"We need to give ourselves permission to act out our dreams and visions, not look for more sensations, more phenomena, but live our strongest dreams -- even if it takes a lifetime."~ Vijali Hamilton
I find that I often spend quite a bit of time searching for sensation, rather than living out of the deeper places from whence dreams come. The pleasantry of momentary, fleeting pleasure can often be so enticing. I think that one thing I have discovered over the past twelve months is that one large difference between our strongest dreams and anything else is that we pursue them by living in the moment, rather than putting off life to enjoy... whatever it is. My good friend and pastor Jon Sims talked recently about a place of life between Hope and Remembrance. His idea is that we can easily become dissatisfied by our present, and begin to long for the possibilities of the future or the "good old days" of the past. The hard, cold truth is that the past is never quite as good as we remember, and we aren't promised tomorrow. But there is also another truth at work in us. God says that young men will see visions and old men will dream dreams. He also mentions that the Holy Spirit will reveal to us things that God has dreamed for us. In my experience, it often seems as though revelation comes with suffering, almost like a by-product of our brokenness. Although life will undoubtedly be dry, tense, and even ridiculously hard at times, there is the possibility of good in every moment we live. Not only that, but I am starting to believe that the place within us that generates the "strongest dreams" is so much more rugged than we realize. The possibility is that sometimes the hardest times work out the strong dreamers in us. I believe our troubles refine who we are.
I'll tell you this, at least: I want to recognize my places of deep pain as more than just agony. I want to live with the hope that dreams, as yet unimagined, will come from my suffering. But even more than that, I want the person that I really am to stand up during the hardest times. I suppose this all could seem ridiculously optimistic to some, but I only offer this as a competing option to ignoring pain by entertaining elusive infatuations that bring some momentary solace but leave us as quickly, and we are left with our aching. I think that the dreams that will carry me through to the end of my life are dreams that have their roots in who I really am. These dreams have less to do with "doing" and are more about being. And the thing is, I think it takes a lifetime of ups and downs to really live our "strongest dreams".
Live well.
