"Just Living The Dream..."

This is the response I give when people ask me, "How's it going?"

And it is the honest to God truth.  I really am living the dream.  But not the one I had for myself, rather, the one God has placed in my heart.  From where I've grown up, the culture I was surrounded with, I understand why many of my friends would not be able to truly grasp why I do what I do, raising support opposed to finding a job that "pays well".

But that's just it.  It's not about the money.  I'm spending my life doing what I love, sharing the love of Christ.  My desire is not to live a luxurious life of wealth, fame, and stuff.  I desire a life full of...life!  That includes: love, laughter, joy, peace, fulfillment, purpose.  God knew from the beginning that's what I was created for and the natural reaction to having this revealed to me is to share it with others, to share HIM with others.

The Holy Spirit is moving here in Newcastle.  Hearts are burning to know Him in a real, intimate way. And He's responding.  He has come, revealed His presence.  Bible studies have sprouted throughout the area with young and old alike.  They are experiencing Him and His love, laughter, joy, peace, fulfillment, and purpose.

I praise this God, the one who frees us from our bondage to what the world says will make us happy and reveals that which gives us more than we could have ever imagined.  Other religions, other faiths, all talk about working our way to become a god, but our God, in His infinite power and wisdom, left His throne to come down to His creation and redeem them.  Christ, on the cross, redeemed us.

By His wounds we are healed.  We are freed.  So that we may "have life and have it to the full" (John 10:10b).  That cannot be found outside of Christ, but when it is found, it cannot be detained...it must be shared.

I do not live a luxurious life by the world's standards, but I have life and have it to the full...it is not something someone can break in and steal, for it is not of this world.  I do not live in this world or for this world, I live in its midst, but for Someone so much greater and a life no mind can fathom for it is a life eternal, with the God who imagined me, created me, and redeemed me to Himself, forever.

"Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake," Henry David Thoreau.

"All men dream: but not equally.  Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it is vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible," T.E. Lawrence.

This is living the dream.