Being In Dreaming
Posted by Rebecca | | Posted On Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 8:00 AM
I was at the Winds Cafe with good friends, some I have known for a while, some new. We were sharing about life, about art and our spiritual journey. We had an amazing moment to speak prophetically into the life of our waitress whose name happened to be "Genesis".
As the evening quietly moved along, a storm hit with torrential rains that a member of our party said looked like the floodwaters of India. The storm took out the power, so we sat by candlelight and inspired conversation. Taylor, my son, pulled out his journal and began to read his poetry, and we all sat in a moment of wonder hoping the rains would not stop anytime soon.
It was art, a God moment. It felt timeless... it was being in dreaming... a convergence of who we really are and all that God imagines for us to be.
It is as one fine poet said, "We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep."
Imagine using your time to express the gifts God has given you as you walk through life everyday. What would that look like? What if being naturally supernatural had nothing to do with anything other than you simply being and living out of the Spirit's power within your creative edge? How would that change your journey?
When I consider God's purpose for me on this planet, the art I am to be as well as create, I hear something quite different than the white noise that presses me to think that doing is more important or more powerful than being. When I think about those who inspire me most and challenge me to live a life that expresses God in all the areas of my life, they are the people who have walked a simplistic road of wholeness and creativity. To live as Christ is not as hard as we make it. It is only when we compartmentalize who we are from what we do that we find the struggle.
Paul said we have to "labor into rest" because the toughest thing for believers to do is to stop being busy and just be. It takes Sabbath reflection to see we are created to be God's masterpiece and to sculpt out what His vision is for our destiny. The ebb and flow of our lives requires personal time of meditation and creative expression.
I know that I most touch the lives of others when people see my gardens, my art and my passion for intimacy with Him. If we move through the world like cattle, becoming domesticated and calculated, we quickly lose sight of our true north. Jesus said, "Consider the lilies of the field." Imagine taking the time to ponder what that looks like for your life? Would you change? What would your response be?
My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner
strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite
him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love,
you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant
dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test
its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives,
full in the fullness of God. God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Ephesians 3:16-21 (Message)
I want to truly live. This does not require neck-breaking effort that guilts me into a performance-based understanding of the Gospel... in fact it is just the opposite. As Thoreau said, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
This is a challenge to you for the season we are in...to live more deliberately, to labor into His rest, to fan into flame your gifts. It is time to step into the picture of the dream God has for you. As you watch this video by Andy Goldsworthy, artist and sculpting poet, imagine what it would be like if you left all behind to live the abundant life Christ died to give you...? Imagine "being in dreaming"... where all of the dreams you have, become the reality of who you are.
Cheers,
Rebecca
As the evening quietly moved along, a storm hit with torrential rains that a member of our party said looked like the floodwaters of India. The storm took out the power, so we sat by candlelight and inspired conversation. Taylor, my son, pulled out his journal and began to read his poetry, and we all sat in a moment of wonder hoping the rains would not stop anytime soon.
It was art, a God moment. It felt timeless... it was being in dreaming... a convergence of who we really are and all that God imagines for us to be.
It is as one fine poet said, "We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep."
Imagine using your time to express the gifts God has given you as you walk through life everyday. What would that look like? What if being naturally supernatural had nothing to do with anything other than you simply being and living out of the Spirit's power within your creative edge? How would that change your journey?
When I consider God's purpose for me on this planet, the art I am to be as well as create, I hear something quite different than the white noise that presses me to think that doing is more important or more powerful than being. When I think about those who inspire me most and challenge me to live a life that expresses God in all the areas of my life, they are the people who have walked a simplistic road of wholeness and creativity. To live as Christ is not as hard as we make it. It is only when we compartmentalize who we are from what we do that we find the struggle.
Paul said we have to "labor into rest" because the toughest thing for believers to do is to stop being busy and just be. It takes Sabbath reflection to see we are created to be God's masterpiece and to sculpt out what His vision is for our destiny. The ebb and flow of our lives requires personal time of meditation and creative expression.
I know that I most touch the lives of others when people see my gardens, my art and my passion for intimacy with Him. If we move through the world like cattle, becoming domesticated and calculated, we quickly lose sight of our true north. Jesus said, "Consider the lilies of the field." Imagine taking the time to ponder what that looks like for your life? Would you change? What would your response be?
My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner
strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite
him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love,
you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant
dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test
its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives,
full in the fullness of God. God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Ephesians 3:16-21 (Message)
I want to truly live. This does not require neck-breaking effort that guilts me into a performance-based understanding of the Gospel... in fact it is just the opposite. As Thoreau said, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
This is a challenge to you for the season we are in...to live more deliberately, to labor into His rest, to fan into flame your gifts. It is time to step into the picture of the dream God has for you. As you watch this video by Andy Goldsworthy, artist and sculpting poet, imagine what it would be like if you left all behind to live the abundant life Christ died to give you...? Imagine "being in dreaming"... where all of the dreams you have, become the reality of who you are.
Cheers,
Rebecca
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
Live the life you have imagined." Henry David Thoreau