
and what is left
still loves.

Judgment

The Word
Judgment – a decree, a final word, a separation of sheep and goats, saved and damned.

The Wound
Judgment became sentence. It was used to condemn, to divide, to silence. It empowered gatekeepers and crushed the vulnerable.

The Shift
In Sacred Imagination, judgment isn’t condemnation - it’s luminous seeing. It’s the fierce kindness that reveals what is real. It calls forth, not casts out.

The Offering
Judgment is the fire
that refines, not destroys.
It’s the gaze that says,
"I see what you carry -
and still,
you are worthy of becoming."

Glory

The Word
Glory – once reserved for the divine alone. A blazing radiance, a throne-room echo, a word that split the skies with trumpet and terror.

The Wound
Glory became unreachable. It became ego's robe, power's veil, something to steal or bestow, but never to touch. It was reserved for gods, kings, and sanctified systems.

The Shift
In Sacred Imagination, glory isn’t hierarchy or spectacle. It’s the shining of essence through presence. Anything that fully is - a child laughing, a mountain breathing, a person becoming - is glorious.

The Offering
Glory isn’t the shine of crowns,
but the shimmer of being
when you are wholly here.
It’s what happens
when presence breaks through pretension,
and something real appears.

Worship

The Word
Worship – a word laced with bowing heads, steeples, songs, submission. A performance for the divine, directed by priests.

The Wound
Worship became theater. It became flattery. It became obedience without intimacy, repetition without revelation, and hierarchy masked as holiness.

The Shift
In Sacred Imagination, worship is the meeting of reverence and reality. It’s not a ritual to appease but an openness to awe. Worship is what happens when wonder finds breath.

The Offering
Worship isn’t
singing at the sky,
but seeing into the soil.
It’s walking with eyes wide,
and breathing with intention.
It’s anything done
in the presence of mystery
with the fullness of being.

Blessing

The Word
Blessing – once a transaction of divine favor, a phrase spoken from above. A magic word that kept harm at bay.

The Wound
Blessing became currency. It was hoarded, earned, proof of belonging or reward for belief. It was given by gatekeepers and withheld by doctrine.

The Shift
In Sacred Imagination, blessing isn’t currency. It’s connection. It’s the conscious recognition of sacredness in the ordinary. It’s less about what is said and more about what is seen.

The Offering
Blessing is what your hands say
when they hold without hurry.
It’s the gaze that says,
"You matter here."
It’s presence poured out,
not privilege passed down.

Closing Note: These are not answers. They are openings. Each reimagined word is an invitation to walk forward - not with dogma, but with dignity. Language, like breath, can wound. But it can also heal.

The path continues.