“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream,” at least that’s what C.S. Lewis said, and I tend to agree with him. I’ve been saying for the past year that if we haven’t given up and God hasn’t taken us home, then there is still hope to do great things. God so pointedly spoke to me at a citywide prayer and worship event just before New Year’s 2008, “Get your dream back.” That has led to an interesting road this year as Andrea (my wife) and I have reclaimed dreams personally and with our church. She has gone back to school to get her Masters in teaching and will finish in June 2009 with her degree and certification as a teacher. Our church is in the process of relaunching as we watch God breathe resurrection life into visions and dreams that have been in God’s heart for eternity.
“Get your dream back” even in the sense of sentence structure (free grammar lesson), is a command not a suggestion. Thankfully, we live in a covenant of grace not compulsion to achieve holiness or God’s approval. Some take that freedom to unintended places and miss the destiny and fulfillment God has for them because they’re too busy being “free.” No, God gives us instruction and guidance and then provides us with the grace to work it out in us. When God said, “get your dream back,” I still had the choice to hold on to fear and doubt or take this by faith.
How do you get a dream back anyway? Well, there really is power in possibilities. Think about it, when we start reflecting on our lives, circumstances, health, family, situations, or anything else in terms of only one possible conclusion—we settle into the rut and no longer dream or envision anything else. It’s inevitable, we think, so why fight it. It may not be a preferred or even a good alternative, but we go along with it and try to make the best. What happens in our job when we start to see possibilities for a raise or advancement? What happens in our marriage when we start seeing our spouse outside the lines of everyday tasks and chores or problems that you may have had? What happens when a church family really grabs a hold of the impact an “inconsequential” church can have when they trust God and step out in faith? All sorts of possibilities are imagined—dreams take root, vision takes flight, and Spirit-led actions will lead to the extraordinary.
Why? Because God honors faith! Before anything changes, someone has to believe that it can change and that God is big enough to change it. Someone has to make the first step, trusting God to provide another and another. I couldn’t say it’s a comfortable walk, but God will always meet us.
In a recent sermon, I talked about searching out things and seeking God while balancing the Mary and the Martha in us. Martha wants to do and work and prepare; Mary wants to pray and listen and experience. Neither one is bad, but we need to know what time it is. Martha’s preparations in Luke 10 were not bad in themselves, but it was time to listen at Jesus’ feet at that moment (and not be resentful of Mary for not helping). We will always have to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and passionately work when it’s time for that and passionately listen and seek when it’s time for that. The determining factor cannot be our natural inclination, predisposition, or what we see with our natural eyes. I don’t know about you, but my eyes lie—a lot! And when I rely on them solely for information, my possibilities keep narrowing and narrowing until I fork over my dream or put it back on the shelf. The Holy Spirit has to be our guide because He will lead us into all truth.
To not see other possibilities, despite the circumstances, is to grossly underestimate the power and wisdom of God. In a very real way, we have a worship problem—we aren’t seeing Him correctly. That worship problem leads to a relationship deficit, which then leads to vision neglect. This can cause disillusionment, depression, and other undesirable things. It’s a spiral that He does not want us in. Oddly enough, it begins with Him and ends with Him, which is probably why He is named the Beginning and the End.
What possibilities have you locked yourself into? What do you feel is inevitable for you, your family, your church, your city, your country, whatever? There may be some bad or not-so-good things that you've bought into. He wants to show you these things and let you cast them aside. Meanwhile, it’s important also that even if you see good things in store, you don’t limit it to only what your mind can conceive of—that’s how our hope gets deferred.
We have to dream about the great possibilities, about great effectiveness, great relationships, great impact. Let God fill you with joy at the possibilities! We will certainly draw strength from allowing faith to overcome fear, and vision to overcome doubt. As we keep searching Him out being open to what He shows us, little by little we will walk into tremendous fulfillment in Him.
