Dream

God calls us to big things, things we cannot accomplish unless He breathes into them.

When God told Noah to build a huge boat I wonder what Noah thought. Did He think, “Oh, I must have eaten too much pizza last night! I’m hallucinating!”

We don’t know if he argued with God, or how that scenario played out. I doubt if he argued, because God said the boat was to save Noah and his family from the coming flood. What we know for sure is that He built the boat. According to Bible commentators, it took him at least 55 years to build it, and maybe as much as 75 years.

Would any of us be that dedicated to a dream today?

Not only did he build it, but he had to endure his neighbors laughing and making fun of him. They ridiculed him because God had told him there was going to be a huge flood that would cover the known earth. There had never been anything close to resembling such a catastrophe, so they made fun of him. I suspect the ridicule gradually tapered off as this huge boat slowly emerged on the landscape.

What about you? Do you have a dream? Are you pursuing your dream, or have you given up on it?

I believe dreaming is in our DNA. God has made us in His image and part of that package is to dream. We are supposed to dream. When we dream, we reflect God’s glory.

Once when I went to lunch with my former pastor, G. Mark Denyes, the subject of dreams came up. “You have to dream,” he said simply. “If you stop dreaming, you are as good as dead.”

Is he right?

Yes . . . totally!

I gave my life to Christ when I was a senior in high school and almost immediately a God-dream took form deep within my spirit. The dream was to see thousands of young people come to Christ.

I carried the dream around for a long, long time. The following year I went to Bible college. Then I got married, had three children and was thrust into the all-consuming task of providing for the family.

Before I knew it, I was forty years old, still carrying the dream around in my breast. “Would it ever happen?”

In 1994, I started a ministry to youth. We saw six young people come to Christ in a Bible club that I initiated in a school. In six years, we saw a few young people give their lives to Christ . . . but not thousands.

In 1999, the ministry was out of money and I was forced to go to work full time for a multimedia company in the warehouse district of Minneapolis. I was deeply discouraged, being 50 years old at the time. I was certain I would never have the chance to see thousands of young people come to Christ. In a conversation with my new boss, I told him that I thought this would be the “last stop” in my career.

Ah . . . but it wasn’t.

During that time, I wrote a song that I performed in our church of about 4000, where I was an elder. The lyrics told the story of ongoing hope, when circumstances say, “It’s over.” The title of the song is Loving Eyes.

Loving eyes are watching you,

Loving eyes are close beside to see you through.

You think it’s over,

But He’s just begun.

Turn and look into the eyes of God’s dear Son.

The next year we produced the ministry’s first event that drew about 2400 people . . . in a town of 1500. In the next five years we did many more events across the Midwest . . . and witnessed thousands responding to the invitation to receive Christ.

I had thought I was finished, and the dream died. But God resurrected what I thought was impossible.

How about you?

Has your dream died?

If it has, you are officially a member of the “walking dead.” That’s no way to live.

Ask God to resurrect your dream. If you don’t have a dream, ask Him to give you one. Don’t be afraid to take a risk, to put yourself out there, to proclaim your dream to the world.

God fashioned you to dream . . . So dream!

To have a dream is to be one step ahead in your Christian walk!

Photo designed and taken by Lorraine