Dreams

Buckle up, Bloggies. Grab a coffee. This might get lengthy.

The sermon series at NorthStar since Easter has been called "The Beautiful Exchange."
 On Easter, obviously, it was the wonderful beginning of the story of this new life we have because Jesus exchanged his life for ours.

This week it was about exchanging our dreams for God's.
My first thought was, my dreams match up with God. Make a difference for His glory. Check.
But the more Scott talked the more I was moved.
My dreams for myself are much too small.
Much too easy to give up on.
God's dreams are big. Huge. Perfect.
But a little bit scary.
How could something so good and so big be so scary?
...Because it doesn't match up with everyone else.
See, one of the things Scott said was, "The 'American Dream' will never align with God's dream."
The American Dream. It's what everyone wants.
Right?
To get married.
To be happy.
To prosper. 
To have 2.4 smiling, clean, beautiful kids.
To teach upper-middle class students, eager to learn.
To live in the suburbs.
In a house with a wrap-around front porch with rocking chairs.
And a little white picket fence. 
Sounds perfect, huh?
A safe, reasonable, good dream to have.
But where are we called to live a safe and reasonable life?
What part of this "dream" honors the Lord?
What part of is says, "I am doing whatever it takes to glorify my Creator? And teach others about Him?"
I'm guilty of this too.
I want this. I do!
I want to get married.
I want to have kids.
I want that picture perfect life.
But I want some other things more than that...
I want to honor God.
I want to love others because of His love for me.
I want to take care of orphans and love those whom others have forgotten about.
I want my life to matter.
I want to make my life count.
I want to make a difference.
I want to change the world.
I want to bring glory to God.
Everyday.

How easy is it to manipulate God's dream to fit our own. It's so simple for me to sit here and say I'm living God's dream for myself because I'm in college, leading YoungLife, living a "good", God-fear, peolple-loving life, and getting an education so I can teach and love people and show them the love of God.
And yet, I don't know if I can honestly say that this is it. That this is God's dream. His good and perfect dream. Really, this life is far too small.

So sacrificing one dream for a greater one.
Giving up my dreams in sake of His.
Because God's dreams will always exceed mine. 

It says so here: Ephesians 3:20-21

 ²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

I want that. I want a dream that far exceeds my own.
Sometimes obedience will lead you into hardship. But God promises to be with you.
And so I choose it. I choose to follow God's dream. No matter the ridicule or the cost. No matter what I have to sacrifice or give up.
I choose giving up my own average version of the American dream for a God-sized dream that is immeasurable more that I can imagine.

Let's go.

To listen to this podcast click here. Suriously... Check it out!