Failure to Dream

At some point in every persons life there is a dream. Not necessarily the dreams that come when we sleep. I am talking about the dream of what could be. I am thankful to have grown up in a home which not only allowed for such dreaming, but encouraged it. My whole life has been guided by the dream of what could be. In my younger years, before making the transition of a believer of Christ to a follower of Christ, my dreams were of worldly greatness. Putting all the cards of the table, that craving for worldly acclaim still sneaks in. Now, most of my time is spent dreaming about what God could do, if we as humanity was willing to jump in.

There have been times when I have felt my ability to dream slip away. A natural process as we age is our move toward stability and comfort. Dreaming rarely affords stability and comfort. Another factor which causes us to lose the ability to dream is having dreamed and lost. As a younger pastor I talk with more experienced pastors all the time who once had a dream. Over time that dream was either shutdown, or the individual simply lost the desire to pursue that dream. A clear sign the ability to dream has set in can e found in the ways we respond to risk, and opportunity which draws us beyond the status quo. If another person presents a dream, and it is met with an uneasy laugh or sigh, the ability to dream has been lost.

The ability to dream is the birthing bed of innovation. Without innovation, we will always do what we have always done, hoping that just maybe this time it will be different, cue Einstein. The writer of Proverbs shares with us a thought which is often translated, where there is no vision the people perish. An aside joke, I have interacted with many places with no vision which are called a parish. Before the can be vision, there needs to be a dream. The dream of what God could do, or is calling us toward. This dream then gets placed in the mind and hand, the result is a vision of what could be. Where there is no dreaming, people perish.

The church of Jesus Christ should be a hot bed of dreamers. Our God is a the most creative being to ever present itself. Have you seen creation. Have you seen the ways God works. Jesus did thinks other thought was impossible. Walking on water, who say that coming. Raising from the dead, now that is a creative way to connect humanity with eternity. Instead, the church suffers. Dreams are laughed off, dreamers are dismissed and told they will someday give up on dreaming. No wonder people love God, but not the church.