Dream Reaching

"Reach!" A "game" a taller person plays with a shorter person when the taller person is trying to keep something away from the other. You've played it I'm sure. You've probably played it on both sides. It is just "not fun" enough, when you are young, that you want to play it with someone else when you grow up.

I remember in Preaching School where our whole class wasn't allowed to make a 100% on a first mid-term exam. It didn't matter if you missed zero or a lot. That is not to say that we all received the same grade, just the ones that didn't miss any didn't receive a perfect score. I was one of them. This decision made some of us frustrated. However, his reasoning was to keep us reaching to improve. That brings us to this week's quote...

Better to have spent a life reaching for a dream that never came true, than to have slept through a life that never had a dream. ~ Samantha Pickreign

One could look at this and think how disappointing it would be to make it to the end of your life and receive nothing. However, how exciting the journey that you can envision your dream so much it keeps you going despite adversities. One could easily sit on the sidelines and never attain anything. But you could also be in the game, always striving for more!

What dream are you reaching for today? Share your comments below...

A Dream is Just a Dream

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" is a question probably ninety percent of American children are asked before age ten. I had aspirations to be a football player and a super hero when I was young.

Obviously the second one is totally fictional and the first one is a long shot. However, aside from genetics causing me to be a bit height-challenged for a career in football, I didn't really try to pursue it that heavily. 

I would guess that you have a dream. That brings us to this week's quote...

A dream is just a dream until you go out and fight for it! - "Rev Run", Joseph Simmons

If I would have really wanted to be a football player I should have pursued it much more. Even being short, I could have possibly made it to a community college level, at least. But I didn't. I did not enjoy it like I thought I would. I didn't have the desire to keep going or put in the work outside from practice.
 
Dreams we have while sleeping are generally short-lived in our memories.  As you think about dreams that you have for life, let them live much longer.  Let them get through the brainstorming and "pros-&-cons" stages.  Let them get to the "how can I make this happen" stage.  If you find you cannot make it happen right then, wait. If it is just not going to take you to where you want to go, readjust your sails and continue on a new course.

Don't let it fall...fight for it!  See what happens when you do!

Living Wide Awake: Focus

When do you find yourself having the most difficult time to focus? Is it when you are approaching a deadline? Is it when your kids are screaming around the house? Is it when you take too much on? Is it when there is noise, in general, going on that is not pertaining to the task you are trying to accomplish? Is it when things just aren't going your way (i.e. in a slump, crises, etc.)?

Focusing is important to getting something accomplished. When you have an idea (aka dream) and are following through with the idea, you have to focus in order to be able to bring it to completion. So you dream, put your confidence in Him, and focus. Notice that these are all things you must do - you have to be active. Living wide awake means that you are active in doing different things.

As I've said, too often, Christians, "sleep" in between church assembly times. Other things are on such a priority list that being a Christian is something you do "on Sundays". But living wide awake means that you are an "awake" Christian every chance you get.

Yesterday, we looked at the concept of focus. Keeping focused on Him, as we dream, is vital to accomplishing our goal. Here are some applications to choose from to use this week...

1. Don't look down - Peter started walking on the water and looked down - Fright loses focus - This climbing phrase holds true when you are trying to accomplish anything of magnitude. Don't let your fears of getting higher, on the accomplishment scale, cause you to look down and see all that you've overcome and then get discouraged.
2. Keep focused on Him - That goes along with last week's word of confidence (in Him) - Everything you should be dreaming of doing is for His glory, not for anything to do with you.
3. Keep the Son close - Jesus' parents had an instance where they failed to keep their son, the Son, close to them, so when they left the feast, they didn't have Jesus with them. They were a days journey away before they realized that no one in their company of friends and family knew where he was. As you go through the day, don't forget to keep Him close to you and your daily events. Don't let Him so far away as to wonder where he is at in your life!
4. Keep Your Dreams Accountable - When you write down a dream, ask someone to hold you accountable for trying to do all that you can to make sure the dream is accomplished. This way, even if you slack a bit, you will have a friendly and humble reminder to keep working on it.
5. Rid the Noise - You may not have to cut something out completely, but you may need to turn off outside responsibilities once in a while to help make sure you are working on what you wrote down as your dream.
6. Praise God for the Accomplishments - As you go through life living wide awake you will notice that God is working. You may not see it right away because you aren't used to looking for Him in your every day. However, even if you look back and realize that God showed up in an unlikely place, give God the glory and tell Him "Thanks" for using you in that situation.
   

