Trusting My Dream as a Guide
“See what I’ve done; I’ve personally chosen Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur of the tribe of Judah. I’ve filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him skill and know-how and expertise in every kind of craft to create designs and work in gold, silver, and bronze; to cut and set gemstones; to carve wood—he’s an all-around craftsman.
“Not only that, but I’ve given him Oholiab, son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan, to work with him. And to all who have an aptitude for crafts I’ve given the skills to make all the things I’ve commanded you.” — from Exodus 31
Come spring, here’s what I hope to see become reality. An agent picks up the manuscript of You Will Not Be Forgotten. I have enough students and writing/editing clients that I pay my household bills easily. We put up goat fencing and have four little goats wandering around in the pastures here. 
I don’t know how to get there. I mean, I know how to query agents and market my classes and services. As for the goats, I’m reading up. But HOW to make these things happen, I have no idea. But that’s okay – because making dreams happen isn’t really my job.
My job is to take one day at a time and do what I can do with that day. The rest, well, the rest is in bigger hands.
See, dreams flow from our truest selves. They trickle or spew or burst forth from those internal places we visit when we are tired or weary or just need to restore a little hope. This dream of God’s Whispered has nourished me for over 15 years. So living the dream, it’s almost a bonus.
When we are given a dream, we are not asked to make it happen. We’re just asked to keep it alive, to not give up, to not kill it. Just as none of us can make a child grow up, we can’t make our dreams go full-grown either. Instead, we can only nurture and instruct, learn and trust that if we do the best we can, it will grow up well.
Just like these two dudes in the wilderness – Bezalel and Oholiab, we have everything we need to live into the dreams and work set before us. But sometimes, we have to wait to see how that work will come about. I expect these two artists did not sit around dreaming about carving lampstands from gold or weaving tapestries of scarlet and indigo. I imagine they thought they’d make pots or baskets or mosaics or whatever art ancient Isrealites made.
But when God handed Moses that vision of the Tent of Meeting, when God told him that these two guys were the men to do the job, it was their dream come true, even if they didn’t know it at the time. I picture them with Moses hearing the instructions and feeling that stirring in their chests, their minds beginning to shape the cherubim wings, their fingers aching to dig into the wool on the best sheep for the thread. I imagine that this was the work they had been made and trained for, even if they didn’t realize it.
I think most of us are like this. We have dreams. We ALL have dreams. But most of us give up on them or kill them deliberately because they are scary or not practical or because someone has said we CAN’T. Or we think we have to MAKE THEM HAPPEN and get discouraged when we can’t.
I wonder what would happen if we faced our fears and put aside the practical just a bit. If we silenced the voices that say we can’t. If we stopped striving and just did what is before us to do each day, trusting that these days will build into even more than we can dream.
Today, I have no idea how this book on enslaved people will get to print, but I trust it will because I can dream of the hope and healing it might bring. I have absolutely no clue how I will find enough clients to pay my bills. And goats – I don’t even know where to start with fencing much less buying animals or finding the money to buy animals. But I am trusting because I have been given dreams. And if life has taught me anything – in the midst of grief and heartache – it’s that dreams do come true.
What do you dream when you are at your truest and wildest?