Wish-Dreams

Last Sunday, the discussion centered around the death of "wish-dreams." Wish-dreams are those things that we want to happen, and we all have them. We can have them in any area of our lives. A man can marry a woman and believe that she is going to meet his every need and be the perfect wife. A woman can believe that the man she marries will be her knight in shining armor and make everything right. Parents have wish-dreams for their children. You can see this by looking at the adults at any sporting event their child is a part of. Leaders and members of churches also have certain things that they expect to see in those churches. These are their wish-dreams.

The problem with wish-dreams is that they usually do not come true. Often they crash and burn with disastrous results. Marriages break up when a spouse doesn't match the ideal and one partner cannot change the other. Young athletes burn out because of the pressure put on them by parents trying to live vicariously through their children. People bounce from church to church trying to find that ideal congregation that will be heaven on earth.

Wish-dreams die. Sometimes God kills them. We can either continue to pursue them and become disillusioned and bitter, or we can give them up and allow the Father to take us where he wants us. I have been through the process of watching dreams crumble and die. While painful, it is a necessary part of our growth as followers of Jesus. As we give up our dreams, God can replace them with his dreams for us.

I was originally going to write about the relationship between wish-dreams and unity, but I'll give your eyes a rest by continuing this tomorrow. (Plus, I've always wanted to post a "series") :)

TGIF

What a week! This has been a very busy one. I have a couple of things rattling around in my head, but they'll have to wait for another day.

Here's the stuff for this week:

This is very, very funny. I think so, at least. A humble prayer from Megan Twietmeyer. Todd Hiestand coins a new word. Alan Knox has a three part series on the unhypocritical church. He's posted all three parts here. Barb is responding, not initiating. The smell of (d)emocracy. Francis Schaeffer, Toby Keith, and the Watchman. You get one life. A new kind of fundamentalist (HT: Jonathan Brink).

Dan Edelen has a very good post in his equipping the saints series. Find it here. Read the other posts too. What would you say? Scot Mcknight has some fun. This is funny (HT: Scot Mcknight). John Armstron asks what the church will do.

If you have Monday off, enjoy your long weekend. If not, enjoy the weekend you have.

World Vision Wednesday

Anyone can be an advocate for for justice and poverty reduction. You don't have to have a lot of money, or be an adult to make a difference. Read this story about a teen who found a way to raise money to provide clean water for an impoverished community in northern Ghana.

TGIF

History broke into life again this week with the passing of Edward Kennedy. Whether you agree with his politics or not, he had a huge effect on this country during his time as senator.

Other stuff happened this week, some of it in the blogosphere. Here are the links for this week:

Stop taking the Bible so seriously! Amy writes about waiting. Jared Wilson has 5 ways to feel Scripture. Sometimes things happen that change all your plans. Kids these days. Jonathan Brink on questioning authority. Jeff McQ interviews himself on his 500th post. Do you think he needs help? I'm just sayin'. God the cosmic janitor. Dan Edelen on simple genius.

McKnight on Bonhoeffer. The Beloit College mindset list for the class of 2013 (HT: Scot Mcknight). A little while ago, some imonk readers received free copies of Andrew Marin's book, Love Is An Orientation. Here are some of their reviews. Unbelievable. A great explanation of simple church. Lessons from the bush.

Have a great weekend.

Three Years

It's been three years since my mom was freed from her world of disease and pain. There is still sadness as I think back on that time. I know that she will never leave my heart or my thoughts, and I wouldn't want it any other way. I still miss her. I probably always will.

The longer I live and the more I learn, the more I realize how profound Mom's life really was. Dan Edelen writes here about the genius of ordinary, simple saints. That got me thinking about the influence that Mom's simple deep faith had on me. She didn't have any seminary training, yet she knew Jesus. It was obvious in the way she loved my sister and me, and in the way she loved other people. Her life was hard growing up but I never saw any bitterness or hardness in her. You could see in her that she knew her Savior, and that she wanted to be like him. We always went to conservative churches where there was a certain amount of legalism and judgementalism, but I didn't see that in Mom. While she was by no means perfect, she was one of the closest to being like the Master that I have ever known. Mom was a wonderful example of simply living her faith out, and that went a long way to shaping me into the person I am now (at least the good parts).

World Vision Wednesday

Did you know that just $6 provides 2 insecticide treated bed nets that can keep a child from getting malaria? World Vision is one of the organizations that is working to end malaria around the world.

For more information about the program, look at this site.

Light

Sunday morning we were talking about 1 John 1:5 , where John declares that God is light. That verse is one of the few times where Scripture says God is something. It's hard for me to imagine pure light with no darkness at all. God is light, and that light is so pure that it is impossible for one of us to see God and live. Maybe taking the idea of staring at the sun and multiplying it by infinity might approach the idea of God being light, but probably not.

Now think of Adam and Eve in the Garden before the Fall, spending their time in God's presence. They walked and talked with their Creator. Were they pure enough to be able to see the glory of God and still live? I think that they were, even though I can't wrap my tiny brain around that. Unfortunately, that purity and close relationship was broken by sin, and people could no longer stand to see God. Moses only saw the afterglow of God's presence and had to put a veil on because the people couldn't even stand to look on that reflection of God's glory.

Then along comes Jesus, the One called the Light of the world. He revealed the Father to us and abolished the barrier between us and God by his death, burial, and resurrection. Now we are the light of the world. Think about what that means. If people are to see the glory of God, they will see it in those of us who follow Jesus. Jesus said that people don't take a light and hide it, but rather allow it's light to shine. In the same way, we are not to hide the light of God that is in us, but we are to live our lives in such a way that people see God in us.

I believe that we let our light shine by taking it where the darkness is. If you light a candle outside on a sunny day, there is not much light seen from that candle. In the same way, if the only time we shine is when we are with other followers of Jesus, our light is not going to be as bright. We also can't sit behind walls and lob "truth grenades" at those outside and expect any light to be seen. We need to shine where those living in darkness can see God's light in us.