A few weeks ago at Intercession, Rodney led us all to consider our dreams.
Not like… the ones we see in our sleep at night, but the ones we hold close to our hearts; the ones that often get buried beneath the realities of life.
I had joined Intercession that night, straight out of a discouraging planning meeting about the Willowdale Christmas Market. Our planning team seemed to be divided and everyone had questions, comments and concerns… but nobody seemed to have answers, helpful replies or solutions. Although planning had already been happening for months, it felt like we were back to square one with nothing to show for our work.
Still in the heat of the moment I brought my prayer request to the breakout room and said, “My dream is for this Christmas Market to happen and for the Willowdale neighbourhood to come together to support local artists and to have some hope and love and joy spread around because of the Market… My dream is for it to be the most beautiful place ever and for the beauty to minister to people.”
All of the above things are true… but I’ve learned a couple valuable lessons since then…
- My ideas of what I would like my dreams to look like when they materialize need to be held with open hands.
No, it was not realistic to order two gigantic tents with twinkly lights for this very grassroots, very low budget event. Was God able to make it happen? Of course! Perhaps what needed to be challenged wasn’t God’s abilities though, maybe it was my stubbornness and pride that needed adjusting.
And, no, not having that version of tent + twinkly lights combo did not mean that the Market wouldn’t be beautiful or that people in the neighbourhood wouldn’t be blessed! This was not an all or nothing moment…
My hopes and dreams needed to be held open to the Lord and my will and pride needed to surrender to God’s will. - “Laura’s Dream” is not the Willowdale Christmas Market. It’s one of many littler dreams and a very real prayer item, but at the end of the day, there are many dreams that lay buried even further down within me.
Determining my dream based on what is currently going on around me, no matter how beautiful or exciting it may be, will never fully represent the depths of my truest dreams. In order to reach those depths, much more reflection and courage are required.
Rodney was encouraging us as a group to bring our long-forgotten dreams before the Lord. To remember God’s faithfulness and also maybe to re-assess those dreams. Maybe there are new steps to be taken, maybe there is new life to be breathed on them… maybe there are new prayers of surrender needing to be prayed.
On this random Wednesday, at the end of November, I want to encourage all of you, all of us, to consider the dreams the Lord has placed within us.
I don’t encourage this lightly because often with long-forgotten dreams, long-lost hurts and fears begin to surface as well. It can be saddening and disappointing to remember those dreams… And yet, God is not afraid of us meeting him there. He is not going to stand you up or leave you on your own… God loves to dream with us.
Consider this psalm in the light of daring to dream with the Lord…
Psalm 139
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.