DREAMIN' -- September 15, 2007

“I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Jeremiah 29:10-12

Surely you remember the Disney movie, “The Swiss Family Robinson,” about a family shipwrecked on a seemingly deserted island in the South Seas. The father and two oldest sons, Fritz (James MacArthur) and Ernst (Tommy Kirk) built the tree house-of-every-child’s-dreams out of the local natural resources and whatever they could salvage from the shipwreck. As a child, I loved that tree house and lolled away many an hour imagining myself as Bertie/Roberta (Janet Munro), the “cabin boy,” who Fritz and Ernst rescued out of the clutches of pirates. Ah, the adventure! Oh, to have James MacArthur and Tommy Kirk fancy me!

Besides the appeal of the adventure and love story, this movie offered me a model of how to cope with crisis. Here was an average family, like mine, who proved strong, creative, and resilient in the face of great adversity. Granted, this was a rather unrealistic rendition of reality, but it nurtured a tiny seedling of hope in my own resiliency, should I ever be shipwrecked—literally or figuratively.

As Red Cross Volunteer in Louisiana, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I was astounded by the resilience I witnessed in the evacuees in my shelter. I’ve been thinking a great deal about the people I met there because it’s been exactly two years this week since I set foot in Louisiana as a Red Cross mental health counselor.

Along with the massive material loss and uprooting, I think about the dreams that were swept away by the violent winds and rising waters of Katrina. Dreams dashed into millions of pieces and scattered about, all mixed up with the wreckage of other demolished dreams.
Last Sunday, Pastor Jim Lyon challenged the members of Madison Park Church of God to be open to the dreams God has for us. Our dreams are small in comparison to God’s dreams: “God-dreams often take us to places we have not imagined or call us to face challenges that, at first blush, are easier to pass by. Be prepared to receive a dream you may not fully understand or comprehend. It is likely that a dream received will be fulfilled in ways you cannot foresee. God's dreams often are ‘over the top’ and way outside our comfort zones.” Whoa! Talk about adventure!

I don’t know about you, but my dreams do not include obstacles and pain. But when I look at Biblical accounts of God’s big dreams for, say, Abraham, Joseph, or Mary, I see long, drawn out journeys fraught with blood, sweat, and tears, discouragement and despair. “No thanks, Lord! I’m gonna pass on this one!”

Of course, even if I seemingly play it safe and opt out of God’s dream, there’s no guarantee that life will be smooth sailing. In fact, if there were a lifetime guarantee, it would be that life will be hard at times, and not just hard, but HARD! Hmmm… Maybe it would be more prudent to accept God’s dream for me rather than face the inevitable obstacles and challenges of life all by lonesome on a path poorly chosen. Hmmm…

God is the epitome of patience. While I “hmmm…” and haw around as to whether to accept God’s dream for my life; while I pitter-patter around picking up the pieces of my tattered dreams, attempting to fit them together this way and that—until I’m ready to pull my hair out, God leisurely taps a tune with his fingers and hums pleasantly under his breath, as if he has all the time in the world (or eternity) to wait on me. Eventually, I’ll give up in exasperation and cry, “OKAY, you win! I’ll try it your way”—while adding the caveat, “but if I don’t see some signs of success soon, I’ll…”

Hmmm… Do I really want to settle for a make-shift lean-to (I’m a disaster with a hammer and saw!) when I could dwell in God’s love story in a super-fantastic-out-of-this-world-too-good-to-be-true tree house on an idyllic isle? What would you do?

Sweet dreams!

"P" is for Planting: Grace Happening People are Seed Sowers

This is the ninth installment of a twelve-week summer series based on the anagram “GRACE HAPPENS,” each letter representing a quality that equips us to be “Grace Happening People.”


There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: ...a time to plant and a time to uproot…
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

Many of my happiest childhood memories are about the yearly trips we took to Attica, New York to visit my grandparents. I germinated and sprouted in Buffalo, New York and then, at the age of eight, I was transplanted in Indiana. I especially enjoyed exploring and savoring my grandfather’s country garden, as well as the field of wildflowers and the woods beyond the garden. I LOVE to watch things grow from seeds, to bright green shoots, to leggy plants with tiny buds, to glorious blossoms. I love to watch people grow in similar fashion.

Years ago, I came across the following poem by Ann North:

Some of the seeds of hope

Planted tentatively in the fall

Have not come up

They lie stillborn and unrealized

Somewhere in the spring soil/Decaying

The strongest and best ones

Pushed up through leaves

And layers of cold hard resistance
Right into clear blue air

And stand there nakedly green

Breathing

It’s always that way with growing things

Never knowing at the start

Which will make it and which will fail

But the thing to hold fast to

Never to lose faith in

Is simplySowing

We all know first hand what it is like when the seeds we plant “lie stillborn and unrealized.” You may or may not have a green thumb, but I’m actually referring to the many hopes and dreams that we envision “push[ing] up through leaves/and layers of cold hard resistance/right into clear blue air/and stand there nakedly green/Breathing.” In my early years of gardening, I learned the harsh reality that cauliflower and broccoli are particularly vulnerable veggies and I quickly gave them over to those gross little worms that love Brassica Oleracia with a passion. Bugs I can handle. But worms—YUCK! Thus, I gave up on my dream of dipping the raw fruits (or should I say veggies) of my labor into ranch dressing and smothering my delicious, homegrown, fresh fro the garden veggies in melted cheddar cheese. In similar fashion, I sometimes abandon my personal hopes and dreams when the going gets wormy.

“It’s always that way with growing things,” muses Ann North, “never knowing at the start which will make it and which will fail.” Thus, the sensible thing to do is to plant, water, weed, pray, and hope for the best. The only alternative is to NOT sow, and then, well…we get absolutely nothing! Holding on to our hopes and pursuing our dreams is a risky business that requires courage and commitment, patience and persistence—definitely not an easy row to hoe.

We have some choices on what kinds of seeds to sow. We can sow seeds of hope, encouragement, wisdom (as opposed to advice), humor, humility, appreciation, gratitude, forgiveness… Or we can sow seeds of criticism, discouragement, doubt, fear, insecurity, faintheartedness, cynicism… The latter seeds will never, ever nurture growth and are packaged in the misconception that life should go smoothly, without weeds, pests or pestilence. Life was idyllic in Eden, and eternal life will be “out of this world” in heaven. But not so in the interim, post Fall and pre Eternity.

Grace Happening people understand that the rain falls on both the good and the evil and don’t expect it to be otherwise. Grace Happening People keep on sowing, season after season, because we rely on the Master Gardener during both times of bountiful harvest and the devastation of crop failure. We strive to “hold fast to/never to lose faith in…simply/Sowing.”

Who in your life is in need of encouragement, wisdom, a healthy dose of attitude-altering humor, appreciation, forgiveness? When might you need to practice restraint lest you sow criticism, discouragement, doubt, fear, insecurity, faintheartedness, cynicism?

“People reap what they sow… Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people.” Galatians 6:7-10