In Your Dreams!

My wife Becky, often uses the phrase ‘in your dreams” when someone makes a claim or statement she thinks will never happen. Over the years, she has said this to me a lot! Sometimes, when my ideas are particularly wild or crazy, she will add insult to injury, and say, “What planet are you living on?” This is just her way of saying the only place this could possibly happen is in my dreams.  And, yes, my dreams and ideas are out there. Sometimes, they are so far out there that they do seem to be from another planet, or maybe from another solar system! But, hey, that’s okay!

I am convinced dreams are the currency of the future. Where would we be without dreamers, and their dreams? Dreams have driven great movements in history such as the American Revolution and the Civil Rights Movement.  I still remember Martin Luther King Jr’s speech, “I Have a Dream.”  His dream helped to ignite the Civil Rights Movement, and reshaped American history.

The Bible portrays the “last days” as a time for dreamers and visionaries (Joel 2:28).  The Bible is full of dreamers. God used every dream and every dreamer to further His purpose. God still uses dreamers today.

Joseph was a dreamer.  His dreams got him into trouble with his brothers, but also got him out of prison, and set the stage to save an entire nation from extinction.  Jacob’s dream of a staircase into the heavens revealed the presence of God in a strange land, a dream that helped to transform his life, and the future of God’s people.  Paul, the great missionary of the early church, had a vision in the night of a Macedonian calling out to him, “Come over and help us.”  (Acts God spoke to Paul through that dream, and the message of the Gospel crossed over into Europe. 

Those who know me know one of my top five talent themes in the Clifton StrengthsFinder© is ideation. I love ideas. They are the fuel of my soul.  They are my dreams for what could be, and what should be. 

I love to dream about the future.  The talent theme “Futuristic” is in my top ten, so when my ideas and futuristic thinking collide, I get caught up in a lot of dreaming about how things could be.  I identify with one of the characters created by George Bernard Shaw, who said, “Some people see things as they are and ask why, while I see things as they could be, and ask why not?.”

What’s in your dreams?  What are the dreams for your life, for your family, your church and your community?  I would encourage you to never lose the capacity to dream.  Someone has said, “We choose to be as young as our dreams, or as old as our cynicism.”  How young are you, in your dreams?  Where do your dreams take you?

Incarnate Leadership

I’m always on the lookout for what’s new in leadership studies and materials.  I’ve found a book I believe is one of the best, if not the best, I’ve ever read. 

 Incarnate Leadership: 5 Lessons on Leadership from the Life of Jesus, by Bill Robinson, does something only a few other books on this subject do.  He blends practical leadership principles with Biblical and Christological truths.

This quote tells you the basic thrust and purpose of the book.  “I fear those who lead Christian organizations have drawn more from the texts of Harvard Business Review than from the leadership texts of Christ’s life.  I think we’ve done a better job of making Christ the center of our faith than the center of our leadership.”  p. 18

 The five leadership principles gleaned from the life of Christ, challenge and encourage the reader to take a serious look at the leadership model they are following.

My favorite quote from the book:  “Perhaps our desire to be good leaders has elbowed its way in front of our desire to be imitators of Christ.”p. 19.

A must read for all church leaders!

Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0310291135
ISBN-13: 9780310291138
Feb 2009
Publisher: Zondervan
122 pages
Language: English

What’s In your Wallet

Without a doubt, when we hear this question, we are reminded of a certain credit card. The card, according to the TV commercial, should be in our wallets if we want to avoid the horrors of high interest rates and hidden fees.

The question, “What’s in your wallet?” is more relevant to our lives than we might initially think.  The contents of our wallets tell a lot about who we are. For most of us, our wallets contain our driver’s license and other identification, important and vital to who we are, and what we do. They tell where we live, where we go, and in general terms, define us as a person.

The next question we have to ask is “How do we feel about what’s in our wallet?” Do we treasure those things? Some people carry photos of their children or grandchildren.  Others have pictures of their fiancé, their spouse, or their family.  Some have great rolls of cash. The things we carry in our wallets are things we hold dear for one reason or another.

Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Luke 12:34)  What we carry in our wallet, in a very real sense, reflects what we treasure.  And, where our treasure is, there we’ll find our hearts.

The heart, in Jesus’ day was thought to be the center of a man’s volition.  Choices and decision came from the heart, not the head. Recent Gallup research reveals most decisions are made from emotion rather than logic. (Married to the Brand, Gallup Press, 2009).  The condition of our heart therefore is critical!  Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8.)

If what’s in our wallet reveals what’s in our heart, then we’d better take a serious look at the content of our wallets, and more importantly at how we feel about what we find there.  We may discover the condition of our heart is not at all what it should be.  If so, then our only solution is to turn to the only One who can “create a new heart” within us. (Psalms 51:10).

So, what’s in your wallet?  What do you treasure? What does it say about your heart?