A New Dream

There is something to be said about a lost dream.

That dream which was once alive and kicking. A dream that breathed life into your weary soul. One which gave you passion and zeal for taking in every single breath and every single foot step.

A dream which offered hope.

Perhaps it was not even the dream in and of itself which gave you all of these things.
It was the hope from that dream.

That’s when that fateful day came - you know the day I am talking about - the day that your dreams crashed to the floor in a billion pieces. A day of calamity. A day of complete darkness. A day of absolute, heart wrenching, raw, freshly wounded complete despair.

Maybe you saw it coming... maybe you didn’t. Either way it doesn’t matter. It happened, and the dream that was once very much alive is now dead. There’s nothing you can do to change that.

So now you might be living your life aimlessly. Wandering around... wondering what is the point of it all. I have lived my life that way before. If I am being transparent, I still do live that way sometimes.

It is by the grace of a merciful and incredible loving God that I am only just now discovering that I can dream again.

That old dream will never revive... but a new dream can be born.
A new purpose. A new life.
A new hope.

There’s a reason why Christ calls us to have childlike faith:
“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 18:3

I don’t think Christ is only speaking in terms of salvation here. For me, I think maybe he also means that we need to have childlike faith to truly experience the kingdom of heaven HERE too.

What do children do? They wonder... they play... they imagine... they ask lots of questions to discover the truth... they love without abandon...

They dream.

You don’t have to have to dream today or even tomorrow if you don’t have the strength. Just know that you can. You can dream again. You were created to dream again.

Childlike faith is so simple and yet it’s the hardest thing in the world.
...Yet I want to experience the kingdom of heaven - not just after I die - but while I am still living here.

I will dream a new dream. I was born to dream again.

To Those Who Are Lonely

To those who are lonely: 

You are not crazy. 

You are not desperate. 

You are not shameful. 

You are not weak. 

You are not worthless. 

You are not weird. 

You are not emotional. 

You are not alone in feeling alone. 

“Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone...” 

Genesis 2:18 

When God created His great beginning, he made a perfect world in which we could live. He then created the very first human being ever to walk His beautiful creation. Adam already walked with God, was close with God, had a perfect relationship with Him... 

...and still God said it was not good. Man was still alone, even with God. 

Coming from a place where I have experienced loss (and talking with others who have grieved a loss, too), it is exhausting for me to hear others try to “fix” a problem by saying “God is enough.” 

Well, yes. He is enough. Of course He’s enough. That was never a question. That isn’t the problem here. 

The reality is that humans crave and value community, whether they realize it or not. 

Humans were made for community.

Sometimes that means you need people in your life just to sit with you and say “I don’t understand what you’re going through, but that really must suck. Here’s some ice cream and a shoulder to cry on.” 

And this might surprise you. For that moment, that IS enough. 

We get so caught up in trying to solve each others’ problems. We try to simplify things and say “well, all things work together for His good.”

When honestly...sometimes this answer just doesn’t help anything. Sometimes we just need to say, “This world hurts and thankfully it is not our home, but until then we are together.” 

So to those who feel alone, this is not coming from a place of insecurity. This is normal. This is coming from a very valuable place in your heart that God has created. 

And if you need a shoulder to cry on, let’s get coffee sometime. 

Believe me... I get it!