My family has now been in Lima, Peru for just over two weeks. We uprooted everything we know for the promise of seeing a dream come to pass that has been stirring in my heart for almost a decade now. I believe that God does his best work through dreams and visions. Saying “I have a dream” is both a dangerous and delightful phrase to the community of the dreamless. This last week I spoke to a group of student leaders here in Lima, Peru about pursuing their D.R.E.A.M. Allow me to share some of the big picture thoughts with you. If you have any thoughts, please feel free to respond. Also feel free to download my free e-book V5. This resource helps provide teeth for your dream so that it will become a reality.
Desire: Every dream starts with desire. In latin de means “of” and sire means “father.” What we discover here is that every desire has a father that conceived it. We all carry desire like a pregnant woman carries a child. The question then becomes, who is the Father? If we have been close to our Father God, we can trust our desires. If not proceed with caution. We usually immediately know who we’ve been intimate with. This is the primary question of desire.
Risk: Every dream is going to take risk. We must be willing to lose what we have to gain something more. NO risk NO reward. The business community borrowed their understanding of this principle from Jesus. He is the master investor. For further study see Matthew 25.
Effort: Every dream will take effort. It’s a myth that “if God wants something to happen, then it will automatically happen.” Many things that God does not want to happen, actually does and vice versa. Effort is the difference many times. We must be a people who “add to our faith” as Peter warns, that we may not be ineffective and unproductive in our knowledge of Christ.
Availability: Simply said: “If you are available to everything, then you are truly available to nothing.” Have you made yourself available to too much? Have you become so stretched that you are paper-thin? It is common in our world of over-connectivity. Learn to say no, so that you can truly say YES.
Mystery: The timing and method of your dream surfacing is unclear and mysterious. God’s ways are not ours. We must desire and risk and also demonstrate tremendous effort and be available only to our YES. But after all of this, the mystery many times remains. My advice: Embrace the mystery and enjoy the journey. “He knows the plans He has for you….plans to give you hope and a future.”
Keep dreaming,
Josh
