How dreaming can unlock hope

Canon Beach, OR, Nov. 2021. Photo by Kenny Gamblin.

I woke up before the sun feeling discouraged the other morning. I asked god to give me a new fight song and have been thinking about the necessity of dreaming since then.

I think dreaming is a tool he uses to give us sight. Dreaming is how we come with humble discouragement and walk away with hope. It’s how we see the fruit growing on the tree.

If god is “beyond what we can imagine” (Eph. 3:20), then challenging our imagination is our best shot at thinking how how he thinks, seeing how he sees. It gets us closer to a reality that is more heavenly, more holy, more limitless - more like his. At least it does for me. It pulls me behind the curtain of his will and molds me into his vision.

In my experience, dreaming can shake off disappointment like an itchy sweater we’ve been wearing for too long. It’s how we access hope. How we keep from settling. It gives us something worth waiting for. I think it’s part of our obedience. Part of our commission.

That morning I wrote, “show me where I limit my dreaming. Convict me of having a small mind. Courage, instead.”

Fear shrinks our ideas of what’s possible out of safety and caution. It draws circles around what can or can’t happen and reduces gods love to our feeble, human limits.

The best way to move out of hopelessness is to start dreaming. Out of your head and into your heart. Ask and he will do it.