Dreaming...

I spent the majority of last school year studying Genesis.  I really love the book of Genesis.  It is a book of beginning but it is also a book of dreams.  I was especially moved by the stories of Joseph. (Genesis ch 37-50) You see Joseph was a dreamer.  I remember singing the story of Joseph's life when I was in the youth group.  I loved those songs!  They were inspiring and humbling all at the same time.  Joseph's story is one of God's mighty power...that power moving when Joseph couldn't see it.  Moving when Jacob thought his child long dead.  Moving when his brothers were drowning in guilt.  

Dreaming means taking risk.  It means laying yourself on the line.  It means accepting that your dreams may NEVER become a reality.  Trusting in the God that gave you the dream seems near impossible at times.  Dreaming drives us either to desperation or to desperately cry out to HIM.  Dreaming should bring us to our knees in ways we are incapable of comprehending until we are there.  Until we are seeking HIM in a brand new way.

The greatest risk in dreaming isn't that our dreams won't come true.  The greatest risk is that we will dream outside of God's will.  It is that we hold so tightly to our man made dreams that we lose what God has planned.  You see God's plans are O SO MUCH BETTER than ours!

I can't imagine how Joseph felt in the dungeon.  Held captive in a foreign land by men who loathed his people.  And yet he was still a dreamer.  He was still faithful to the dream God gave him many years prior to his imprisonment.  Moreover, he held onto the GOD who gave him the dream.  Even when the dream seemed to have little chance of coming true.

Today, I'm dreaming.  And I'm also grieving what appears to be the loss of a dream.  Honestly what the dream was matters little.  What does matter is that GOD is bigger than my dreams.  What matters is that GOD gave me this dream..I know because others have confirmed this in my life.  What matters is that GOD is always faithful, and He is always good!  Even when our dreams seem shattered.  

So what are you dreaming today?  Is it the stuff of God?  You see, dreams are miracles in the making!  If you can achieve your dream on your own it isn't really a dream, it is merely a goal.  Today I want to dream big!  I want to dream bigger than the dream that was lost.  I want to dream what GOD wants.  I want a front row seat to a miracle.  To the miracle God is preparing in my life, in my family.  Today I am trying to accept that Joseph waited years for his dream to come true, he waited years for God to perform that specific miracle in his life.  Today I am trying to wait.  

"Wait on the Lord. Serving Him gladly. Hold to the truth He has placed in you.  And wait on the Lord. Patiently wait on the Lord" (Travis Cottrell and Kathie Hill from the musical 'Waiters').  So today, friends, I challenge you to wait.  But while you are waiting dare to dream.  For out of your dreams may come the greatest miracle you will ever see!  You just might get a front row seat!