I have a dream. I turn my TV on and I see hope and compassion. I meet millions of people who care about others more than themselves. Facebook is swamped with messages of encouragement and inspiration. Loneliness is no longer a concern. I step into a world where people embrace one another no matter their differences. Churches grow in numbers daily and they are seen as welcoming, striking communities that are centred on the hope that is found in Jesus. Evil has been overcome with good.
I come back to reality. Everywhere we look, we can find a problem. We watch TV, horror floods out. We open our newspapers and ignorance, selfishness and evil unfolds in front of our eyes. We open our Facebook accounts and our friends display what else is wrong with the world that perhaps we didn’t yet know about. We meet people who tell us what’s wrong with them every day. We talk to others about church but they have already made their mind up that church is boring and irrelevant and they might shut us off politely and call us Bible bashers in their heads. The world is spoilt with sin and so are we. We keep messing up and our friends, our families and even our churches keep making mistakes.
We look into our thoughts and we see confusion. We start to separate the positive thoughts and experiences from the negatives. We begin to focus on our negative experiences until we are aware of them more than our positive ones.
BUT
There is light at the end of the tunnel. There is hope.
Once our focus from our mistakes shifts to celebrating our successes, we begin to start dreaming once again. We notice that all of us have concerns and none of us are perfect but instead of letting our failures and weaknesses take control of our lives, we start to think about our blessings and the possibilities in life.
We begin to dig deeper into God’s plan for us and God begins to cut out the dirt, the selfishness and the sadness. Instead of ordering God to do things for us, we leave our problems in His hands and we start to care about others and the Almighty more than ourselves. We begin to celebrate and give ourselves a break and a rest without feeling guilty. We become aware of our responsibility in sharing our talents and His goodness with others. Instead of expecting too much, we start reflecting on what WE can do to make the world a better place.
Jesus has made it possible for us to enjoy life to the full.
Find me dreaming,
Find me grateful,
Find me lost in your grace.
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