Everybody Dreams

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Everybody Dreams Ahhhhh.....boy it feels good to have freedom. To just let the fingers fly across the keys with nothing to hold them back. If I flatter myself to think that there may be some of you out there who are faithful readers of this blog, you will need explanation as to why there have been no entries for some time now. Suffice to say my writing has been (and still is) very limited to academic subjects (mostly boring ones) and I have thus slacked off in the blog writing business. If there was a person who could describe people's feelings just the way they felt them that person would be a great writer. If there was a person who could so clearly communicate the truth as to be understood by all of his hearers that person would be a great communicator. Most people can communicate about surface things. Things people feel that are 8-10 layers away from their true insides. It seems the closer you get to the inside layers, the harder it is to attach words to what you find there. The question is, is this internal language universal? Do all people understand what it's like to yearn for things inside? Some people dream about having a lot of money. Money, however, is a foolish thing to place one's hope in. The lesson about money can be very easily learned. Imagine that you have just won $500 in a radio contest. I would certainly not be opposed to someone giving me $500. Then imagine the things you might do with $500. I would probably pay a few bills and put some money in savings, maybe buy a couple books and a new shirt or two. That's it. Couple of bills, couple of shirts, gone. I have more than a couple of books and more than a couple of shirts but I do not find ultimate happiness in them. I doubt that anything contained in a new book or a new shirt has revolutionarily become satisfying. Now increase the sum of money and sum of things gained by the money. Make it as much as you want, all the money and all the stuff will still feel the same way: empty. Some people dream to be great, to make a name fore themselves and have people cheer for them. How many people does it take to convince a person that they are great? Some people have a billion fans and still don't believe they are any good. Some people have only 1 fan (themself) and think they are the greatest. Or at least they act like they think that. I will not pretend that I know the thoughts of every person. But if every heart is human like mine is, something inside that heart is never satisfied by praise or fame. I think mostly because we know its not true, we aren't great. If we don't know it to be untrue but try to, we feel it and can't escape it. What is this dreaming? This agonizing, stretching, striving, feeling? The weight of heart and soul grind together like two millstones, striving to produce something that will be useful and worth something. We must find an end, we must find a cause, a source from which to derive and a goal towards which we strive. The unimaginable holiness of God and the essential imperative of the gospel; bringing glory to this Other-Holy Being, by whom, from whom, and through whom all things exist and were made; this giving of self despite all of self's screaming and wailing to take and hold back; the blazing desire to wake self and other from numb slumber and dullness of life into the full and radiant glory of God. This is the lot of the creation of God. This side of heaven, mankind will groan and long and strive and strain. Something, anything that might satisfy the longing within the heart. Man without God will seek the answer in anything but God. He will be gravely disappointed. Man with God, because of Christ, will continue to long and strive for that which fills the void within. The difference is that the redeemed soul knows that it has found the answer, the thing that can bring it to rest. "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. " (Romans 8:19-25) We have only begun to taste and see. We see through the glass darkly; oneday we will see face to face. "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." (1 Corinthians 13:12). That is a dream that is worth holding on to; It must be held on to. Do not settle for a dream that will leave your heart empty. If you do not have Christ, come to Him; nothing else in all the world will fill your heart like Him. If you have Christ, keep you eyes on HIM and dream. "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." Colossians 3:1-4