"I have spread my dreams under your feet; tread softly because you tread on my dreams." –W.B. Yeats
I recently discovered this quote and the short poem it’s found in. It captivated me because I understood immediately what the poet was trying to communicate…that his greatest wealth and treasure lies in his dreams. He is saying that there is a vulnerability when we share our hopes and dreams with others. To share your dreams with others is a courageous thing and so he says tread softly...walk softly upon them when I lay them out before you. Please speak life and not death over my dreams! Believe in my dreams with me. Believe IN me. Believe WITH me.
How often do we secretly shoot down and scoff at other people's dreams? They tell us what is in their heart and what God is speaking to them and we smile and say “awesome!” but deep down we think “get a plan B honey.” I know this because I have done this and I have also disregarded my own dreams in the same way. How often do you tell yourself, “no, that's not really possible. Not in real life.” Recently, as I have shared with people my dreams of returning to Thailand and the things I want to do while I am there, I realize how deeply it affects me when someone encourages those dreams and gets excited with me and for me. I also feel the cloud of depression and utter hopelessness when I feel that maybe I’m alone in believing in these big dreams. I understand completely why young people give up so quickly on their God-given dreams and settle for something more “realistic.” During these transition times coming off the mission field, there are many times I have felt completely alone and hopeless…and when there is no longer hope there is no longer any dreaming…and when there is no longer any dreaming, there is only death.
But the good thing about when death creeps in and painfully smothers
your dreams is that there is then the opportunity for Jesus to step in and do what He
does best…raise dead things to life! I have many dreams. I want to write books,
preach, teach, sing, learn guitar (I just began!), and study abroad. I want to
continue on to grad school for maybe a Masters of Divinity (why not?). I want
to write a book about orphan justice and child slavery in Thailand and
Southeast Asia. I want to start a ministry that could help every orphanage in
the world that is falling apart and unable to take good physical and spiritual
care of their children. I want to plant a church in Mexico one day. And these
are just a few!
So what have I learned over these last couple months? There is
power and there is life in believing in one another. Let’s believe in the
dreams of others! Let us come together and encourage each other to never give
up. Let’s truly be “little Christs” and breathe life into each other’s dry
bones and dead dreams! I am excited to return to Thailand with your support to
be a part of raising up “the rescued” who will in turn rescue others! The once
trafficked, enslaved, abandoned children of Thailand and Myanmar and the future children to be rescued need to know they are chosen to spread the Gospel to
the most unreached parts of the world from whence they came. They are to rescue
the children who were once doomed to the same fate. I want to breathe life into their dreams in the same way I know others will come alongside me and breathe life into my own. Join me in bringing these dreams to life!
This is what the Sovereign
LORD says to these dry bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come
to life.-Ezekiel 37:5 Check out the organization I will be working with: lifeimpactintl.org
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