The Dream Maker
“Dream big!” Pastor Brian said after he informed me he wanted yours truly and our newly-formed Christian writers’ ministry (Word Weavers International, Pensacola chapter) to write the VBS curriculum for Hillcrest Baptist Church for this coming 2019 season. It was as if God nudged me on the shoulder and whispered, “I told you to trust Me.”
After the meeting in the still of the evening, my mind wandered back to 2007. “Here it is, God,” I recalled saying as I turned over my entire to-do list to Him. I, the control freak and planner extraordinaire who secretly wished she had invented the Post-It Note, was throwing in the towel on planning and dreaming. I was burned out…totally.
As a child, I had expansive dreams. I wanted to be a wildlife photographer for National Geographic or a park ranger, but only if I could live in the Grand Canyon region. Mama had more practical ideas and suggested I think about physical therapy. Figuring if I pursued park rangering it would be my luck to patrol something as exciting (not) as DeSoto National Forest, I opted for physical therapy. Besides, the money was better.
However, over time the physical and emotional tolls of PT weighed me down–too many babies exposed to drugs or abused physically and emotionally. One day I found myself in a heap on the floor crying out to God for something else to do. I pleaded with God, “Lord if I have any talent whatsoever, show me what that is and I’ll use it as you want.”
The next morning, the words began to flow. One of those early etchings was this poem:
I Want To Dream.
When I was a child I had big dreams.
In my mind, I could achieve anything.
But life got going and somewhere along the way,
the years flew by and my dreams slipped away.
I woke one day and realized
that I had quit dreaming. My dreams had all died.
I want to dream. I want to dream again.
Just like I did when I was a child.
Believing the world is wide, that anything is possible.
I want to dream, I want to dream again.
A poem, as were many, of communication from my heart to my head. I needed a lightness of spirit and a return of my child-like imagination and humongous dreams.
God has shown me He has called me to write. He answered my pleas of desperation uttered from the bottom of the valley. Slowly and surely we have journeyed together up the trail out of the shadows.
Now, eleven years later, I’ve been tasked with dreaming up a VBS curriculum. Worried? No, because since 2007, I’ve learned step by step to stay on the narrow path and trust God for everything. He’ll come through because He’s the dream maker.
Time to get out one of those giant Post It Notes, because the ideas are already flowing…
If you’d like, share experiences where God has fulfilled your dreams or surprised you with His provision. It never fails to encourage others.
Love y’all,
Ginny
