“God puts us in the right place.
God puts us in the right place–all the time.”
~Louie Giglio
It doesn’t always feel like this. It doesn’t always makes sense what God is doing. The future is often clouded and unclear, blocked by the pain or uncertainty of our present circumstances. It’s hard to believe in a more positive future, when our present and past are filled with buckets of negativity. Our dreams have been shattered by our pain, our past and our poverty.
God chooses people. It must be one of his favorite things to do. To take men and women in each generation and manifest a part of his universal, cosmic plan through a little piece of dust and clay on planet earth.
God loves to choose seemingly insignificant people. Consider one insignificant boy. His name is Joseph. We find him in Genesis (Chapter 37). God gave Joseph a dream. He didn’t understand it really, not fully. But, what he did understand is that it was from God. Joseph’s dream elevated not only his mind, but his heart as well. When God gives you a dream, your mind and your heart will soar to the heights of heaven. This is the power of a dream: it elevates you to a higher place.
You will never see your dream fulfilled if you don’t grow. Dreams are lofty. Basically, dreams are up and you are down. The only way to get up there where the dream is a reality is to climb. There is no elevator, no escalator, no jetpack and no magic carpets that get you up to the dream quickly.
My friend, Cliff Robinson says, “A dream is a picture of over there.” Seriously, you have to grow. If you want to get “over there,” then, growth is not an option. But, growth is most often painful. Growth means you must leave where you are–where you are comfortable, unconcerned and cautious. You won’t know you’ve grown if you don’t measure yourself. Growth is not about how you feel, but how well you deal with your adversity, your trials and your challenges.
Dreams, like children, must be birthed to come to life. They come full of pain and adversity. They must be nurtured, fed, trained and disciplined in order to reach maturity.
An idea is not a dream. An idea is a thought on a treadmill–it is constantly moving, better never getting anywhere. Your ideas that don’t get out of your head are nothing more than wishes born in fantasy. They live in the shadows of your mind.
Dreams are born in mystery. They live to be illuminated.
Dreams take time. Joseph wasn’t ready for his dream to be fulfilled. He had to get to the place where the reality of his dream met the reality of his circumstances–this is called growth. And growth always requires waiting. The worst thing you can do is rush a dream. Joseph rushed to tell his brothers his dream. Most people can’t handle your dream, but God can. If your dream is a lofty dream, I mean like way up there or out there where only God can make it possible, then often you need to only commit God at first.
I believe, this is where Joseph messed up. I believe in his impetuousness, his rashness and his immaturity; he couldn’t wait to tell his family of the grandeur, they mystery of his dream. The problem was that the implications of his dream toward his family were perceived as either negative, impossible or at least highly unfavorable to his 10 older brothers. Be careful to talk about your dream with others. Sometimes dreams start as sacred. If your dream inspires awe, then you should approach it reverence.
The Bible is clear, “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you” (Matthew 7:6, ESV). This is exactly what Joseph did. He ran off and cast what was sacred (holy) to his brothers. All it did was to provoke them to jealousy and anger. Their anger caused these unrestrained men to “trample” his dreams underfoot and to “turn and attack” him. After they sold Joseph as a slave, they, literally, tore the symbol of anger, the robe of many colors into “pieces” and gave it to their father.
Dreams are refined by adversity. Don’t despise adversity. God does some of his best work in the lives of his people in the toughest of times. Champions are refined by adversity.
“Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.“
~Muhammad Ali
Most dreams are high enough, they just aren’t deep enough. If God puts the dream in your mind, it will always sink down into your heart. It becomes sacred, holy and untouchable. The dream is like a weight. It bares on your soul and bores into your heart. The world can’t touch it or crush it. You begin to live with new conviction. New conviction will give way to new construction. Conviction is simply the will’s confidence. When your will is unshakeable, unyielding and resilient, you will take a pounding and keep on rebounding.
However, if the dream comes from another source and somehow makes it to your heart, it is corrosive, corrupting and constrictive. Your work will increase, your thoughts escalate, but your conviction will fade.
Don’t be afraid to dream, if God is blessing the dream. Adversity is often a great blessing. If God has chosen you, then God can choose to make all things work together for the good of those called according to his purpose in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:28). Because, those he called, he foreknew (8:29). More good news, God chose you. God is not like us. He will choose you every time.
You may feel like you dream has died. That’s okay, God is in the resurrecting business. If God kills your dream, He can bring it back to life bigger, better and stronger to last longer. You are not alone. Give your dreams to God. Give your adversity to God. Give your desert to God–He’s good at making streams run in dry places.
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland“
Isaiah 43:18-19
(c) Redwall Leadership Academy, 2016.