Big Dreams

“These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants—men and women alike—and they will prophesy.” (Acts 2:15-18, New Living, describing the “Day of Pentecost”)

“I have a dream…that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” (Martin Luther King Jr., August 28, 1963)

What are your dreams, and how big are they? Are you taking time to envision your grandest aspirations for relationships, spiritual life, vocation, physical health, finances, the use of your gifts and talents to bless others? These days remain a ripe time to present our dreams to God, pray over them, and take steps to pursue them. During a summer in Kenya two decades ago, I met a preacher named Calisto Odede whose heart seemed about to burst with the joy of knowing Jesus. Speaking with delight in his eyes, Calisto asked, “How big are your prayers? If God answered all of your prayers right now, what difference would it make?” The question pierced me then, and it pierces me still, as I face the reality that too often I permit the tyranny of the urgent and the pressures of life to stifle those “big” prayers, dreams and visions. In the late 1700s, Christian Englishman William Wilberforce set and doggedly pursued two huge life goals: “the abolition of the slave trade, and the reformation of society.” His big-dream life bore rich fruit. (If you haven’t seen the film Amazing Grace, now on DVD, I highly recommend it.) Dr. King pursued his own grand dream for America, and its impact on our society is unmistakable. Thus inspired, the question for you and I remains: What are our dreams for today, for 2008, for the rest of our lives—and how big are they?

Heavenly Father and Merciful Lord, we give thanks today for the dreamers who have come before us. As we dare to dream big dreams and pray big prayers, we thank You that you will come into the midst of our grandest aspirations with wisdom and guidance; and that You are faithful, O God, to provide us with strength and grace as we pursue Your best and highest callings in our day. Amen.