The children know. They haven’t had time to forget. They still remember what we adults have forgotten. Children know how to dream, and how to believe, too. They haven’t spent enough time in a world which will tell them to “Stay grounded. Be realistic.”.
Maybe, as adults, all we need is a reminder. We need to remember how it feels to trust a wild idea. Maybe we even need permission— better yet— examples of other adults living and dreaming at once.
See— I’ve been working on resting. Sounds delightful, I know. But it is a task. I’m working to choose the slow pace when stillness calls on me. And it’s peace that I’m working towards. Peace; the real life sensation of Trust. I felt a deep down need for peace. I dreamt of peace. And then I woke up from a deep sleep with an undeniable recognition of… Dreams. And here we are, and one might even say, I dreamed of dreams.
What I am able to recognize is that, in all of our hurry, we have become a generation who struggles to dream. We struggle to feel the tug of a dream. Why? Because we are rarely still enough. And we aren’t focused. We are so busy hustling that we can’t justify time for peace— Peace; the real life sensation of Trust.
We don’t even grant ourselves permission to sleep adequately… sleep! A vital necessity. It’s no wonder we aren’t dreaming anymore if we are hardly even sleeping. With that said, not all dreams are experienced while sleeping, however, all dreams do require stillness and/or focus; i.e. meditation, painting, fishing, a quiet walk. Dreams don’t require a still body as much as they require a still heart.
This idea of “dreaming”… go with me here… let’s think of a dream as a balloon floating high above, and it’s got a long string, and the string is tied to your heart as you live in this life on this earth. This string means that, even as you wrangle with the real and present challenges of your life… all the while, your heart is still connected to your dreams. Even as you pay the bills and drive the carpools, your hearts is still dreaming, and the strings of your dreams are still tugging. But I’m willing to bet, you can’t feel those bouncing tugs, what with all the bumps and turns, the schedules…quick more coffee!…and then the meetings and the games and, perhaps most distracting of all, the damn expectations.
How do I know this? Because I can’t feel them either. I can’t hear or feel through all of that noise and commotion. But I want to. And it was peace that showed me how to. Peace showed me the way to dreams. It said, “Be still and know.”. Be still so you will know where to go… when to act…how to move. Peace gave me clear dreams and dreams gave me peace… the peace of mind that I am on the track of my own life.
You know the little weights we purchase with the birthday balloons at the grocery store? The ones that keep the balloons in place so not to disappear above the parking lot? Just in this way, all our busyness anchors our dreams as they attempt to lead and pull our lives in certain directions. Our bustling plans tell our dreams to, “Stay put. I don’t have time to go chasing you around.”.
Why? Why do we feel like all these little tasks and expectations (there’s that word again) exceed the priority of our heart’s dreams? Why do we anchor our dreams and insist on moving according to all these other agendas?
Have we lost our permission slips to wander with our dreams, with our hearts? When did we forget to remember to dream? How old were we? One day, we were young, and we dreamed, and we reached for brightly colored balloons on strings, and the next thing we know, we are older, and we have stopped dreaming. And we are just following the leader, robots in auto pilot. Why? Did the world tell us (show us) that dreams are for kids?: “Stop. End of story. The End of dreams.”
That’s pretty much it. That is what the world says. But, we are not of this world. Just in it. And we haven’t lost our ability to dream. We just forgot it. We still have those balloons of floating dreams. It’s the permission part I’m wondering about. Why do we, as adults, need permission to do what came so naturally to us as children? Why do we struggle to believe our dreams have significance? Do we feel unworthy? Unworthy of a life of pure and simple joy?:
“If I can’t see anyone else around me living out their dreams, it must tell me that dreams are unrealistic and therefore, insignificant.”
-us living for this world
That’s us when we forget to remember Who creates our dreams; when we forget that the Creator of all things also has a direct line into our hearts. We forget that God has his hand in our dreams; that he blows the breath that moves the balloon; that he is the Puller and the Tugger, the Guider. Do we forget to remember that he is the one providing these ideas and visions, wild as they may seem? And if the Creator of all creation is creating our dreams, who are we to call them outrageous and wild? Who are we to call them unrealistic? If God is with our wildest dreams, who are we to be against them?
