I read this piece on Len Hjalmarson’s website called http://www.nextreformation.com. It really spoke to me regarding the recent leg of my life journey. He writes:

“Wednesday night I sat with Nick and Andre to chat about our journeys and our dreams. It struck me as we chatted together that this town has been a place of birth and death for many dreams and many dreamers…

“We concluded that the Lord uses our dreams to wound us. Many dreams have to die, because at some point we become the center of our own dreams. How strange that it is our dreams that lead us to brokenness.

“And that process in turn moves us beyond ourselves; our pain leads us first to run from community, and finally to embrace it, if we don’t remain stuck in bitterness or cynicism.

“The rebuilding process is hard, however. Almost as hard as death, rebirth comes slowly and the transition is long and painful. We dare not hope again, dare not dream again, for fear of another and greater death. Yet if we cease dreaming, we cease to live. ‘A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, else what’s a heaven for?’ We sense this at a deep level, and so remain caught between the need to dream again, and the fear of further pain.”

These words remind me of Jesus, who’s dream of a new people of God ultimately led to his death. These words remind me of our community of faith, as we dream of becoming like Jesus, we too must die to ourselves. Yet, what is life without the dream. And what is the dream without the pain. It’s all part of a necessary process of stepping out of ourselves and into something grander and greater than us.

I’m so glad I get to dream with others.