Crazy Dreams

It’s 1:30 in the morning, and God wants me to write.  Why?  Because our loving God is relentless in His pursuit of all our parts.  I woke up from my dream with these words blasting in my heart:  Words Matter.

My “aha moment” in my dream was when the Holy Spirit revealed to me the “Why” of Talking Matters.  Why did God use me to create 30 decks of conversation-starter cards about all of the parts of our lives that matter?  Because God wants to get all of our parts freed up to communicate through in order to bring Him glory.  Oftentimes, we’re like Jesus going passive at the wedding at Cana.  Great wine is missing and needed, and we’re afraid to show up to say and do our part so that God can get the glory.  We’re looking for mom to coax us out of hiding, to get us to use our voice, and to display God’s power in the very context where we’re living.

If most of the battles and crucial conversations are won or lost in our head and in our homes and if we can’t talk honestly about what’s going on, then we just spiral in “head-world” thinking that we can figure it out on our own.  Then Satan has a heyday with circular, negative thinking, and we go mute forfeiting our God-given voice while Satan rejoices. 

The Holy Spirit inspired me to develop Talking Matters because He wants to get all of our parts freed up so that each one can be a living vessel that He speaks through.  God wants to speak to us through our passions.  He wants to draw us closer to Him and to one another through music, art, sports, food, and movies.  Last night I watched my favorite movie, and Horton the elephant was Jesus.  He said “NO” to everything being jammed through his naturalistic culture.  He risked his life to save the “Whos” of Who-ville.  Then he loved his enemies by publicly affirming them after they tried to kill him and blessed his persecutor with a cookie.  He laid down his life for those he loved.  He was 100% faithful—just like Jesus.

Jesus cares about our personal development.  He wants to transform our way of thinking and how we deal with our emotions.  He wants us to become sensitive to His Spirit working in, above, and through us.  He knows that our actions speak louder than our words, but both can get in the way until they’re refined.  The Lord cares about everything that we’re learning, but He mostly wants to teach us His ways, not our ways or the world’s ways.  He wants us to learn to see and value people the way He does and to use powerful words, gently and boldly spoken, to build people up and to declare His truth.

The home and family should be the place where all of our parts get nurtured and developed and refined.  Then our kids and teens can become fresh expressions of Jesus in the world.  Our discipleship parenting and marital relationships should reflect Jesus’ words and ways.  The seniors in our lives should receive great honor as they pass on their faith to the next generations, instead of being set aside for more popular people or pastimes.  Our families can become our primary tool for passing on our faith, if we can talk about why God gave each of us our parts to bring Him honor and glory.

Unfortunately, I believe that we’ve been investing in what the world wants us to buy and to become.  We work more and do more and buy more and get fit bits and have less and less time for people, for staying home to invest in our marriages and our children, and for discipleship.  When things go wrong, we go into hiding, and we don’t talk about it with people around us.  Then we get confused about who we are.  We get stuck in our grief and arrest our development. We start entertaining lies of the enemies and say “yes” to the wrong things and say “no” to the right things.  We can talk about our recovery—while living in bondage to the schemes and traps of Satan and this world. 

“Instead, we will speak the truth in love (NIV) and hold to the truth in love (NLT) becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of His body, the church.  Under His direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly.  As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love” (Ephesians 4:15,16). 

“With the Lord’s authority let me say this:  Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused.  Their closed minds are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against him.  They don’t care anymore about right and wrong, and they have given themselves over to immoral ways.  Their lives are filled with all kinds of impurity and greed” (Ephesians 4:17-19).

When we submit and surrender our hearts, homes, and parts to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, everything changes.  The old is gone, and God makes everything new.  When we can learn to engage with our families in honest conversations about what we’re thinking, feeling, believing, saying, desiring, struggling with, and doing, we’ll have so many incredible perspectives to challenge and to encourage us instead of just living head-world.  When we learn to open God’s Word together to find and to follow Jesus’ words and ways, truth will be learned and lived out for all to hear and to see. 

I should never be surprised or discouraged that most people and families don’t want to invest in a process of becoming free.  Surrender and healing and transformation costs us our comfort zones and everything else.  But don’t follow my ideas or examples.  “Follow God’s example in everything you do because you are His dear children.  Live a life filled with love for others, following the example of Christ, who loved you and gave Himself as a sacrifice to take away your sins.  And God was pleased, because that sacrifice was like a sweet perfume to Him” (Ephesians 5:1,2).

Since God gave us all of our parts and He’s ready to purify and fill them with His Spirit to become free to share Jesus’ Good News, why do something else?  Responding to the relentless, loving pursuit of Jesus will wreck your lifestyle and change every part of you.  Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.  You won’t be able to contain it. 

I just purchased ten copies of Everybody Always, by Bob Goff.  Seven copies are still available and free to the first seven people who ask me for a copy.  Talking Matters is always available when you’re ready for more growth-producing conversations with those you love.  Just email me at [email protected].  I gotta get some sleep!