Come on everybody dream along!

If you went to Bartlesville Wesleyan College you might remember a group called the "Freedom Singers."   They sang a song called, "The Dream Never Dies Just the Dreamer."  In fact, for some reason, the introduction to that song that I memorized from the album back in 1981 or 82 is still stuck in my mind, bound there forever.

Traveling nearly 20,000 miles a year we come across many people who have sacrificed their dreams and settled for less than the best in their lives.  They're the ones who didn't listen to words of the Master when He said, "All things are possible to them that believe."  So don't you dare listen to the man who walks around with his head to the ground, muttering something about dreams not coming true... cuz he's wrong!!!

and then they broke into song.

The dream never dies, just the dreamer.  The dream never dies if it's strong.  The dream never dies, just the dreamer, so come on everybody dream along.   

You may remember another song by someone a bit more famous that said,

"You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one, I hope some day you'll join us, and the world will be as one."

I am definitely a dreamer ... I have weird dreams, very seldom scary, always interesting, but a bit strange.  I can't even tell you some of them because you might be in them in ways that would be an embarrassment to you forever.

But I also have dreams while I am awake.  I like to believe that I dream the things that God dreams of and thus He will use me to make those things come true.

I dream about things in my family -- that my daughter will get a better job, that my son will get help and be on the right medication, that my grandchildren's parents will win the sweepstakes so they can afford to visit us weekly (ok, so that's not really possible, but hey, a girl can dream.)

I dream about lots of things at work.   So much so that I drive people crazy sometimes.  In fact, one of my favorite moments when I worked at Bethany was when my admin was getting ready for our annual gala which is tons of work.  I walked in the day before that event and said, "Hey, I was thinking we should do something like this in the Spring as well.  We could...."

She interrupted me and said, "If you bring up ONE more new idea about ANYTHING before this gala is over, I'm going to stab myself in the eye with a pencil."  Point taken.

But I also dream about big huge things, like every child having a loving family, about there being no need for county run foster care in this country because Christians step up to the plate to take care of children and mentor families who are stuck in poverty, like all parents parenting kids from hard places having the knowledge and support they need to parent their children well.

I also dream of a day when all kinds of other social issues are resolved like hunger, and world peace... but I know I only have so much energy and where my influence is.... so the dreams above are the ones that drive me.... because those are ones I am positioned to do something about.

The clincher is this....  if we are going to allow ourselves to dream the things that are aligned with God's plan, He might actually ask us to step up and DO something....  Just sayin...