{"id":196,"date":"2009-05-28T22:19:28","date_gmt":"2009-05-29T03:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/?p=196"},"modified":"2009-05-28T22:19:28","modified_gmt":"2009-05-29T03:19:28","slug":"ive-been","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2009\/20090528-196.htm","title":{"rendered":"I&#8217;ve been&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sorry I haven&#8217;t written lately.  I&#8217;ve been too busy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Busy doing what?&#8221; you might ask.<\/p>\n<p>Too which I can only respond: &#8220;Dreaming.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It had been ages since I knelt in worship&#8211;even longer since the kneeling turned to sitting.  I used to kneel in worship all of the time.  And when my knees started to go numb, I&#8217;d transition to sitting on the floor, basking in the presence of God.  Many of my most intimate conversations with God have occurred on the floor of our church during a worship service.  But it had been a long time since I&#8217;d been on the floor&#8211;and a long time since I&#8217;d last had that kind of conversation.<\/p>\n<p>When I knelt in worship this Sunday, I wasn&#8217;t expecting anything spectacular&#8211;I just wanted to worship God.  And when my knees grew tired of being sat upon, I shifted onto my bottom.  I wasn&#8217;t expecting God to drop in&#8211;but He did.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When did you become so pragmatic?&#8221; He asked.  &#8220;When did you stop dreaming?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>You see, I used to be a dreamer.  I dreamt of making a difference in the world.  I dreamt of seeing great things, of doing great things.  I dreamt of seeing blind eyes receive sight.  I dreamt of dancing in the arms of a lover.  I dreamt of owning a house that I&#8217;d minister out of.  I dreamt of marriage and children.  I dreamt of traveling the world.  I dreamt of so much.  My <a href=\"goals\/index.htm\" target=\"bekahcubed\">goals<\/a> are nothing compared to my dreams.<\/p>\n<p>But somewhere along the way, I stopped dreaming.  Things hadn&#8217;t turned out the way I intended.  I turned 21, not only unmarried but with no prospects in sight.  I was 24 and still in school.  I prayed for revival, but I didn&#8217;t see it happen. I stopped dreaming. I stopped believing that dreams could come true.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not that I didn&#8217;t miss dreaming.  On the contrary, I sorrowed over my lack of faith, my absence of dreams.  I even wrote a little song about it:<\/p>\n<p><i>Once upon a time I thought big thoughts<br \/>\n\tI hadn&#8217;t yet learned they were impossible<br \/>\n\tOnce upon a time I dreamed big dreams<br \/>\n\tBefore I learned to not believe<\/p>\n<p>\tTeach me again the faith of a child<br \/>\n\tTeach me again to see<br \/>\n\tTeach me again, God oh so big<br \/>\n\tTeach me again to believe<\/p>\n<p>\tRemember the child<br \/>\n\tdreaming to sweat drops of blood?<br \/>\n\tRemember the child<br \/>\n\tCrying for revival to come?<br \/>\n\tBring back that heart,<br \/>\n\tthat longing,<br \/>\n\tthat hunger<br \/>\n\tTeach me again to believe<\/i><\/p>\n<p>I heard Michael W. Smith&#8217;s &#8220;Missing Person&#8221; with new ears.  I&#8217;d heard the song, sung the lyrics a thousand times without ever giving thought to what it was saying:<\/p>\n<p>\t<i>There was a child who had the faith to move a mountain<br \/>\n\tAnd like a child he would believe without a reason<br \/>\n\tWithout a trace he disappeared into the void and<br \/>\n\tI&#8217;ve been searching for that missing person<\/p>\n<p>\tHe used to want to try to walk the straight and narrow<br \/>\n\tHe had a fire and he could feel it in the marrow<br \/>\n\tIt&#8217;s been a long time and I haven&#8217;t seen him lately but<br \/>\n\tI&#8217;ve been searching for that missing person<\/i><\/p>\n<p>It brought tears to my eyes&#8211;I wasn&#8217;t the only one who felt that way.  But for all my searching, I wasn&#8217;t getting anywhere closer to finding the missing dreamer inside of me.<\/p>\n<p>At least, not until God asked me His question: &#8220;When did you become so pragmatic? When did you stop dreaming?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t really have an answer&#8211;or if I did, it was a pretty defensive one. &#8220;Well, Lord, what do you want me to do?&#8221; I asked in frustration.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Listen to the dream.&#8221; He answered back. &#8220;Let it well up in your heart once again.  And let Me make the dreams reality.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I struggled with God a bit: &#8220;So how do I know that dreaming won&#8217;t just lead to disillusionment?  I&#8217;ve dreamt before&#8211;and where has it gotten me?  Have any of those dreams come true?  How do I know that dreaming isn&#8217;t just a waste of time&#8211;something to keep me occupied so I don&#8217;t notice when life passes me by?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And God responded: &#8220;<b>My<\/b> kind of dreams aren&#8217;t a waste of time.  <b>My<\/b> kind of dreams don&#8217;t keep you from enjoying life. The knack, Rebekah, is to dream <b>My<\/b> kind of dreams.  The knack is to discover where your dreams and Mine intersect&#8211;and to jump on them for the ride of your life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And then He began to awaken the dreams.  But this time, they&#8217;re not the fantasy castles of a little girl.  This time they&#8217;re the dreams that involve blueprint writing, financial affair setting in-order, deep soul-searching.  So I&#8217;ve been busy dreaming&#8211;finding the missing person I thought I&#8217;d never see again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sorry I haven&#8217;t written lately. I&#8217;ve been too busy. &#8220;Busy doing what?&#8221; you might ask. Too which I can only respond: &#8220;Dreaming.&#8221; It had been ages since I knelt in worship&#8211;even longer since the kneeling turned to sitting. I used to kneel in worship all of the time. And when my knees started to go &#8230; <a title=\"I&#8217;ve been&#8230;\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2009\/20090528-196.htm\">Read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">I&#8217;ve been&#8230;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[5,21],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}