Funny how sometimes we stop and look at our lives and
realize that we have stopped dreaming. Not altogether, of course-we would die
otherwise. But those out there, “What the heck does that have to do with
anything?” dreams. You know the ones: going into outer space, finding and
extracting PsOW in a Cambodian jungle, marrying a prince. Dreams that make the other
parts of your brain go- “uh, yeah, I’ll get right on that.”
But the thing is, these dreams ARE a part of us. They’re
seedlings in the garden of our hearts that have sprouted while we were busy
with more important things.
So we look back at the dreams of our younger day and we
think – boy I have sold out! I’m boring and just doing the business of life.
But beloved, do not doubt your heart and the shepherding of God so, for this is
exactly the right plan. When the Israelites crossed the Jordan into the
Promised Land, the Lord said something very interesting that I’m sure saved
them energy and gave them an inheritance. He said that the entire land was
theirs, but that He was going to leave the inhabitants in it to take care of it
for them. I believe this is significant for a couple of reasons:
1. There is a difference between stewarding and occupying.
Kind of like the difference between owing and renting. This was a people that
had been nomads for an entire generation, and even before that. The ones
entering the Promised Land did not have experience caring for vineyards and
lands and houses. Their fathers came out of Egypt, where they were slaves, and
nomads before that. Even the food in the wilderness was supernaturally
provided. Actually, it’s interesting that the manna dried up on the day they
walked across the Jordan – it was if the Lord didn’t waste any time in
fulfilling His promise to Abraham, beginning the promise of making them a house
for all nations. He did this by giving to them in seed form, an often
misunderstood and frustrating act. They could have just gone from city to city,
plundering and eating and celebrating, but the Father didn’t tell them to take
FROM the land, but to take the LAND. This implies a partnership, investment and
ownership, of growing in wisdom and influence season by season. This is why He
left the inhabitants alive; otherwise the ground would become overgrown and crops
would rot in the fields, and the people would be without government and order.
He knew that this was a new thing for the Israelites – they had never HAD their
own land before, not since the Garden of Eden, and He had a promise to fulfill.
His promise was to establish Israel, to make her a praise in all the earth, to
live among her and bless her. So
He wasn’t willing to do it the easy way, because it would
not have been good for them. So
He told them to take it slow, roots down deep and keeping
their eyes on Him.
2. You can only own the ground you have walked. This is the
principle that keeps me from telling people I’m Scottish. It’s a little silly
to claim something as an intrinsic part of you when you have no experience with
it -in this way we allow the Lord to build our lives one step at a time. We can
call ourselves prophets, or missionaries to Uganda, but if we have not taken
the time to trace it out, break it into bite-sized pieces and make it a part of
ourselves by investing time, prayer, resources, and interest, it can probably
be safely said that it is not a part of us yet. The Israelites had to TAKE the
land. They had to get their men together, rout out the inhabitants, walk and
mark the boundaries, clear it and get it ready for their use, and then
establish some sort of residence there, one that would last and produce. It is
not in having the dream, but in the being capable of holding the dream that the
extent of our life is shown. But this of course should not discourage us from having
dreams that are far far beyond our capacity - I may never have enough money that
buying a Land Rover, a notoriously bad investment, will not make a sizable
dent in my finances, but I want one anyway. And this is okay – I
enjoy the hope and the dream anyway. But for my life to spread, to not just hop
and jump from one high point to another but to really own my own life and by
investing and stewarding cause it to bear fruit for the One who gave it to me,
I must be honest about what parts I actually possess. This is why I‘m not
really worried about my diet & exercise right now, because I know that with
my current schedule and finances I’m not able to make it a priority so rather
than putting unhealthy expectations on myself I am letting the ‘inhabitants’
care for the land for me. And they can make some kick-butt French toast, let me
tell ya.
3. You can’t leave an inheritance of what does not belong to
you. If Israel was to be a great nation, and the blessing of God was to be on
their children and their children’s children, then they would have to have
something to leave. That means building, and sowing, and increasing, and having
a storehouse of wisdom and justice and breakthrough. This is encouraging,
because it means that whatever God had promised to do, if He does not do it in
your lifetime He will surely do in your children’s, and if not in your
children’s, then in their children’s.
4. We get to see His faithfulness daily, and THAT is what
causes us to expand into the land. Think about it: how often have we asked Him
to just make it happen, to just give it to us and get it over with? But in His
mercy and wisdom He plants a seed instead, and then asks us to trust Him. We
get to watch it grow every day, to see Him reach over and pull out a weed here,
to shine more on it there, to drench it in His sweet rain. The point is not to
have a full-grown plant –it is to see Him as a faithful gardener, the Shepherd
of our souls. That is the treasure, and if we get what we want the season we
want it, we miss out on an amazing show. He is giving us court side seats to a
show of His faithfulness and goodness, and we should never pass up that opportunity.
It is in the daily looking to Him, submitting our understandings of timing and
what sowing and reaping are, that our capacity grows by miles, expanding our
hearts to receive and our spirits for Him to flow through us. Kind of like
babies; some species, like mice, have lots and lots of little tiny ones that
when grown can cover, say, a barn. But with a human there’s only one, but it grows
and grows and when it is ready it can have more of an impact than any amount of
mice could have. By choosing to grow, to expand, to not let go because the
pressure is increasing, we allow ourselves to become the kind of person that
has more impact than many other people put together.
And this is how we stop ‘dreaming’. Or at least, it seems
like we have, but what has actually happened is that we have grown so large
that the impossible now seems inevitable. In other words, when we first looked
over the expanse of all the land that could be ours, that our children might
someday live in and inhabit it seemed incredible that our land might encompass not
JUST that river there, but those mountains too, and the desert where wild
things are, and that lush place in the valley that is teeming with life. By
allowing our boundaries to slowly stretch and move and grow we encounter
streams, and rocky hills and beasts that refuse to be tamed, and times that
refresh our souls so that when we finally drive our stake into the ground at
these landmarks it is a no-brainer that this land is ours. Because we have dug
our hands into the dirt and invested, and failed and triumphed, and we KNOW our
land, every foot of it. It is a part of us and we have compassion and ownership
of it just as He does, and because of that we can walk through it as partners,
yielding much fruit.**
This is why I continue to dream of finding prisoners of war
in jungles – because He is daily teaching me how to find exactly the key that
will sustain hurting hearts and bring them back to life. And I
still dream of a prince finding me, though I have grown too large even for that
dream, for He is establishing me as a queen. And I still want to go into outer
space, because that would be amazingly cool and mind-blowing.
So beloved, do not fret when you see no more impossible
boundaries, because it is certain that you have grown so large that they are no
longer impossibilities, but inevitabilities. You are growing from strength to
strength, allowing Him to replace drop by drop your own human, failing and
suffering blood with that of His great Son and this blood cries out, yearning
to be united with the thing it has purchased - and so it shall, joining you
both in Peace and Love.
**This is what I think Heaven will be: all the ground we
have walked and sweated over on earth will be completely given to us to steward, with resources
and gifts not fettered by sin and fear. Amazing thought, and sobering.
