Thursday, November 4, 2004
When you get involved with God's dream, He gets involved in your dreams.
Take a look. The Bible and history books are crammed with heroes, leaders, and movers and shakers. Individuals who were no different than you and I but many who decided to "let go and let God" - to allow their life to be guided by the dreams of God. In fact, the Bible reveals so many rich stories of flawed characters who would never amount much by earth standards but - with the very grace of God - made their profound mark by simply getting involved in God's dream...
Quiet yourself. Think of the events of your present life over this past year. Does it seem and feel peaceful? Adventurous? Stressed? Divided and confused?
When I hesitantly left Marquette University in 1999 for family reasons, I finally and secretly shared with my wife Di, "Do you know what I would love to do? I would love to just be out in Nature - let it envelope me and influence me, and allow these experiences to help me write inspirational books that glorify the natural processes of Life and leadership. I would love just to stay home and write..." It was a dream that I held secretly from the world but one that I shared with my Creator on a continual basis since my college days. It was then I can first remember letting go and asking, "I've told you my dream, so God, what is your dream for me?" In all my flawed humanness, I either never heard a response or just couldn't see the response unfolding in my life... until the fall of 2003 with the birth of our triplets, Emily, Hannah and Nicholas...
Triplets have a way of either quickly complicating or simplifying a person's life. It all depends on your approach and perspective. For me, it was my second greatest moment of letting go; letting go of a 17-year career for a journey for which I felt I was both uncertain and unprepared to become a stay-at-home father for triplets...
But on the morning of writing this reflection, two things are occurring: (1) I am sitting on my triplets' bedroom floor while they nap and writing reflections/manuscripts on the very topic I discussed with my wife in 1999 and (2) I am presently being paid modestly for submitting articles to magazines. It would be very easy for me to chalk most of this up to accident or coincidence, but there were too many circumstances that had to occur for my present life to unfold as it did and as it is. And it is my belief that it is unfolding in this fashion because I got involved in God's dreams for my life... and He ultimately got involved in my dreams. And it can be the same for you as well, my friend.
But before this reflection concludes, I must warn you: it is dangerous to involve yourself in God's dreams. You are about to open your personal life so that the Author of all Life can direct and redirect your life... in many directions that will leave you uncertain, unsure, and sometimes terrified. You are about to open your personal life in directions that will never allow you to return where you are right now. From one fellow life traveler to another, I must again warn you: it is dangerous to involve yourself in God's dreams. But from this traveler's testimony, it is wonderfully dangerous.