Hey Friends,
I want to share a dream I had the other night. Usually dreams happen but I don’t remember many details on waking up. But this one was so vivid that I was able to write it down and ponder it.
I was on a plane flying. There was some sort of conference with speakers talking while we where flying. Yes weird, I know. I remember one speaker standing at the front of the rows, talking about rule keeping. For some reason, I wanted to take a shower but there was nowhere to have one (duh, you are on a plane!). I kept going up and down stairs to find an appropriate place to change and have a shower. All the while this speaker was telling people what is appropriate dress and what wasn’t. I had the feeling I was breaking the rules through out the speech. That’s it.
Aren’t dreams just the craziest things!
“In the last days”, God says, “ I will pour our my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.” Acts 2:17 NLT.
I believe that we are in the last days and that God can and does speak to humans through dreams and visions. I didn’t think much more about it until I was out walking the neighbourhood early in the morning. There were a bunch of planes flying overhead, one after the other, going into land at the airport two suburbs over. It was so unusual, the number of planes, that the dream was bought back to my mind. While walking, I talked to God about it - is there something you want me to see here? You have my attention, what would you like me to know, relearn, experience or enjoy?
A question popped into my mind.
Is my type of Christianity like being on a plane?
Trapped with all the seats facing the front.
Not enough room to move and be.
A confined space. Buckled in.
Heaven, being the destination.
Looking out above creation.
Seeing it but not living in it or enjoying it.
Umm, that’s interesting. When I returned home I looked up scripture on being in a restrictive space….
“From my distress I called upon the Lord, the Lord answered me and put me in an open space.” Ps 118: 5 NASB
“From my being hemmed in I called on Yah; he answered and gave me more room” Ps 118:5 Complete Jewish Bible
Does your Christianity feel like being squashed into a mould or being hemmed in?
That same week I was contemplating the story of Adam and Eve and their relationship with God. What did God invite them into?
“When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden.” Genesis 3:8a NLT
Was this walk, that God took, a daily occurrence and Adam and Eve were invited to participate? It’s possibly was.
Talking a daily walk with God. That is what following him looks like.
It’s a spacious, real relationship.
It’s enjoying what God has made. Creation in all it’s shape and forms.
Trees, flowers, streams, waterfalls, beaches, mountains, animals and people.
It’s conversation - listening and speaking.
So now, if someone asks me, “What is Christian life like?” .
I will reply , “ Taking a walk with God in a spacious place where we chat and he shows me what and who he has made and I enjoy it.”
How about you? What is your life with God like? I would love to hear your responses. Just reply below in the comments or reply to this email to me directly.
Is there an image that comes to mind like my plane analogy?
Do you feel strapped in on your way to heaven - ticking off the boxes till you get there?
The Kingdom of God is to be lived in and enjoyed now, on earth. It’s not some far away destination that we will experience once Jesus returns or when we die. Jesus said numerous times while on earth - the Kingdom of God is here, it’s at hand.
God placed us as humans in creation to enjoy what he has made and learn about him through it. How have you discovered an aspect of God through creation this week?
Let’s start a conversation with each other - use the comment feature below.
Keep leaning into Jesus,
This Week’s Resources
~ Podcast - “A Subsistence Spirituality, with Barbara Brown Taylor” on the Evolving Faith Podcast. This was a very interesting talk and the question that came to my mind was “What is left after everything is moved, changed or gone from my life? God, creation and my spirit, that’s it!
I loved how Barbara said to “leave the pavement and enter the wild places.” Which funnily enough, my physio told me to do the exact same thing the day I listened to this podcast - isn’t God awesome!
Here are some quotes from Barbara that I have been pondering ever since:
“It’s time to find out what faith means out beyond the boundaries of where you were warned not to go.”
“Jesus joined a long parade of people who both lost their lives and found them again, in the wilderness, the wild places. They went in one way and they came out another way. They went in heavy and they came out light.”
“Tired of self censoring, tired of swallowing the questions that matter most, tired of putting more energy into being good than being alive.”
~ The Bible Project videos - boy, these are gold! I am currently watching the series “How to Read the Bible”. Highly recommended. Short 5 minute videos. Here is the first one:
Hey Friends, More thoughts tonight -- Here's a question - Why does God want to bring us into a spacious place? Why do we need the room?....maybe it's space to be curious and ask questions. If we are hemmed in and swallowing one person's view (speaker up the front of the plane) there is no room to be curious and allow God to teach us personally. To stretch us. To allow us to go off the pavement (as Barbara Brown Taylor says - see my resources at the end of the letter). Don't just take in one persons teaching, ask God questions yourself and watch him lead you to answers or just open possibilities.
Thank you for this picture. Your comment I will reply , “ Taking a walk with God in a spacious place where we chat and he shows me what and who he has made and I enjoy it.” hit home with me wondering how good am I at doing this? Am I simply carving out a time of prayer and Bible study or am I allowing God to walk with me through the day. Toes officially stepped on. 😊
The other question, how have you discovered an aspect of God through creation this week? The desk I sit at looks out over my front yard. I noticed a flower that looked to be sitting in the tree. We have lived here going on three years and I never noticed it before. It was just a tree with green leaves in the spring and and brown ones in the fall. So I stepped outside and walked up closer to the tree. There was, in fact, a flower growing in the tree. I did some research and, apparently, my tree is a Tulip Poplar and has beautiful yellow flowers. I praised God for the beauty and thanked Him for showing it to me. How blind I have been for 2 years to have never seen it before. Just as God opened my eyes to His beauty around me, He can open my eyes to what His word has to say to me and not be confined by the traditions and rituals of man.