DREAMER'S CHALLENGE: Day 2

    It is so true what people say about beauty rising out of the ashes of pain. Last night, after my rocky beginnings with Day 1 of the Dreamer's Challenge, I crawled into the back of my dad's truck, threw my head back, and soaked in the awesome sight of God's stars...and the occasional plane taking off from a nearby airport. Somehow, the combination of these sights prompted me to think of the song Keith Green wrote about God's beauty, "Oh Lord, You're Beautiful."

    I had a good conversation with God, and read Psalm 37 by the light of the stars, street lights, and passing cars' headlights. This psalm is especially meaningful and beautiful, I discovered, when read aloud. I have tried to read this particular psalm before without really "getting it," but last night was different. It was as if I had never read it before. I especially love verses 3-4 and 34-40, but the whole piece is both delicious and rejuvenating.

    The Psalm begins by declaring, "Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart," and ends on a similar note, " But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their strength in the time of trouble. And the LORD shall help them and deliver them; He shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in Him."

    We are not only blessed, but SAVED by God for trusting in Him!  Trust must be pretty important to God, huh?  What separated many of the heroes of the Bible from the people that lived around them in their time was not their own holiness--some of them were drunks, liars, hypocrites, and cowards--but instead was the trust that they had in God.  Sure, they had their doubts at times--many times, in fact--but for some of the time, they trusted God, and it was during those times that God moved them the most.

    I guess the theme of the day must be Keith Green, because I've got another song for you called "He'll Take Care of the Rest" that relates beautifully to this topic:

    After spending some time with God, I slipped back into my house and plopped onto a couch next to two of my younger brothers, twins.  They were watching the movie Eight Below with my dad.  Not wanting to watch TV or leave their company, I ultimately chose to sit at a nearby table and draw illustrations for a possible future installment story idea of mine (HINT HINT).  I prayed a short prayer before crawling into bed, and slept soundly.

    I only remember having one dream, and the details I remember are vague: something exciting was going on, possibly a wedding, and I wrote "I love something" on my arm.  I still don't remember what that "something" was, but the dream was bright, clean, refreshing--not nightmarish.  I feel that God has blessed me for going to Him first.  Psalm 4, the verse that was so ironic to my sleep experience two nights ago, now echoes the peace I experienced last night.

    God's mercies really ARE new each day; praise the LORD!

DREAMER'S CHALLENGE: Day 1

    Yesterday was the first official day of my dream challenge, but it was not until this morning that I received some results from my experiment: two strange dreams, some regret, and a wake-up call.  Allow me to explain.

    While I technically did not watch TV last night (I was working on my laptop), I was in the family/TV room with my younger brothers where I could hear the TV...and without even realizing I was doing it, I followed part of the show with my ears...it was a reality show about a very troubled family that included ten kids void of compassion, and two exceptionally dysfunctional parents.  

    By the time I dragged myself to bed last night, it was very late, and I only managed to read one small section of scripture and release a short prayer before I turned off my bed light and tried to fall asleep.  I tossed and turned for an hour; I was exhausted, and knew I  had to wake up early the next morning, but could not fall asleep due to a dull, sharp pain that totally engulfed my left leg.  I think it was growing pains, but at the time it felt like a punishment.  All I could think was, this is going to sound really weird on my blog tomorrow...and it probably does.

    After dreaming one very strange, disturbing dream that I cannot recall the details of, and one (black and white) dimly lit dream about a group of hilarious dogs that leaped and walked on two legs in circles around me, I finally woke up to the glaring sound of my alarm clock.  Out of bed I fell, crawled, staggered over to my alarm clock to turn the thing off.   Ugh.   
    I read some of Matthew 7, but Exhaustion pressed against me, warm and sweaty in form, making it difficult for me to concentrate on the words.  Although my head was swimming, I felt distinctly drawn to return to Psalm 4: the passage I had meditated on last night.  I was surprised by the ironic shadow the selection of scriptures threw before my painful, seemingly unsuccessful night of sleep (and sleeplessness).  Here are the words of Psalm 4:3-8:

 ​​​Realize that the LORD shows the godly special favor;
the LORD responds when I cry out to him.
​​​​​​​Tremble with fear and do not sin!
Meditate as you lie in bed, and repent of your ways!  Offer the prescribed sacrifices
and trust in the LORD!
​​​​​​​Many say, “Who can show us anything good?”
Smile upon us, LORD!
You make me happier
than those who have abundant grain and wine.
​​​​​​​I will lie down and sleep peacefully,
for you, LORD, make me safe and secure.

    When I honestly assess my actions last night, I see that I probably should have spent my time more judiciously, so that I would not have had to have pushed prayer so late into the night.  Godly people pray first--they do not wait until the very last minute to do the most vital task of the day.  I think last night was God's wake-up call to me to actually SERVE HIM, as I said I would do in my previous blog post, "Love is a Verb."  Writing with God for an audience is an honor and privilege, and I realize more than ever, is a privilege that requires me to be more responsible and diligent to live up to my ideals and assertions.  Harold Nicolson was right when he said:


 We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others, by their acts.


    This has been a wonderful reminder from God to me that my actions need to line up more accurately with my words--and I am totally up for the challenge!  I can't wait to see what else God chooses to illuminate within my human, frequently wayward heart...or am I mistaking excitement for fear?  Am I finally living up to Psalm 4, "trembling with fear" and choosing not to sin?  I guess we'll see!  Thanks for reading everybody; you guys provide me really great accountability.  I Hope that all of your weeks prove to be equally enlightening!