Dream On!

About a decage ago, I led a small group focused on "People Who Love People Who Struggle." The purpose of the group was to support and guide those of us who were in relationship with people who suffered with clinical depression and related illnesses.

As you might imagine, a critical point for all of us was the need for self care -- not selfish care -- but for taking good care of ourselves as well as our loved ones.

I vividly remember the night we talked about dreams. I asked everyone to close their eyes. Then, I asked them to release their minds to dream about what made their hearts pound -- what they were passionate about -- what caused them to smile. There were a lot of tear-stained faces in the room.

It was a great thing to get in touch with our dreams, but the emotion came from the angst of just dreaming about getting through the day, or from the often unrealized dreams we had for our loved ones. Faced with articulating our own heart's desires caused fear and simultaneously ignited hope and a collision of what might be, what could have been, and what may never be.

I shared Psalm 34 with the group: "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart." I explained that the Psalm DOESN'T mean God blesses all our desires; but it DOES mean that if we stay focused on Him and His ways, His desires will become ours.

That was a head-shift for many. We started praying about how to more deeply delight in who God is and asked Him to share His desires for our lives with us.

Jenny was a member of the group who took this to heart. She was a young, relatively sheltered young woman who was very close with her family and hadn't experienced a lot of the world outside of central Illinois. But God was speaking His desires into her heart. Jenny shared with the group a deep passion to work with orphans in Africa. In the beginning, it was simply a great dream -- a nice diversion from the issues that she was going through. But as God does when He plants a desire in a heart, Jenny grew increasingly burdened by this dream (in a good way!). She started investigating opportunities. She faced resistance from well-intended people who feared for her safety. She faced internal resistance about how to raise money, leave her friends and dog, and the like. Still, Jenny's dream kept growing.

It hasn't been all smooth sailing, but Jenny has been on an incredible journey over the last seven years or so. She has traveled the world as a chaperone for the African Childen's Choir and has been involved with orphanages in various African countries.

I just received an update from her this week. Jenny has a rental house in Nkomazi, South Africa. She is a member of the Music For Life staff serving some of Africa's most vulnerable children with God's love and grace. Jenny is living her dream and loving it!

Jenny was sent to Africa on her life's mission -- her dream.

We are all being asked to "go" for God. It may be to the room down the hall, the school up the street, the corner office, or the ends of the earth. Be willing to "go." Be willing to dream. Be willing to share that dream.

You can start with the prayer, "God, help me delight in who you are and the wonders of your ways. Plant your desires for my life in my heart and help them grow."

Let me know what happens!