Will God Snatch Back His Dream For You?

Flickr, Creative Commons: Vilseskogen tasting blood

If there are mosquitos in heaven the Lord and I are going to have a serious conversation. I’ve shared with you in the past some of my misadventures with these horrible creatures of darkness.

It happened again the other night. Phyllis and I had traveled some 250 miles (400 kilometers plus) for a couples weekend we were doing. I was road-kill by the time I fell into bed after the meeting but I knew that a good night’s sleep would put me in form again.

Fate hadn’t fated a good night’s sleep, though.

Sometimes in the quiet of the midnight darkness, there in the Vosges mountains the vampires come out. Suddenly above the roar of my snores I heard, “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

“Ah, no!” I scooted further under the sheet, all the while trying to swat the blood sucker away. Only, it was too hot under the covers and the threat of his “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee,” kept me awake. After a period of calm I would finally drift off only to hear, “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.”

“Ai yi yi!” Swat! Swat!

That continued until the predators had drunk their fill and retired to dark corners to lick my blood off their lips and burp. (Do mosquitoes burp? I’ll have to google that).

I would have been better off if I had offered him my arm and let him fill himself up the first time he pounced on me. Then, I could have slept.
The next day I felt like double road-kill.

Mosquito-inspired Dreams

Flickr: creative commons:Georgie Pauwels the little dreamer

You ever had an experience like that? The worst of it is when you drop into a troubled sleep during the night of a mosquito attack, you often have weird dreams. Well, odder than usual dreams. I think most of mine are strange.

We have a friend who sometimes tells of her heavenly dreams. I wish I had dreams like that. What kind of mosquito is biting her?

My good dreams happen while I’m awake.

I dream of things the Lord has promised me. I dream of success in the mission he has assigned me in life.  I dream of how God helps my family and what he has in store for Phyllis and me.

I dream that my favorite football teams win (both won the last two weekends. That hasn’t happened in a long time. Is it the millennium?)

These dreams in the day, (not daydreams, which are something else), power our life. God gives us a job to do, shows us a future blessing and we go after it. Working in that direction pumps life into our mundane existence.

When I was at the university, God asked me for all my life. My money was easy to give Him because I didn’t have any. “Here Lord take all of my 57 cents.” But, then He asked me for my dreams. That was something else. My dreams were worth millions to me.

They still are.

So, I gave them to Him and He gave them back in another form. His dreams for me were even better than my dreams for me. I didn’t say “easier,”; I said “better.”

He Wants Them Back?

Dreams are funny things, though. God miraculously fulfills your dreams and then He sometimes asks for them back. What’s up?

God’s miracle power zapped Abraham and Sarah when they were older than old and they finally had the baby God had promised. Then, perhaps 17 years later, God asked for him. “Sacrifice him to me Abraham!”

That was nuts. God had never asked such a thing of a man, before or since. He even forbade human sacrifice. But, Abraham was sure he had heard right.

“God, you gave him to me!” Abe must have thought. “He’s a miracle! I’ve witnessed to everyone telling them what you’ve done for us and now you asked this?”

He did it, though. He didn’t actually offer him up, but he nearly did. And in his heart the deed was already done. Hebrews tells us that he was believing that God was going to raise his son to life from the ashes of his sacrificial pyre.

Please don’t forget this: Isaac on the throne of your life is an idol, even if he came from God. Isaac on the altar of sacrifice is a blessing for you and for everyone else.

Even promises that God accomplishes in our life can become our idols.

Our dreams from God, our “Isaacs,” can become more important to us than the Lord, Himself. And that’s scary-dangerous.

Whether your dreams come from flying insects or from the Lord, evaluate them. Of course the first are worthless but those from God are priceless. Just watch out that they don’t become more important than the Priceless One in your life.

Hmmm …
“Dreaming is easy. The challenge is choosing the best dreams.” Zeke Pipher.

Smile
Humor, on the other hand, helps your brain function in a healthy way. In reacting to humor, both sides of the brain are activated simultaneously. When you tell a joke, the left side—the part responsible for thinking—starts firing. When you “get” a joke and start laughing, your right side becomes active.

Research indicates that people tend to be more creative when they see something as funny. Other studies suggest that laughter helps increase the flexibility and creativity of thinking. Humor even has been used to help strengthen the immune system.
Better Way to Think: Using Positive Thoughts to Change Your Life (H. Norman Wright)

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