Dreamers

My elementary report cards are hilarious. Almost all of them say the following: "Hollie is bright...but she has trouble focusing and is usually daydreaming or talking to her friends." I laugh out loud every time I read them (and am so thankful mom kept them all!). Yes. The teacher's comments were right on target-I was, and still am, a total dreamer.

Being a dreamer has served me well!  I have probably gained more from my daydreams than from years in the classroom. My best ideas come from my dreams. My creativity is sparked by my daydreams. Also, God speaks to me most clearly in my dreams. When He needs me to learn something that I haven't quite caught onto yet, he corrects me gently through stories in my sleep.

 I am amazed how God shares His creativity with us by releasing bits of it through our imaginations. His creativity, forming stories through our lives, increases our ability to thrive within the constraints of our everyday reality. Dreaming throws off restrictions, creating atmospheres which allow anything to happen. God is pleased when we use our imaginations for good. He approves us developing our imaginations through the purity of His word (whatever is pure...noble...think on these things).

Dreams are emotionally charged. They can instill hope, work around existing problems, and allow us to think BIG. Dreams are also a starting point. They catapult us towards change. Long before we are actually ready to accomplish the purpose for which God created us, He plants seeds of excitement by instilling passions and hopes through our dreams.

Dreaming does have a dangerous connotation because it forces us to choose and to act. We can either embrace the dream and move towards realizing it, or safely step back, fearfully avoiding any risks. Anyone who finds themselves at this juncture can remember it is God who invites us into the dream, asking only for our availability. He will bring the dream to fruition. His creativity encourages us to obey. Our obedience releases God's favor, and allows Him to further reveal His grand plot for realizing our dreams.

The world needs more godly dreamers who are willing to seek and risk and obey. I am so grateful for God's unique way of including us in the spiritual realm by instilling dreams within us. Take a moment this week and rediscover the dreamer within you.


 

Productive Pain

Pain is horrible. I try to avoid it at all costs, but it often finds its way back, and when it returns, it returns with a vengence. If I know it's coming, I can at least brace myself for the impact. For years, the idea of intentional pain, the kind you bring on yourself by choosing a Christian lifestyle, kept me at a safe arm's length from God. Since following Him required sacrifice, I was selective in my pursuit. I enjoyed discovering and developing the gifts he'd given me but agreed avoiding the harder challenges was just plain safer.

The problem with my resolve was that pain came along anyway. But it was useless pain and wasn't producing anything in me other than scars. I would hurt,  internalizing the pain, and found myself unwilling to do anything else with it. The more I let this happen, the more I realized I was gaining distance between myself and Christ. The greater the distance, the less I noticed the pain. Like the song from the Avett Brothers, I was becoming numb like the old tin man. The God-rejecting culture was becoming less obvious and offensive to me. Then, one day, I was drawn back to the purpose of pain.

Jesus Christ suffered a horrible death, but he kept his eye on the purpose of his pain. He knew his sacrifice was producing something we needed and couldn't ever earn. Then I thought to myself, if Jesus is our example, the incarnate God, then we can learn how to respond to our pain through his. Lesson one: pain is fleeting. It will never last forever. It's horrible, yes, and sometimes nearly impossible to get through, but it will one day be non-exsistent. Lesson two: pain can be productive. What we see as a nuisance, God can convert into beauty. It hurts, makes us cry, leaves scars, but in our weakness we have a God who transforms our tears into testimony. Some pain is unbearable and the tears seem to last forever; with some deep wounds we still wait for the testimony. It's coming, as elusive as it seems.

I am really writing this for myself, because today I experienced an episode of pain that left me breathless. But Jesus, in his tenderness, is sewing me up and creating a deeper beauty in me that wasn't there before. I am so grateful my pain has been productive and wasn't just a taunt to make me suffer.

Getting Real

It takes so much energy to fake it spiritually and yet that is what I so often find myself doing. When I skip my personal time with God, I walk around thinking there must be a sign stamped across my forehead for everyone to see. Then, like an idiot, I totally overcompensate, speaking in spiritual jargon and  hoping my hurried morning without acknowledging God won't show itself when speaking to my husband, friends or employees. Sometimes, naturally, I blow my cover. Other times, supernaturally, God is much more graceful than I deserve Him to be.

I really believe he feels more grief than anger. The Bible does say He is slow to anger, and yet we see that by early Genesis, he is already feeling grief at having created humankind! I am so glad he loves us enough to feel something. He is so wonderful and I am so built up whenever He draws me close. When I am taking my time of solitude and seeking God, I remember that He is my breath and I can't live or do anything without Him. Take this Sunday, for instance.

This Sunday I was kneeling at the altar, seeking relief from a difficult and disappointing week, and He spoke to me clearly. My husband was leading a song for reflection and it was about to end. As I began to get up, God said, "Stay with Me longer". Now, the teens from the church were having a food sale fund raiser for the youth retreat following the service and I wanted to make sure they were all set, but I didn't dare budge. I quieted my spirit and let myself go. And he gave me strength. He lifted my spirits and reminded me that He sees my heart. Then I realized what His grief is really about. He knows what we are missing out on when we aren't spending time with Him. He is real and speaks real truths. That is what getting Real is all about.

Image and glam

 I was devouring a fashion magazine recently, a guilty pleasure of mine, when I was struck by its hoarding nature. It eggs us on to buy every stitch in sight and exaggerates our need to have bought it yesterday. The leggy girls in the photos, the strategic placement of glossy diamond bangles and ridiculously oversized handbags all seem to be designed to convince us of our have nots.

The brains behind these magazines encourage us to covet what we don't have. Worse yet, they attempt to plant that venemous seed which erroniously teaches us that, unless we have expendable income, we shouldn't even be looking through its pages!  Who else would be suckered into buying $1,000 stilettos?

As I teetered dangerously towards the brink of fashionistaville, a spirit dwelling inside me caught me by the tails of my old navy jeans and jerked me back to reality. His reality. The reality that protects us from feeling unworthy, undesirable, and every other un-word  ever created by the enemy. His spirit whispers love songs, composed personally for my ears to hear, and reminds me that my image is wrapped up in reflecting His. What a relief. That is a relief because he empowers and reminds me of my haves rather than my have nots. He empowers me to see the dreams I can attain through his limitless abilities.

I found myself re-reading that same magazine with the ability to appreciate the contents for art's sake. I can honestly say that I felt absolutely no sense of obligation to purchase or live up to any of it. My image, how I look to the world, is important. But God gets to decide how that will appear. Now I ask, "How can I reflect Him accurately without looking like a knock-off"?!