Pint Size Dreams Or Ocean Size Dreams

Over the course of this year, God has definitely been working on my understanding of faith.  Back in the spring, I posted about taking a leap of faith.  That message is still working on me.  This weekend, we had the honor and pleasure of hosting Dave Sgro and his son, Luke, at our house on Saturday night and to our church on Sunday morning.  Dave and his family are missionaries in the town of Xenacoj in Guatemala.  Our team worked with his organization (Guatemala Outreach (Go!) Ministries) while we were in Guatemala this summer.

Dave and Luke arrived at our house late around 10PM on Saturday night.  I’m sure he was tired from driving and we were tired from a busy day, but we stayed up for a couple of hours to hear more about Dave’s ministry.  It’s exciting to hear how God is providing ideas and resources for things that are having a huge impact on the town of Xenacoj.  Dave also shared his families’ story about their decision to sell everything they owned in North Carolina including their home and business and to move their entire family to Guatemala two years ago.

As we talked, Dave talked about our expectations for God.  He says that we often limit God through our expectations and dreams.  We expect God to fill our pint size hopes and dreams when God is actually capable of filling ocean size hopes and dreams.  It was a reminder that we need to dream big.  I wrote about this earlier when I talked about building a house in Guatemala.  This gave me a taste of this.  I could have just sought out enough money to go on the trip, but I decided to see if we could build a house through The Stretched Community.  I wonder even in that thought if I my expectations were too limited.

What would happen if we really dreamed bigger – if we realized that God is able to do far more than we could ever imagine?

Here are some of the ideas that come to mind for me:

  • A family missions trip this summer to Xenacoj with other families.  No, a lifetime of Kingdom Journeys that change families both here in America and around the world.
  • Another house built by and through the Stretched Community.  No, a real Stretched Community built by and through The Stretched Blog and The Stretched Community.
  • A book.  No, ten books!

It’s my prayer that you and I would wake up to the vast love and power of a God who is able to do far more that we could imagine.  Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 makes more sense to me now than ever:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

(Ephesians 3:14-21)

Seriously, how are you putting limits on your dreams?  How can you enlarge your dreams?  What is one area where you need to grasp how wide and long and high and deep God’s love is for you?  What’s your dream – is it pint-sized or ocean-sized?