What is the difference between following our dreams and God’s dreams? Why do so many Christians fear insignificance? And how does that affect our idolatry of dreams? The gang discusses these questions and Phil responds to criticism about his ukulele in this episode of podcast! Don’t miss it!
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I just love the Podcast, the topics you discuss are so interesting and informative. I’m just about to start reading Eric Metaxas’ Bonhoeffer book, to be honest I saw the cover/title of the book time and time again and never gave it a second thought until I heard him on the podcast and now I’m anxious to read it. I frequently get the podcast theme song stuck in my head (keep up the ukelele it’s fun). Thanks so much for making something worthwhile to listen to.
I totally agree with your conversation about dreams. All the Old Testament prophets are examples of people who began with communion with God and out of that flowed God’s dream, not their own “dream.”
Ezekiel especially was someone who had a “dream” in the American sense–he wanted to be a priest and put the first 25 years of his life into that. His dream was taken away from him when his people were exiled.
Five years later, God came to him, and filled him with the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 2:2). At that point, he had communion with God. Only after this communion with God began was he called and sent to complete God’s dream (in the true sense)–to be a prophet. At that point, God did use the training and earlier desire Ezekiel had to be a priest–he understood the layout of the temple because he trained to be a priest. But, it’s not as if Ezekiel was supposed to follow his own dream of priesthood because he had communion with God. Out of his encounter with God, he had a new calling and vision that were not the same as his own original “dream.”
Keep the ukukele!
Good thoughts, Phil, Skye, and Christian. I think you are sometimes a little harsh on dreams, but I get your point. I know my outlook on dreams and my dreams in particular was radically challenged by Phil’s book, Me, Myself, and Bob. It’s stretched me in ways I didn’t expect. Thanks for all your insights.
Since you are now pursuing non-remunerative type employment (e.g., podcasts) and since people in my profession (cross-cultural ministry in a large, restricted-access country in Asia) struggle with putting our service for God before our relationship with God, why not come and share your insights about dreams with a group of us at our annual conference? We promise not to ask any questions about Bob or Larry and we will gladly welcome your ukelele!
Best use of the ukulele since Tiny Tim. And a better dream theology than Elvis ( You gotta follow that dream…”). Mr. Vischer continues to cause me to think and laugh. Keep up it up guys, its good.
Darn you, Phil Vischer! It’s late and I’m tired and I have to be at work early tomorrow and I’ve got your podcast swimming in my head and it’s annoying… All of which I say with the utmost affection for your work, truly! I think the discussions you are having in the podcast are wonderful and important and needed, and I’m so glad you’re doing this.
That being said, last week’s episode struck a chord with me and I feel the need to respond. I’m fairly sure that this post is really more for clarifying things in my own head, so feel free to just ignore it. First, I agree with what was said in the podcast; excellent and valid points were made. And I very much agree with the idea that we try to validate ourselves by the things that we do/accomplish for God instead of just resting in our identity in Christ and in our relationship with him.
However, I still feel like there’s not a clarification of terms and it’s bothering me (not in a bad way, necessarily). I think for me, the sticking point is desire. For me, I would have defined the word “dream” not as an idea with an emotional attachment but as a heartfelt desire that speaks to something at the core of me, of who I was created to be. (I would never assign this definition to the word “dream” as presented in the Bible, but just as part of common vernacular.) I believe in God given desire that speaks to the gifts and talents that he has given us. There are two for me, personally, that have permeated my life for as long as I can remember. These are heartfelt desires that I have been given the grace and the ability to pursue. Amazingly enough, to me anyway, is that the more I have surrendered to God the more he has let me walk in those desires, even without fulfillment.
My concern is that, if we say “Take your dreams, put them away, and just be with God” we run the risk of closing ourselves off to God by ignoring the desires that he’s placed in our hearts. Just as we can take desire and spin it out of the realm that God ever intended for it to be in, I think we can also negatively spin the absence of desire. Perhaps this is just my own experience, but when I really made the choice to surrender everything in my life to God and to learn to count him as all I really needed, I, errantly, put my desires on a shelf. I had this terrible notion that if I wanted it for myself, that if it was something that I desired, or “dreamed of”, that it couldn’t possibly be from God – it was just a white rabbit taking me to Wonderland. Looking back, I feel I dishonored God in that. He did give me certain gifts and abilities and a desire to pursue those things, to pursue fulfillment of those things. He’s also given me the wisdom to understand that even if those desires were fulfilled that it still wouldn’t be the ultimate fulfillment that I find only in him.
I will concede that I did have to come to a point where I said, “God, here’s what I desire more than anything, but if I can’t have it, that’s okay. You are my shepherd; I have everything that I need.” And I can honestly say that if I lost everything or never saw fulfillment of my heart’s desires that I would be okay. But I also stand firm in the belief that God affirms my desires, has purified them, and is fulfilling them (although it looks absolutely nothing like what I though it would… go figure). There’s this line in the movie Chariots of Fire, I don’t think this is verbatim, but it says something like “Yes, God has made me for a purpose for China, but he has also made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure.” Doing the things that I was made to do, whether you call is a dream or a desire or none of the above, I feel God’s pleasure. I feel his delight in me and it is the biggest blessing I could ever hope to receive.
In the end I think I’ve probably landed at the same airport as you (although, maybe at a different terminal) that God is first and foremost and only. And, wow – what a life come’s out of that!
God’s peace be upon you and your team as we move into this new day.
Deona
P.S. If you get rid of the ukelele I will cry. It will be an ugly, sobbing cry. Please don’t make me do the ugly cry.
Hi Phil, as a last ditch effort to get you to give Brave another look, here’s one of the best essays I’ve seen on it:
Just Another Princess Movie
Also, keep up the ukulele! Don’t listen to those haters!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! If only I had heard this when I was 17 going off to “follow my dreams” at engineering school.
Well said, Deona. Very well said.
Ukelele means flea jumping. Heard that from a good CBS Sunday morning story about the Portuguese instrument if I remember correctly. Taken to the far isles like Hawaii. I guess some people don’t like it because it ‘itches their body’ instead of their ears. Dream big. God didn’t make you with an empty soul once His Spirit indwells. What is his dream for us? Does a dream need to be individualistic or collective? Seek God and he will give you more than you could even dream about. He serves you a ‘dream’ and then adds to it more than expected. Your dream can be picked up and fulfilled by others if not completed before your death while trying to finish it. Yet it can still be credited to your account. The wind/Spirit comes and goes and you do not know whence it is going. This podcast is trying to analyze the air in a party balloon but God has hot air balloons. Start small blowing up a balloon but let him take you on a ride while the party balloons are in your basket in the sky. Dreams within dreams. Dreeeeeeaaaaammm. Dream, Dream, Dream. All you have to do is dream. That song is stuck in my head now. Without vision/dreams/hopes people perish. It is like the soul of God manifesting in man. Why does one spend all their life looking at an organism or studying space or writing books? It is God leaking out into humanity! God taking pleasure in his own Creation. I’m starting to slide into the meta physical now but just some imagery and questions that came to my mind. Loved the topic. Glad to engage it today.