Dreams

My bible study just finished up reading a book by Phil Vischer, the creative guy behind V#ggieTails.  While the book was interesting, it was really the last few chapters that really spoke to us girls.  Basically, in a nutshell, Phil took a dream that he had, that he felt God had placed on his heart, and began to do whatever he could to see that dream come to fruition.  Initially things went great...V#ggieTails skyrocketed...Saturday morning fun with Sunday morning values became BIG, BIG, BIG.  But then things started to shift...when everything was said and done, V#ggieTails went bankrupt and Phil Vischer's life was left in pieces. 

Where was God in all of this?  Why didn't he step in and save Phil Vischer and V#ggieTails?  How can God plant a dream, a good dream, in the heart of a Christian, and then allow it to go unanswered or even worse shatter into a million fragments?  The answer?  Well, sometimes our good dreams that may (or may not) be God given get in the way of our worshiping Him.  Sometimes, we take our "eye off the ball" as my sports-lovin' sister said last night.  And when that happens, when we start to put our dream before God, then we commit a pretty big sin--the sin of idol worship. 

Idol worship.  Don't know about you, but I have a hard time wrapping my mind around that one.  Especially because golden calves and the like generally spring to mind.  I mean, I don't worship idols.  I'm a good Christian...right?!  Until I think about the times that I've wanted something soooo badly (insert husband, child, healing) that I let my gaze fall away from the cross and all I can focus on...think about...obsess over...is that one thing.  When I write it like that, it certainly smacks of idol worship, doesn't it?  Hmmm...perhaps this Christian has a lot to learn.

The good news is that I can reflect over my life and see when it was happening.  The not so good news is that there will definitely be times in the future (perhaps the not-so-distant future?!) when I have to relearn this message.  My prayer is that perhaps next time, it won't take me quite so long to learn the message, to return FULLY to God, to turn my gaze upward, to walk in the center of God's will for my life and to trust that He has an even bigger, better, more amazing dream for me than I can even begin to imagine.  "Not my will be done, Lord, but Your will."

I have two daily reminders of that: