Do You Have ‘Scary’ Dreams?
Rocky Mountain Raspberry, Banana Fudge, Chocolate Honey Cup, Peanut Butter Binge, Mocha Almond Fudge, Mango Tango…the choices were overwhelming. Dozens of flavours to choose from. Who knew ice cream came is such a swagger of sweetness?
I perused the selections wondering if I would diverge from my ever-faithful strawberry and chocolate double tap. Still mulling over the flavour dilemma in my mind I began to visually graze around the rest of the establishment. It was one of those touristy ice cream/souvenir/knick knack/tchotchke stores you find along tourism corridors. You know the kind…
It was then that it caught my eye. It seemed to leap off the wall at me. It was calling me and I knew I had to respond. I had to buy it. It was one of those spur of the moment, impulsive decisions.
It’s now in my office.
“IF YOUR DREAMS DON’T SCARE YOU THEY’RE NOT BIG ENOUGH” – in a simple white frame, 16 inches wide by 27 inches tall.
It’s not the ‘art’ of it that caught me, it was the challenge. I had to ask myself two questions:
- Do I have dreams beyond my own comfort and convenience?
- Are they big enough to intimidate me?
Do I actually dream of what God wants to do in me and through me? I mean dream in such a way that it’s impossible unless God ‘shows up’? In other words, without God it’s not going to happen.
We don’t often talk about dreams in the church do we? Like, “What are your dreams you want to accomplish?” Somehow we think that having dreams is selfish and sinful. Well, dreams certainly can be selfish and sinful. However, they can also be gloriously Godly. I don’t think God has any issue with grandiose dreams that are for the betterment of others.
Our God is a big God. He is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine. Shouldn’t our dreams be big? If we’re indeed our Father’s sons, then our hopes, dreams and expectations should be grand and glorious. In fact, I wonder if small dreams are ‘offensive’ to God? I wonder if we have a tendency to set our sights too low, make our dreams too small and God whispers, “C’mon, go for it – let’s do something bigger than that.”
William Carey the ‘father of modern missions’ stated, “Attempt great things for God, expect great things from God.” Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Some people look at what is and ask ‘why?’, others dream of what could be and declare ‘why not!’” C.S Lewis exhorted us by saying, “The problem is not that we desire too much, but that we desire too little.”
These men had ‘scary’ dreams. All gave themselves to big dreams for the benefit of others.
I think our dreams are meant to be big because they are meant to demand faith. They are meant to be far bigger than us; something that overwhelms us. Something that scares us because we’re not sure we have what it takes to do it – the dream is impossible without God. Attempting it on our own would be ruinous.
There is a progression to seeing dreams come to fruition though. It all starts with a faith-fueled desire to see God work powerfully and profoundly in us and through us for His glory, not ours. But we can’t just have big dreams and expect them to magically happen. It starts with a dream, but from there we need to set goals, make a plan, and take action.
Dream – Goal – Plan – Action.
The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. had a ‘scary’ dream, “That one day his four little children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” His goal was to see equal rights granted to black people in the US. He had a plan to accomplish that, and then he took action to accomplish the plan.
And, I have no doubt that every step along the way he was on his knees seeking the heart and help of the One who was working with him to see this dream come to reality – his dream of what could be, all the while declaring “Why not!” In fact, I’ll bet it was the Lord who put that dream in Mr. King’s heart.
Yes, I think the Lord is looking for men to whom He can entrust ‘scary’ dreams. Lord help us to be those men…
Ephesians 3:20
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”
Psalm 20:4
“May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.”
Proverbs 21:5
“The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.”
The Decisions We Make, Make Us
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms-to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
This is a critical truth taken from Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning.
Frankl was a holocaust survivor who was subjected to Nazi atrocities during WWII. He knew what it was to choose “one’s attitude” in the midst of horrific circumstances.
The greatest gift God gave mankind is our will – our ability to choose. No matter what, we can always choose what we think, what we believe, what we do. Sure, that’s not easy, but the capacity for mankind to make wise choices in the face of incomprehensibly difficult circumstances is astounding. And, the converse is true as well: the ability for mankind to make incredibly poor choices in the midst of the best of circumstances and influences is confounding.
So, if you were to do an inventory of your choices how would you fair? Probably a mix of wise and foolish choices I assume. We are all similar in that regard. However, maturity is to learn from our poor choices so we make less of them and make more wise choices. Foolish is the man who does not learn from his poor choices, and is, therefore, destined to repeat his mistakes.
We all have an equal opportunity to choose what we will think, believe and do. Awareness and education certainly play a significant role in our ability to make wise choices, but even in the midst of our ignorance we can choose to recognize we don’t know what we don’t know and then seek input from those wiser than us.
Regardless of the decisions we have made, the decisions we make, make us. We are all products of the decisions we make – what we embrace and what we reject. The decisions we have made have led us to where we are. We can choose life or death, blessings or curses. We can make decisions that lead to life, or ones that lead to death.
So how can we make more wise choices? It starts with taking responsibility for making decisions. We need to reject a victim mentality – believing it’s someone else’s fault. “It’s his fault.” “It’s her fault.” It’s their fault.” No. Life is less of what happens to us and far more of how we respond. It’s not about what happens to you, but how you choose to respond to it.
Are you a victim or victor?
We can choose courage and reject cowardice. We can choose forgiveness and reject bitterness. We can choose responsibility and reject passivity. We can choose to humble ourselves and receive God’s grace and reject pride. We can choose to ask for help and reject isolation.
In order to choose wisely we also need to recognize what we need to reject. We need to reject arrogance, isolation, cowardice, apathy, complacency, bitterness, resentment, hatred, self-pity and the like. However, what we need to primarily reject is the belief we can do this life without God.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. To fear the Lord is to believe what He says is true – He means what He says. To believe His Truth and not the lies of the enemy. Surrender to the sovereignty of God is the beginning of wisdom, and that is a life-long journey.
Is it possible this side of heaven to bat 1000 in regard to wise decisions? No. Should we even expect that of ourselves? Absolutely not. “Failure is simply an opportunity to begin more intelligently.” – according to Henry Ford, and I agree with him.
Can we improve our decision making batting average? Definitely, but it is impossible without humility. We must choose humility and surrender to the Lord. In addition though, it is imperative we humble ourselves to receive input from others. We need the input of others to enable us to grow in wisdom.
We are not going to get it right all the time, but we can choose to humble ourselves to learn from our mistakes – and that’s a wise decision.
1 Peter 6:5,6
“In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”
Proverbs 1:7
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but foolsdespise wisdom and instruction.”
Deuteronomy 30:19, 20A
“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.”
Crazy Love!
You have got to be kidding me?! She did what? Thousands of dollars of perfume?
That’s crazy.
It wasn’t a joke, and she’s not crazy. She actually did it. She spent thousands of dollars on perfume and then poured it all out. Not only that, she poured it all out over Jesus’ feet and proceeded to wipe His feet with her hair.
Crazy!
And so the story goes of Mary in John 12:1-8. Judas freaked out about it, declaring that the money she spent on the perfume should have been given to the poor. Not because he really cared about the poor, but because he liked to skim a little off the top of the disciple’s cash box.
When he spoke up about the unjust, unwise extravagance that Mary had just perpetrated, Jesus quickly rebuked him. Jesus told him to leave Mary alone – this was a good thing she had done.
Bottom line: she was sacrificially, extravagantly and proactively loving Jesus.
That’s crazy love!
And Jesus loved it.
I did a little calculation in today’s dollars about the cost of Mary’s extravagant perfume action. Nard, in the day, was a very expensive perfume. Let’s say it was equivalent to Chanel #5 today. In today’s ‘Chanel equivalent dollars’ Mary’s bank account would be approximately $9,215.04 less after she bought the pint of nard. That’s a costly act of love.
Costly = sacrifice. If something doesn’t cost us it’s not much of a sacrifice. We are invited to offer our hearts – our lives – as a sacrifice of love and worship to Jesus. Jesus asks us to exchange our life for the life He has for us.
But not only that, Mary’s act of crazy love was extravagant. Sure, the cost of the perfume contributed to the extravagance, but her actions were extravagant. At a dinner party she pours the perfume all over Jesus’ feet and then uses her hair to wipe off His feet. Hey, maybe spend the money on the perfume, but use it in a special ceremony, or to anoint Jesus after He was dead. But the way she did it was crazy extravagant.
