"I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams." Acts 2:17
So I just finished a book called “Crazy Love”, pretty good if any of you were ever thinking of reading it. In chapter nine he shared a story that resurfaced a question in me that I had honestly, tried to forget.
The story goes something like this, the author (Francis Chan) was at a play with his wife and relatives. When he asked ‘Grandma Clara’ what she thought of the show she said she didn’t want to be there.”I just don’t know if this is where I want to be when Christ returns. I’d rather be helping someone or on my knees praying. I don’t want Him to return and find me sitting in a theater.”
Bam! Right there. Where do I want to be when Christ comes back? And am I living as if he is coming back?
It says in Matthew 24 to “Keep watch because you do not know on what day your LORD will come” (v.42) It goes on to give the picture of a servant who is faithful taking care and feeding his fellow servants until his master returns.
There is scripture after scripture telling us to pay attention and not get caught up in the world because it’s only temporary and the world to come isn’t looking for citizens of this world it’s looking for citizens of heaven who have been faithful with what their master has given. James 1:27 says that the “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep yourself from being polluted by the world” What are we doing here guys? Are we living as if Christ is returning any day?
And so I will finish with the question… Where will you be/ What will you be doing when Christ returns?
November 15, 2011
Ok, so lately I have been dreaming about world peace… I know I know, that’s what the beauty queen says when she stands up on the podium, or what a politician says as he kisses a baby, or what the little kid in those cheesy Christmas movies wishes for at Christmas… it’s just words. Most people don’t even think about what it means anymore, its simply the cliche saying when someone wants something good for others. But has anybody ever thought about it really before? Have you thought about it before?
What it would really look like to have Sons and Daughters reunited with the Mothers and Fathers for Husband and Wives come home to their spouses and Parents watching as their Son or Daughter that they did not know would even come home walks up the front porch steps for good! Not so that they can have a break before they go back but that they would return home to their family not worried about having to return to destroy someone else’s family member for the sake of a boundary line… I just added this video to help you picture it a bit better :)
In the book Irresistible Revolution, Shane Caliborne recalls a quote from a hospital Manager while in Iraq, “Violence is for those who have lost their imagination. Has your country lost it’s imagination?”
These two sentences hit me like a brick, is it true that we’ve lost our imaginations? Have we stopped dreaming of better things more interesting, wonderful things and begun to look on to others possessions with want and need in our eyes. Have we just become bored with everyday lives? One of my favorite movies of all time Joyex Noel tells a story of WW1 ( If you haven’t seen it I fully recommend it). Anyways right at the beginning of the movie one of the Young men of Scotland runs to tell his brother that he’s going to get them to sign up for the war and get’s excited saying “Finally, Somethings happening in our lives!” Is this what our world, our lives have come to?
I pray that we would be people who have not lost our imaginations or our creativity but that our passion would be reunited with problem solving so that we could dream huge new crazy, God given ideas that make dreams, like this one, reality.
Ok so I’ve just got this thing on my chest and it’s killing me so I felt like all I could do was write it out.
In Mark 6 the bible talks about how Jesus sent the disciples out in pairs to villages all around. They did not take anything with them and trusted in God to provide while they taught and displayed the good news of God to the nations.
I want to do that! it’s that simple. Recently some friends came to stay with me, they are in this band that tours all over North America (mostly in the states) and they just happened to have some time off to stay with me. I was, and always am fascinated by what they do and their passion for it, not just the music (though that is important) but their desire to share the good news with everyone and anyone they meet. They have been a big influence in my life and to tell you the truth I have always desired to be able to pick up and go with a small group of people and just share with people, get people excited about the only thing that’s worth living for.
Where has my passion gone? Here I AM SEND ME LORD!!!! I feel so broken and useless right now like I’ve lost my target. I’m torn between this humbling state of knowing that you know best and that where you are is where I want to be but at the same time I just am not satisfied here I’m not satisfied by sitting back. Lately I have been the biggest day dreamer with no effort, a place between apathy and driving passion where I care but not enough to move. God help me find my move, I’m not satisfied right now because I’m not fully in you. What can I do but be in you again. Let me find my way in this please just to start my move so that I can jump when you ask me to, I can walk when you ask me to, I can go where you ask me to, I can be what you want me to be.
