Fish and Loaves

We call it being real, the way we downplay the dreams that God has buried in our hearts. As they begin to unfurl, like a bulb deep underground, starting it's trek toward the sun, we bury them. We tell ourselves that it makes no sense...there's no way I could ever__________, fill in your own blank....sing in front of anyone, adopt, stop drinking, share our story, write for real, speak in public. What do you do when you feel God leading you in a direction that shakes you to the core, rattles the deepest parts of you?

You know what you do?

You offer it back to Him.

Lay it at His feet, be willing to follow where He leads, and allow Him to use your dream as He wishes.

I was reminded of the fish and loaves this weekend during a prayer at the Women of Faith conference. Honestly, that is all I remember from the prayer because I was fixated on fish and loaves.

Crowds, at least 5000, needed to be fed. One little boy had one little lunch that someone packed for him. A few fish and some loaves of bread.

A few fish and some loaves of bread that fed the bodies of thousands, and the souls of countless millions who have heard the story of the miracle God brought from one child's offering.

I wonder sometimes why anyone would want to read what I write or hear what I have to say, then I remember the fish and loaves. I will offer God my crumbs...my dreams...my wounds...my fears...and allow Him to do as He wishes. This morning, as I taught in Mom Time, I alternated between being super excited and really wanting to hurl, but knowing at the same time that I was stepping into the dream that God has given me. Wherever He leads, I will follow, barf bag close by I'm sure.

As we head into the next series at church, and get on the path of becoming all that God has for us to become, I am excited as I think of all the dreams out there, waiting to break through the hard soil of realism, the healing that God wants to do in our generation, in our communities, that will only come when we stop telling ourselves why it isn't possible. I am excited to think of the people who never even knew they had a dream...were worthy of having one in the first place...start to imagine where God might be waiting to use them. Give God your little basket of hopes, and watch what He will do with it.

“Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we could ask or imagine.”
Ephesians 3:20