But not only sacrificial and extravagant, it was proactive. She just took the initiative. She didn’t ask Jesus what He wanted. She did what she wanted to do to honor Him. She did what she thought Jesus would appreciate. She did what she thought would best express her love for Him.
To me, the sacrifice and the extravagance are amazing, but what really caught my eye was how proactive she was. We have a tendency to ask Jesus, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” “Lord, what should I do?” However, can you imagine Mary asking Jesus that: “Lord, I want to do something special to demonstrate my love for you – what should I do?”
“Hey, if I have to tell you what to do it kind of takes the ‘specialness’ out of the ‘gift’.”
Try that with your wife sometime. “Honey, I want to show you I love you – what should I do?” I’ll bet that won’t end very well. Her desire is for you to know what would touch her heart, and then just do it.
Care enough to know what she cares about.
I want to be like that with the Lord. To know what pleases Him, and then do it. To do things simply to demonstrate my love for Him. To take initiative on the gratitude and love in my heart for Him. I don’t want to be a robot, just asking Him what He wants me to do for Him, but to understand what is in His heart – what He wants, and then take action on that.
I think Mary’s actions are a great example of sacrificial, extravagant and proactive love – crazy love – for Jesus.
Something to note: Jesus said if we love Him we will keep His commands. (John 14:15) Then He said, “A new commandment I have for you, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34)
So, if we really want to love Jesus it’s going to involve loving others.
Find out what pleases Jesus and then go for it – wholeheartedly!
A band of brothers, an army of crazy lovers!
Ephesians 5:10
“and find out what pleases the Lord.”
Ephesians 5:17 (The Message)
“Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants.”
Romans 12:1
“Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.”
Faith Without Words Ain’t Worth Spit!
“Hey man, you don’t look like you’re dressed for a work out. Do you own the place?”
And so began our interaction…
I was leaving the H2O Center after doing my new swimming regimen, when a young man approached me just outside the door. I replied simply to his initial comments as I passed by him and continued on. Continued on until I heard him ask this question from behind me,
“Hey this is kind of a strange question, but I see lots of guys with nice cars and a big house, happy wife happy life y’know… How do you get that stuff? What’s the best way to get the good life?”
I stopped in my tracks. “Well, happiness doesn’t really come through that stuff.”, I replied.
“How do you find happiness?”, he asked.
Whoa, this is a God moment…
“Well, I can tell you how I found happiness, but it probably won’t be what others will tell you…”, I offered.
“Ok”
“God changed my life.”
“You mean religion?”, he asked.
“No, more of a relationship. Happiness comes from knowing the God who created you and loves you. You are not an accident.”, I sputtered out.
“Yeah I don’t know, my mom had me when she was really young.”, he doubted he wasn’t an accident.
“No, I mean it. You are not an accident. You are not a piece of slime that crawled up on the shore. You were created by a God who loves you and has a plan for you. You have been created with a God-shaped vacuum in you. You are made to know God and will never be happy without Him. Only Jesus can satisfy your thirst for life – stuff can’t do that.”, I continued.
We interacted for quite a while. I learned his name, about his family, his past, present and future, then referred him to a youth oriented, Jesus-centered meeting place where he could connect with people his age who know Jesus.
I kept thinking, “I have to ‘close’ this guy. I have to get him to meet Jesus.” And then, “I have to pray for him right now and right here.”
All the while I felt so awkward, like I was exercising a very weak muscle.
I learned about how he has a “freaky Jesus person” relative who had a negative effect on him and his mom. I was trying to be sensitive to that and not come on too strong, but didn’t want to miss what God wanted me to do.
We ended our conversation amicably and I moved on. I didn’t ‘close’ him and I didn’t pray for him. My head was reeling…
What was that Lord? I had so many thoughts…”One sows, one waters, another reaps…”, “That felt so awkward. When was the last time I shared about Jesus with someone who didn’t know Him? Did I say the right things?”
As I tried to walk through this encounter with the Lord I pulled out a couple of lessons: I have to be ready to share with people about Jesus. I also don’t need to feel like I have to do everything in one conversation – share words of life and encouragement, and trust the Holy Spirit.
