How and Why You Need to Dream (Guest post by Darrell Vesterfelt)iwokeupyesterday

I think dreaming gets a bad rap among Christians.

I don’t know where we got this idea, but it seems like Christians think “dreaming” will take us off the path that God has for us. I think dreaming actually does the exact opposite. The reason dreaming is so important, I think is because it is how we become who we were created by God to be.

Dreaming is less about coming up with a grand plan for our life, and more about discovering who we were created to be.

That’s why it is imperative for everyone — especially Christians — to dream. Without the process of dreaming we can’t discover our true identity, which is rooted in Christ.

Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

I think many of us have interpreted that verse as if God is going to give us all the things we dream of having, like cars and houses if we just love Him more than those things. But I don’t think that’s what the psalmist is saying.

I think that, when we seek God, He actually gives us the desires in our hearts.

In other words, I believe the longings we have in our heart were planted by God.

It isn’t until we admit these desires, and explore them, that we begin to discover the life God has for us.

One of the things we need to become dreamers is community. We need people who are willing to help us discover our strengths, and also willing to be honest about our weaknesses. They help us by pointing out the successes and accomplishments that we might not otherwise notice.

They are honest with us about the areas where we seem to be spinning our wheels, and even areas that are not necessarily our strengths, but that we should just keep as hobbies.

Another thing we need to dream is an ability to be introspective.

Other people can help us to notice some things, but some things we have to notice ourselves.

We have to notice what kinds of things make us happy, and ask ourselves the question: why? We have to pay attention to the things that get us out of bed in the morning, what gives us energy or makes us “tick” so to speak.

Paying attention to those things is all part of dreaming.

Learning to be introspective is a little bit like prayer, and sometimes is prayer. Talking to God helps us discover what we really want out of life.

As Christians, we should be the first to dream and the first to encourage others to dream. Dreaming is collaborating with God to call into existence the life He has for us.

Are you a dreamer? How has dreaming helped you get to where you are?

Darrell Vesterfelt is the CEO of the Prodigal Media Group, a storytelling firm based in Minneapolis where he lives with his wife Ally. Darrell is the original #unblogger. You can connect with him on Twitter or call him at (612)802-5227.

http://carisadel.com Caris Adel

I think the idea of dreaming is important, and I like most of this……but I guess I would push back a little bit on the idea that discovering who we were created to be, our identity, has to do with what we do in our lives.

Our identity is being image-bearers of God. What we do comes out of our calling to love God and love others. I agree, the dreaming process and the questions of what make us happy, what make us tick, are important to figure out, so we can see HOW we were created to be.

But how we do it, whether it is through writing or engineering or finance, or whatever, doesn’t give us our identity, or even our calling.

But I do think dreaming is under-rated, especially when we have what feels like a whole generation who ‘doesn’t know what to do with their lives’.
- http://darrellvesterfelt.com Darrell
  
  Let me push back on your push back.
  
  If you are saying that who we are is based in the image of God (which I agree with) and what we do comes from being in that image, wouldn’t it be fair to say that what we do really does matter?
  
  If I was created in the image of God, and I do that best through writing (or engineering) but was afraid to do it because of insecurity, fear, etc — wouldn’t I be blocking the image of God from being shown in and through my life?
  
  And if what we do displays the image of God, wouldn’t it then be important to dream (or remove fear) to discover how we can discover our likeness with the creator?
  
  I think work has a bad wrap. God was a creator and in his image we must create.
  
  Thoughts?
  - http://carisadel.com Caris Adel
    
    Oh yes, I think what we do really matters. But we aren’t what we do, right?
    
    “wouldn’t I be blocking the image of God from being shown in and through my life?” I like that thought. But, what we do comes out of our calling, so by doing things that are true to you, you are honoring God’s creation of you, which would fall under loving God, which is half of our calling.
    
    ” if what we do displays the image of God” – but I agree with this, because God is a creator/writer/engineer/etc…………so now I’m confused, haha.
    
    I guess maybe that gets into what does it mean to be an image-bearer. I’m writing about identity/vocation all month, and I’m already sick of the ‘bearer’ part, but can’t find a good way to word it, other than ‘reflecting God’.
    
    I think work has a bad wrap. – I agree with that too, and the idea that some work is secular or christian.
    
    So now I’m thinking about what the difference is between reflecting the image of God and doing things to Love God and Love Others…hmmmmmm….
http://KatieAxelson.com Katie Axelson

Thanks, Darrell. This was my biggest take-away from our chat with Ben Arment: he gave me permission to dream again when he assured us that God has given us our dreams and He’s expecting us to pursue them. I’d never thought about that before but I needed to hear it!
http://tammyidobelieve.wordpress.com tammyidobelieve

Thanks, Darrell. Love your perspective on dreaming! Dreaming has been laid on my heart again recently, and the strong desire to wake others up to living in there purpose. I truly agree that God has placed the dreams we have in our hearts and by pursuing them we learn who He created us to be and the mission we have to perform here on earth.

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