One of my favorite things about going to Disney World is the opportunity to look around and think about the imaginative conversations that brought this magical place into existence. This place is a rare witness to the outcome of limitless imagination (and funding too it seems!); this is where nobody said “no”, but instead asked “how?”. As a creative person, that is my dream! Because the word “no” can feel so insulting sometimes. So limiting. So lacking for trust and belief in grand possibility. Instead of “no”, if we could maybe just go with “how?”, and let the brainstorming begin! Because, even though sometimes the answer is eventually “no”, down the path of “how” we can discover a different kind of “yes”. And that’s how imagination thrives with trust and belief. “No” stops imagination in it’s tracks, but “how?” lets it wander off to find the solution.
What must it be like to look at this world from on high? This place in which he had imagined we would use more belief in his ability to answer our questions of “how”? He imagined we would walk with him and delight in his companionship and feel the cool wind of his life giving breath…which I’m sure is beyond minty fresh! Is he looking around at a world of us who aren’t letting him do his thing?… aren’t letting him guide with the tug of the heart strings? Is the Creator of all the things, the King of the universe, the Author of every new idea—does he ever feel a creative block? Are our “no’s” offensive to God? Is he feeling perpetually tied down by his own creations? As we anchor our dream balloons to the ground to keep them from floating away into absurd places, are we trying to outsmart the heart? As we try to manipulate our lives, are we trying to out-create the Creator??
In the process of us outsmarting our hearts— are we being too “realistic”? Are we setting limits on what God’s immeasurable imagination has intended? He is the ruler of dreams; he is the sender of high hopes and visions. And we’re down here trying to micromanage the Authority on life itself. While he is already doing immeasurably more than all we can even think to ask for or imagine with our limited capabilities, we are telling his dreams for us to “Sit tight. Stay still. Don’t go anywhere crazy! I don’t have time for that. I don’t have time to chase you down!”
Laughable, right !?! And it seems, that while we are running circles around ourselves, we are the ones that need to sit tight, be still, and stop running crazy. Because when we do, that’s when the tug of a dream is felt, that’s when the Voice of the heart is heard. We have this backwards. Dreams don’t need to sit still and wait for us, we need to sit and wait for dreams.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10
Exalted: elevated in rank, power or character: LOFTY. Raised high: ELEVATED.
(Merriam-Webster Dictionary )
Whether we realize it or not, he is way ahead of us. Not just higher than us. He is in our future. And he is pulling us there. He is calling us by name right to the places he’s planned. And he is using dreams to tug us there.
So why do we need permission to dream? Why do we set limits on our lives? Why do we tie His balloon strings to the ground? Why do we limit ourselves to merely our own understandings instead of letting Him take us into the wild dreams He has planned?
I’m discovering and understanding that the dreams of our hearts are as divinely purposeful as they are far fetched and unrealistic. The dreams of our hearts are also the dreams of God’s heart. And even though dreaming is something we tend to leave for the young and artistic— dreaming is for everyone!…the teacher and the engineer, the accountant and the bus driver/mom. Dreams are for the young, and they are for the very old. Dreams are for teenagers and the mid-agers. New, creative ideas, big and small, come into all of our hearts and lives everyday. And they comes with a reason; a purpose!
When a new thing gets ready to come into your life, will you make room for it? When a new thing comes knocking, do you have the Trust and Courage to let it in?… will you allow it to expand into your life? …Disruptive as it can be! Because dreams will do that too. Imagine a big balloon pushing into your little Mini Cooper. Dreams take up space and change the atmosphere. Dreams don’t just pull and tug, sometimes they push!
What if you let it? How Trusting can you be? If you remember who pulls the dream string, will you discover that crumpled up permission slip you shoved deep into the pocket of your youth sized blue jeans all those years ago? Will you give yourself permission to stand up and follow your dream? What would it be like if we all stopped bursting our own bubbles? What if we didn’t keep our lives anchored? What if we let our Dreams lead?
And His plans? They await.
And our dreams? They lead.
Dreams lead the way towards the plans that await.
If you’ve been blessed by a dream so bold it frightens you, don’t hide under the covers. It is true that this is a gift; a blessing from that good, loving gift Giver. The dream means it’s time to stop clinging to your security blanket. Stop popping your own party balloons in an effort to keep everything under your control. I invite you to celebrate your life. I invite you to Trust the pull of your dreams.
The balloon beckons
from on high.
For God’s sake—
don’t tie it down.