I thought of that old adage, “Preach the Gospel and, if necessary, use words.” I take this to mean we can often do a lot of talking and not a lot of practical work to help people. I also think we can do a lot of practical work to help people and not do any talking. For people to meet Jesus they need to hear words of life.
Clint Eastwood said in Pale Rider, “Faith without works ain’t worth spit!” (It’s a paraphrase of James 2:20) – which I believe. However, I also believe that faith without words ain’t worth spit!” We must be willing to share the reason for the hope we have in Jesus.
You have a Jesus story worth telling. Your journey with Jesus is your ‘testimony’ – and nobody can refute that. Yes, let’s do works in keeping with what we believe, but let’s also courageously share our Jesus journey. It’s not just works, and it’s not just words – it’s words and works.
May we be men who are ready to courageously share words of life with those hungry for life. Because, faith without words ain’t worth spit.
I Peter 3:15
“but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;”
Romans 10:14, 17
“How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
Romans 1:16
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
The Help of His Presence
I had a buddy share with me this week how he had been experiencing some significant anxiety over his business. He wasn’t sleeping very well. He would wake up in the middle of the night racked with worry about the potential for things to go sideways.
He was surprised at how much this difficult situation was overwhelming him – it felt disproportionate. Sure it was trying, but the degree to which he was ‘freaking out’ was unusual. Even though he would tell himself that it was not that big of a deal and he shouldn’t be this worried, he was still unable to sleep. He couldn’t get on top of his anxiety…
At least, not until he intentionally set aside time to connect with God. He got to the place of recognizing we couldn’t deal with this on his own – he needed to invite the Lord into this. He needed to bring it to his Heavenly Father. He needed to ask ‘Dad’ to get involved.
He shared how he took some time to sit down alone with Dad. He had no other agenda than that of communing with God: to somehow get hold of His Heart; to somehow hear the voice of the Lord. He sat there still and alone, and prayed one of those simple 4-letter prayers, “Help!”. No big theologically correct supplication. No artistic expression of his angst. No compelling presentation of the depths of despair in his heart.
Nope, just a simple cry for help.
And then Dad simply spoke, “Have I ever let you down?”
He began to recollect situation after situation over the years that were difficult, but how Dad had been there to strengthen him in the midst of the difficulties. Everything had turned out fine. Perhaps not how he had thought they should turn out, but in retrospect everything had turned out fine.
His anxiety began to drop off like falling leaves. And, he is sleeping well again.
It’s amazing how everything changes when Dad shows up.
I remember as a kid sitting in the back of our 1965 Chevelle Malibu convertible driving through storms in the mountains at night, but feeling totally at ease because my dad was driving. Somehow everything was going to be fine because dad was in control.
I am pretty sure this is what my friend experienced: he realized that Dad was in control. Everything was going to be ok because Dad reminded him how they had driven through many storms previously and things had been fine. This was simply another ‘storm’.
Are you facing a storm? Is there something that is keeping you awake at night? Is there a situation in which you are engaged that is causing you anxiety?
I suggest you learn a lesson from my friend and set aside time to be alone with your Heavenly Father. He knows what’s going on. He knows what’s on your heart. He knows what you are dealing with. He is waiting for you to bring it to Him. Surrender it to Him and invite Him in.
“Help.”
Then, listen. Listen for Him: a thought, a word, a scripture, a song, a memory, a peace, a presence. There are many ways Dad can speak to you. But one thing is for sure; just knowing He is with you makes everything ok.
Sometimes we simply need to intentionally sit alone in stillness and wait for the “help of His presence”. We are helped by knowing He is there. We are helped by knowing Dad is here – with me.
Nope, you are not alone. You can certainly try to do it alone though. You can actually exclude the Lord from whatever you are involved in, but He is there waiting patiently for you to invite Him back in. Waiting for you to recognize you can’t do it alone.
I heard an interested quote many years ago, “If God seems far away, who moved?”
Oftentimes God seems far away because we are far away from Him. We need to stop trying to do things on our own, take the time to sit down alone with Dad, still our heart and receive…
The help of His presence.
Psalm 42:5
“Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence.” (NASB)
Psalm 9:9,10
“The Lord also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know Your name will put their trust in You, for You, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek You.”