When the Soul Dreams

 

Psalm 126:1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed [again]!

I scribbled this verse onto a piece of paper and taped it onto the wall in our bathroom during a time when Gary and I were navigating deep pain in our marriage. Though the odds were stacked up against us, I trusted that God could restore all that was lost in our broken lives. And If He could restore our lives…just maybe… He could allow dreams to trickle into the caverns of our soul once again.

During the next four years we submitted ourselves faithfully to wise counsel from solid mentors and faithful leaders who loved us amidst our brokenness. Then the day came when we received an unlikely invitation from a dear pastor-friend in Idaho, inviting us to join his ministry team.

It was in this redemptive place that God began to spark dreams within our soul. We  dismissed some of those dreams as unlikely imaginations intended for the younger version of ourselves. I’m sure we are not the only ones who dismiss dreams that attempt to seize the heart.  It becomes increasingly easier to dismiss God-sized dreams as we age.

I recently ran across a study that reveals the reason for this sad phenomenon: As we age, neuroscience reveals that we stop living out of the imaginative, right quadrant of our brain, and we begin depending on the logical, left quadrant to inform the decisions we make.  Instead of dreaming and taking risks, we make choices based on logic, allowing memory and experience to guide us toward more rational outcomes. We end up repeating the past instead of creating something new for our future.

While this is incredibly crippling to our future, I don’t think science has factored in one very important variable to this dilemma: Faith!

When we add faith to the equation, age shouldn’t cripple our ability to dream or our willingness to take risks. Rather, age should enlarge our capacity to dream.

The words of Romans 4:18 prove this to be true:

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”^[d] ……¹⁹ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. ²⁰ Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

As Abraham grew older and the odds stacked up against him, he didn’t falter in his faith. Scripture indicates that his faith grew stronger. How could this be?

Our added years on this earth allow us to draw from an ever-swelling resource of memories; those times when we have experienced God’s steadfast love, His timely intervention, and His astonishing involvement in the countless details of our life.

If we engage our memory, allowing it to focus on God’s faithfulness in our past, shouldn’t our imaginations be strengthened to take flight into uncharted territories for our future? Shouldn’t we walk with the assurance that God is greater than our highest hopes and broadest imaginations? Shouldn’t our footing be solidified in the One who can do all things necessary in and through us to accomplish His crazy, beyond-our-ability purposes.

Hebrews 11:8-10 stands as one of my all-time-favorite life-scripts:

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. ⁹ And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith…¹⁰ Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

What enabled old-Abe to take such a radical step of obedient faith, leaving everything he knew in order to embark on the unknown? I’m convinced his faith was generated by past encounters with God.

As we age, our faith shouldn’t become brittle. It should grow more pliable and responsive to God’s voice. Experience and memory allowed Abraham to trust God’s ability to accomplish what He promised, fueling his eagerness to adventure toward a place designed and built by God!

Abraham’s faith ignites a fire in my soul. I long to obey God, like Abraham did, when I hear Him speak! I want to thrust all my fears, doubts and excuses at His feet and venture into the crazy-unknown, right beside the One who promises to lead the excursion.

I love the mantra, “So far-so God!” For if we will peer into our past, we find God there! Reflections of His involvement then will fine-tune our hearts to trust Him now. Corralling these God-memories inoculates us from imagination-atrophy. We will become like those who dream again!

Prayer: Father, I pray for every individual reading this post. Help us to fix our eyes on all You have done in the past, while entrusting to You all the wild and crazy dreams YOU are writing on our hearts today. I pray for the fulfillment of those dreams as we choose to live by faith alone, in Christ alone, by Your grace alone! Amen!