The God Of All Comfort

Remember the movie Field of Dreams?

Iowa farmer Ray (Kevin Costner) hears a mysterious voice one night in his cornfield saying, “If you build it, he will come.”  He has no idea what that means, until he starts seeing a baseball field in his head.  So eventually he ends up building a baseball diamond on his property.

Of course everyone thinks he’s a total nut-case, until the day when ghosts of great past baseball players start to show up on his land, and his baseball field becomes a legend.

Yes, this is a fantasy movie.

But have you ever had a dream that just didn’t seem to go away?  Could it be that perhaps God is trying to speak to you through your dreams?

Joseph in the Bible had a couple of dreams (Genesis 37:5-11) that seemed very significant to him.  Yet they did not come to fruition until many years later – after he experienced major heartache and pain (Genesis 37-41).  But in the end his dreams came true in a way I’m sure he didn’t anticipate:  He became second in charge to Pharaoh himself (Genesis 41:39-40)!

Many years ago I read the book “Wild at Heart” by John Eldredge.  His book is about how he left his job and pursued his dream.  And God blessed him mightily.

At the end of his book, he asks the readers a question:  “If you had permission to do what you really wanted to do what would you do?  Don’t ask how…”

He also tells his readers:  “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs.  Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

I remember at the time going, Ummmm… no clue… no dream…

But Eldredge continued by saying:  “Sometimes those dreams are buried deep and it takes some unearthing to get to them…  Often the clues are in our past, in those moments when we found ourselves loving what we were doing.”

I wrote in my journal at that time all the things which were racing through my mind:  reading, sitting and soaking in God’s beauty, taking walks in the countryside, the ocean.  But I can’t just do those things all the time (much as I’d like to)!

Then I wrote down being an actress, speaker and writing a book – all of which I have now done – to some degree or the other.  But were they just to fill my ego?  I have, after all, always wanted to be important – a somebody.

It was then that I was reminded I am a somebody – I’m a child of the King, and I’m very important to Him.

It took me many years to come to grips that God yearns to give us the desires of our hearts – our dreams more or less – but there’s a condition.  Look at Psalm 37:4 (NIV – emphasis mine):

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

You know I still sometimes am amazed that I actually did write a book!  Yet I needed to totally lean on the Lord for direction, as I had no clue what I was doing.  He directed me to a publishing company who helped me get it all together, and showed me what I needed to do.  And now I’m writing another one!

Writing is truly fun for me.  To sit down and have words tumble out are a great joy – especially when I hear people say the words I’ve written have really helped them through a struggle.  And that truly is my desire.  To encourage those who are hurting and point them to Jesus – the Healer of our souls.

So what is your dream?  And what do you feel God is telling you to do with it?  If you feel like He’s giving you a green-light, go for it!  He’ll be with you all the way.