Have You Ever Had a Dream?
Have you ever had a radical dream (not the kind where you are asleep and imagine yourself flying to Antarctica on a liger, but the kind where you envision yourself doing the next-to-impossible 10 years from the present)?
Yeah, me too. I remember in high school dreaming of speaking to crowds in other languages, organizing conference where people encountered Jesus, and discipling people.
In David Platt's book, Radical, he talks about how it takes complete abandonment of ourselves to be a disciple of Jesus. He mentions how the disciples reoriented “their entire life's work around discipleship to Jesus.” They abandoned their possession, their careers, their families, and even themselves. Their dreams were swallowed up in His dreams. Those dreams I had in high school were not the common dreams of an awkward 16 year old with braces and frizzy hair. But somehow I dared to dream what seemed impossible to me at that time. I dared to leave my family, my job and everything that I knew to go to Mexico and pursue those dreams.
Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
While some may think that this is the magic trick to getting what you want, it isn't that simple. You see, when we delight ourselves in the Lord, the desires of His heart become the desires of our heart. So by daring to racially delight in the Lord, we are daring to accept the radical dreams that He has for us. In order to be radical, a true disciple of Jesus, we must dream big—bigger than ourselves. And in order dream outside ourselves, we need to radically delight in Him.
I dare you to dare to be radically intimate with Jesus...to delight yourself in Him...to let your dreams become radical dreams, because only when your dreams are swallowed up by His will you dare to truly be radical.
- This blog was written by Traci Cavanaugh for the Radical Series. Traci is the Executive Secretary at Elim Gospel Church.