Today I really want to write about restoring dreams. Recently, as you’ve probably noticed I stopped writing in this blog and the truth is… to be honest I had slowly lost my faith in my dreams. In my world my dreams began to be crushed into unrealistic and unimaginable things of fantasy… I thought my dreams were dead.
It’s funny though when you begin dreaming God’s dreams, though they may be crushed and pressed, tested and tried, they never die. Recently in my time with God he came to me and said, it’s time to start dreaming again. And I believe that that is a word for all of us because the dreams that may seem impossible are within his reach!
To understand the reality in this for me right now I would like to be vulnerable and tell you about one of my ridiculously crazy dreams that God has placed in my heart. I want to rehabilitate Child soldiers in Uganda and other civil war torn countries of Africa, I want to do it in love and with an emphasis on arts/recreation and God as a father… It get’s more ridiculous when I tell you that I have never met a child soldier in person, never experienced civil war, never rehabilitated anyone in any situation, have never been to Uganda or even Africa in general, and that I am a 22 year old single female student who has very little money to her name… yeah I know I’ve been told I sound crazy, or they tell me that my aspirations are admirable (but they don’t actually see it ever happening). That dream has been in my heart for over 5 years and still I have yet to do any of the things I have described…but still God does not allow me to let that dream go.
I want to encourage three types of people who read this today. If God has placed a ridiculously crazy dream on your heart and you’ve lost hope… maybe because people mocked it or you haven’t been supported in what God has put in your heart to do please message me, on this account, or by email at gardangel@hotmail.com. I would love to pray with you, be a listening ear, I love hearing what God has put on peoples hearts and I want to encourage you on your journey.
The second group of people who read this may be thinking that they have never gotten a dream from God, that they are insignificant in this world or that they don’t know what God is calling them to. Please message me as well If there is something I love more than hearing the dreams that God has put in peoples hearts it’s helping people hear the plans and dreams that God has for them.
Thirdly if you are reading this blog and you want to dream but don’t think you can or you don’t know about the God of the Universe who has created you to be living a life to the fullest please let me know because I would love to talk with you.
Now to all you dreamers out there it is time for me to stop blabbing and get off of this computer. You are all wonderful and I pray that God will begin to restore broken dreams, the dreams that seem crushed, the dreams that everyone calls crazy and that he would bring them to reality. Amen
Who ever is out there reading this I would love to hear your responses, doesn’t matter who you are.
If you could have three wishes, what would you wish for? …I’m sure many if not all of us have heard this question before and I would like you to answer it again for me… BUT with two stipulations
1. No wishing to do with money or more wishes
and
2. The wishes cannot be for you, they must be for someone else
So I was thinking the other day why dreams? and I thought that you might be wondering the same thing so here’s my little thought blah to get you maybe to where I’m thinking…
Psalm 1 says Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers… now though I have heard many talks about these three things that we shouldn’t be doing very often is it ever related back to what we should be doing.
So I took it upon myself to find the relation, Hebrews 12:1 …let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Now you might be asking yourself what the heck that has to do with dreaming and I getting there right about now… if you have ever run for an extended period of time before there’s something about running you might realize… you can’t run for any length of distance or time without setting some sort of goal, whether your running from it or to it its ridiculously hard to run for a length of time without having some sort of marking point, something your aiming for. Now is it no wonder Paul says to the Corinthians, ” run in such a way as to get the prize”( 1 Corinthians 9:24)
So in my mind if were supposed to be running to get the prize, we better enlighten ourselves as to what that prize is. We better be dreaming of heaven in crazy godly ways so that we know what were aiming for….
September 11, 2010
So since I’ve started this blog I have desired to write about much more than what I was writing about. Thus I decided to revamp with a whole new face on the page, new name, new everything.
I named it crazy dreamer because that is what I hope to be. Carl Sandburg once said “Nothing happens unless first we dream.” It’s true, how is it possible to make something non-existent a reality unless we have not pictured it first in our minds eye of possibilities. The greatest people in history had dreams that they attempted to make a reality… some succeeded, some failed, and some are still waiting for their dreams to become a full reality. I desire to be one of those dreamers to inspire others to have the courage to stand up and live out their dreams, however large they may be, as if they are a reality here and now.
Dom Helder Camara said that, “When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality.” and this is where you come in. I desire to share my dreams, and thoughts with you, being vulnerable and open, only in the hopes that you will share your big dreams with me… so we can support and help each other in our journey to making our big dreams a reality on this earth.
