dreams.
visions.
plans.
ideas.
hope.
LIFE!
The only way to live life fully is to dream wildly, make plans, and go places.
Truly, the Bible tells us in Proverbs 29:18- "Where there is no vision, the people perish."
I've been considering this whole concept lately, and 100% agree with the blessing and joy of being able to hope and dream. If being able to hope and dream of future plans, ideas, and what I would like to do, where I would like to go, and what I would like to experience were taken from me, my spirit would be crushed. My life would be without passion and worth. My drive to accomplish the experiences of the here and now would be shattered and useless.
It's the dream of what could be accomplished in my future that fuels the desire to overcome the obstacle of the nursing program I am currently in. It's the dream of how God can use me in ways I never could've imagined before, that keeps me focused through the intensity of the life that I never would have actually chosen for myself. It's the hope that God will find me a broken, pliable vessel in His hands, usable and willing for whatever He has for me, that keeps me battling on the road to surrender and peace.
Which brings me to the flip side of the coin of dreaming passionately. I believe wholeheartedly that there can come a point where our dreams become first and foremost in our minds, and we are bound and determined to fulfill them, no matter what the cost. What becomes a problem is when those dreams overshadow and mute the call of God in our lives. When does one cross the fine line between dreaming and taking those dreams to the extreme?
In my personal experience, I've struggled between those two extremes. I strongly believe that God blesses the hearts of His people with dreams that are very much His will, but they may be fulfilled in ways that we never expected. One of the hardest experiences is to give up a dream that has been nurtured and protected carefully in your heart.
One may ask, why would God even give someone a dream only to take it from them before it can be fulfilled? Isn't that cruel and mean, and nothing like the loving, just Father He is supposed to be? I have no answer for that question, except the very clear assurance in my own heart that God is sovereign and He has our very best in mind for our lives. Even more importantly, He can see the end from the beginning, and we only have a small window into the here and now of our lives. Cultivating a dream within our hearts, and then asking us to give that dream back to Him is His rightful action as our Creator and Savior.
Our part in this whole intricate picture of finding the balance of living life fully, passionate, and surrendered only comes through much time spent at the feet of Jesus. How are we to know what His will is for us if we don't know Him intimately? Knowing Him intimately will cause us to be able to live with our dreams and goals in an open hand, rather then a tight fist of resistance. Knowing Him intimately will take some of the sting of disappointment out of the process of surrendering those dreams. It will not make it easy, absolutely not, but it will make it attainable.
True surrender is not giving up, it's letting go. It's holding those dreams in an open hand, allowing God to change them, shape them, and use them, ultimately using us, in His perfect and all-knowing plan. For us, it may mean a change of direction. It may sometimes mean starting over. It may just mean continuing on much like we have been, but with a different focus in our hearts. It may look crazy and shameful to the general world around us who cannot feel or see the intimate, personal work God is doing in the heart.
A personal challenge of mine is to be consistently joyful and thankful right through the the heart of the painful experiences of surrender. It becomes easy to look at how things should be different, to sigh about how I've been short-changed, to grump and cry about the way God has been unfair to me. Which ultimately boils down to unbelief, and unbelief is a sin. Are you willing to allow unbelief to make a breach in your relationship with God? It's not worth it!
Look up, take the hand of God. Experience intimacy. Learn what the beat of His heart feels like. It is then, and only then, that your heart will begin to sync in rhythm with His and His goals and visions will become your goals and visions.
Because in the end, life isn't about you. It's about HIM.
