My God-sized dreams

Bonnie, over at Faith Barista, talks about ‘God-sized dreams’ being a buzz word at the moment in books, blog posts and talk among friends.  It’s the topic for this week’s Faith Jam on Thursday.

Of course, I immediately started thinking about my dreams of people actually reading my blog; or my dreams of someone liking my writing enough to publish it.  Then there are my dreams for my family: for good health for my husband;  or for fulfilling, God-centred, PAID work for my children. (Well, two out of three isn’t bad: getting paid is a minor issue, really, as long as there is enough income coming in to live on. Especially if you haven’t reached the grand age of 25 yet.)  They are ‘God-sized’: big, not-achievable-by-my-own-efforts dreams.

They might be ‘God-sized’ but they are not necessarily ‘God-centred’.

I’ve just come from a memorial service. Giving thanks for the life of a dear, godly friend. The kind of woman who is rare – someone who just oozed God’s love out of every pore. Sheila’s smile melted hearts.

The key text was Philippians 3:7-14

‘But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.’

Just before a tragic accident took Sheila from this world to the next, she wrote these words:

‘That I might know Him and the power of His resurrection,

That I might know Him and the strength of His love for me,

That I might share in the fellowship of His suffering

And understand what it cost to set me free.’

This is my ‘God-sized dream’.  It is big, and not-achievable-by-my-own-efforts. I dream of becoming a woman like Sheila, and Renee, and Lisa, and Tami, and Karyn, and Sarah, and Ruth, and Esther...to know Jesus as they did, and do. Something I can do only by God’s grace and in the strength – the God-sized strength – He gives me.