A friend of mine enjoys looking for God to show up in the media. From the time I learned of this interest, I started focusing in on shows to see when God shows up. Last Monday, on an episode of "How I Met Your Mother", God showed up (and not in an put-down-religion way). If you are not familiar with the show, here's a short synopsis. Three friends are sitting around a table, when another comes over, bragging he was just given a girls phone number. They discuss that there is a "three day rule" where you should not call her before three days. "Not the three day rule...that is stupid...who even came up with that?" are the comments that follow. The answer, Jesus. He was dead for three days before he waited to come out to reveal Himself. Hence, the reason to wait three days. There is much dialogue that goes on regarding this situation. I personally found the dialogue humorous. He wasn't poking fun at Jesus, but trying to prove his dating theory. Regardless, "Jesus" was spoken several times and the event that they were speaking of was a real event - the resurrection. I was impressed how God showed up. However, if you don't focus on looking for Him to show up in the media, you could have missed the greatness of this situation.

If you aren't focused your frazzled. If you are frightened you're going to lose focus. If you dream, you're going to look higher and when you get there, don't look down! You'll be amazed at how high God can take you when you team up and see what you can do together in your every day!

Focusing on Him in my every day...

Confidence - II Corinthians 3:4-5

Confidence can be exhibited at many levels. The sports star that led the league in a number of categories last year, received a contract extension, and is injury free. The business person who has a company that is doing quite well and their family is healthy and happy. The student who is liked by most and is receiving good marks. The married couple who have had a great marriage for years.

All those are possible areas of confidence. However, what happens when you take something away from the situation? The sports star suffers a rare disease and has to have his leg amputated. The business person has to close their doors due to a recession. The student who is hit by a car and has to go through therapy to even learn how to remember again. The married couple, where one spouse learns they have a tumor, so advanced, only weeks to live.

Where is the confidence in these situations, after these things have happened?

Confidence was higher in the first paragraph because each of those scenarios were about what the person did. None of it had to do with putting their confidence in God. It was their successes. Their situations.

When we fail to put our confidence in Him, any other confidence is empty. Yesterday, we continued to talk about the idea of living wide awake. To live wide awake, for God, means that we also must put our confidence in Him, as He leads us through life. Here are some applications to choose from to use this week...

1. Appreciate the opportunities that come your way as ways to reflect Jesus to someone or some situation.
2. Tell someone how much you enjoy being a Christian
3. Reflect on the strengths you have and not the weaknesses
4. See that you are incompetent without Him - acknowledge and accept
5. Do not look at situations that come your way as obstacles in reflecting your faith, but as opportunities.
6. Pray for opportunities for those you teach and their parents, those you work with and their families, for your customers, for your neighbors, for your household (if someone in your household doesn't know Christ), for ____ (you add anyone else)
7. Look forward, with confidence from Him, to these opportunities to open up!

Waking up each day and looking forward to how God will use you is a little bit of what it means to live wide awake. If you are still going through your day, figuratively, under the covers, WAKE UP...get out of bed. There is whole world of opportunity out there waiting for you to be a "fragrance" of Christ to them!

If you're guilty of putting confidence in yourself, then you need to change it around. Change it so that you are appreciative of the talents you have, but understand that if something happened your confidence would not diminish because you already started putting your confidence in Him, not you.

I love the kind of mindset that looks for seeing how one can reflect Christ in everything they do and everywhere they go. I like to learn people's names, so that when I see them, then I can call them by name or ask, by name, how their day is going. This seems to be especially effective to those who have the "thankless" or menial jobs. Sometimes I will leave a note of appreciation for a maid in a hotel, that is one example of a thankless job.

Reflect Jesus with confidence!

Looking forward to the opportunities that will come my way...