The Trouble with Dreams

You don't have to be a genius to realize that there are a lot of people facing difficult times right now.

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."  2 Cor 4:7-8 

Nothing motivates us like trouble. A problem appearing on our radar moves us to act. It moves us to make a decision. There is nothing like being backed into a corner where you have few options to bring clarity to your path. When we are living lives of mundane mediocrity we have too many choices to entertain us rather than em-passion us. Can we really say that we understand fully what it means to "Count ALL things lost for the sake of knowing Christ?"

I don't know about you, but I don't need another TV show. I don't need another to do list. I don't need another routine week. I need to know Christ, and know him fully. To know him fully is to count ALL things loss for the sake of knowing him. That means my family, my children, my dreams....

That is a tough one. What if some of our very dreams, the things that we desire to see happen in our life, actually are things that can keep us from knowing him fully? Even if those dreams are things that we want to do for God, they can hinder us when we hold on to them more than we hold on to God. They easily can become works, and put in a place before God. 

 

Imagine with me for a moment that your dream, what you desire to do for God, is a blank piece of paper. Smooth and unwrinkled. This represents HIS perfect plan for that desire.

 

The more we hold on to it, the tighter we grip it, the more wrinkled and distorted it becomes and the less it looks like what it was originally intended to be. But when we loosely hold the paper and instead clutch to the one capable of fulfilling our dreams it becomes not only more than we can imagine but all that it was intended to be.  

Trouble causes us to let go and hold on to HIM for dear life. What if we chose to hold on to him for dear life every day not just in times of trouble? What if we chose to give our devotion in our relationship to him our full clutching attention, and let him work out the other details? What if we allowed for the fact that we may never see what he is doing in our life that is significant to his plan, but instead just trusted that he will use what we give for his glory. What if Loving him fully became more important to us than the way we are serving him?

If you are in trouble, hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down today God is allowing you an opportunity to hold on to him more than anything else. How does that change your perspective?