how easily we forget...

i lose focus so easily..
i dream dreams and lose them so easily..
i have passion and i lose it so easily..

i used to be passionate about social justice issues.  i used to believe i could affect change.  i used to, as my ironically-favorite quote says: "dream great dreams and find the courage to live them."  and somehow that has been lost.

i see the utter depravity of this world and its systems and see that my little bit of input is not going to do much.  so instead of looking to the God who i know is more powerful than all of that, i look to myself and what i am capable of doing.  which ends up being small dreams, not bad dreams, just small ones.

in church yesterday, pastor peter talked about the quote "God will never give us more than we can handle."
um.... whoever said that was wrong.  very very wrong.  why? you ask..  well, just look at david, the shepherd: "hey you, yeah you little guy, go kill a giant and become king."  moses, the stutterer: "go deliver my people, okay?  you can do it!"  mary, the 15-year-old virgin: "go get pregnant by the Holy Spirit.  the fate of the world is on your shoulders."

did God really say any of those things?  no way!  God said "you can't.  but I can."

why do we set our goals, our dreams, so low when God is capable of so much more?  no, of course we can't do great things, but GOD CAN!  how easily we forget the power of the God who redeemed us.


i used to dream of opening a shelter for teenage girls.  runaways, victims of abuse, teenage mothers...  anyone who was hurting, needed a place to stay, and just needed love.
and then "reality" hit and i saw all of the legal issues involved.  i saw how devastating that kind of work is.
i chose to forget how powerful God is in all of this.  i chose to forget that it's not about what i am capable of.  it's not about what i'm emotionally able to handle.  this is a dream that may or may not be realized, but it's one that i need to give to the Lord.

to be completely honest, i'm terrified of its potential realization, because of the heavy responsibility that comes with it.  and yet i can't lose it - five years later and i just cannot forget about this little freshman-in-college-dreaming-big dream.

what are your dreams?  big dreams, that seem impossible so you push them back and choose not to think about them...  just imagine what GOD can do with that dream and a person who has the courage to give it up to the One who has the power to make it happen.