‘Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of God’
I've been wanting to journal a "proper entry" for some time now, if there was ever such a thing, but have yet to collect my thoughts into one cohesive concept. However, as the image in my mind starts to take some form, I am determined today to make an attempt at describing it to you.
A dream is a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person’s mind during sleep. It is also an unrealistic or self-deluding fantasy, a state of mind in which someone is or seems to be unaware of their immediate surroundings. The type of dream that I’ve been pondering over, however, is more of a cherished aspiration, ambition or ideal.
Lately, I’ve read quite a few prayer-letters of people who have “dreams” to serve the Lord in a specific capacity or place. I am challenged by their commitment and yet, many of them have yet to see these dreams fulfilled. Does this mean that these dreams were not God-given? Of course, I’m not saying that they aren’t and I’m also not saying that they will never be fulfilled but it does make me wonder about my own dreams. Despite my best intentions, perhaps my dreams have become a little too “I-dealistic”, centred on the “I” in ideal rather than allowing His truth to become reality and the greatest aspiration in my life. If we focus on our dreams even one that God gives to us, an ambition somewhere persuades it into a necessary ideal, and the gap that grows wider between that and reality changes dreams into nightmares. God-given dreams cannot be fulfilled by self-ambition. If not the dream, then the secret must lie with the dream-giver.
The best dreams are impossible ones. The best aspirations are ones that are hardest to achieve. Ideals are often at the opposite end from reality. But we have a God with whom nothing is impossible, who is able to fulfil all His promises, whose goodness is as real as He is and a God who is near. ‘Cease striving and know that He is God’ (Psalm 46:10). That is not to say that we do nothing, but rather we do not need to strive to be fulfilled because fulfilment is found in Christ and Christ alone. To know God, therefore, is to find rest and to dream peacefully.
‘For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness. Rather, fear God.’ -Ecclesiastes 5:7
