dream.

Do you know the place that is just between asleep and awake? It is a place where possibility exists. It is the place between what could be and what is. Sometimes it is the place between a sweet sense of utopia and a stark contrast of wearisome reality. In this place, the lines become blurred.

I believe the transition between one year and the next is a little bit like that. There is a sense of hope and newness that awakens our senses. We start to forget the drudgery of daily tasks, we slow down, and we take time to believe in possibility, to express gratitude, to consider. We think of ways to better ourselves and our situation. We leave some things behind. We start anew. 

Sometimes, we begin to dream.

2016 is a year to dream. It is a year to start seeing dreams become reality. For me, the conception of this potential began in early December 2015 at a ladies Bible study. One of our table leaders, my dear friend Brenda, passed around a tin of handmade gifts. They were simple bookmarks that included a single word. All the words were visionary, fun, and inspiring. I searched through the box until I found my word.

dream.

Wow. My word was a verb, not a noun. Actually, it was a command.

My momentary enthusiastic energy quickly waned throughout the course of the day, and I brought home the bookmark and deposited it on my desk. My desk... well, that is the place where random mail, notes and trinkets can fall into the sea of the forgotten. Many important items eventually end up being stored near here, but in the purgatory of disorganization, the judgment seat of things that are ultimately cherished or discarded, some items become, in a sense, lost. This seed of a dream found its way into that pile. And there, it waited.

A few weeks passed, Christmas whizzed by, and I sat anticipating the next major holiday: New Years Day. That's when the nighttime dreams began. I was a little shocked because I haven’t had any substantive, memorable dreams for a long time.

First came one very clear dream about me, an inspirational man I admire, and my glaring insecurities. He believed in me in the dream, despite my inability to believe in myself.

The next night another very clear dream came. This dream revealed some things from my past, several emergency situations, and my confrontation with fear. I was victorious. Don’t you love it when you win in your dreams?

Each time I dreamed, I related the dream, and took note that something was happening.

The third night another dream occurred that was directly related to a very real and current situation I was struggling to walk through. The images and symbolism were clear and very easy to understand. This dream helped to specifically navigate a very delicate circumstance with what I felt was wisdom directly from God.

The next night, I did not dream, but instead I spent part of my day inspired to dream of my future and to write it down. This continued for 2 more days.

Finally, last night I dreamed again. It wasn’t a complicated dream, but it included my youngest daughter and a friend of hers, happily interacting. It was an image of spontaneity and fun.

My four dreams communicated some very important principles:

1.  Others believe in you, even when you don't believe in yourself. We need each other.
2.  You can overcome your mistakes, your past, and your fears. You can win.
3.  God is always ready to give wisdom and help, even when we forget to ask.

4.  Joy is a critical part of our existence.

Incidentally, while I was dreaming of my daughter, she was dreaming too. She came downstairs this morning, excited, eager to relay her dream to me. She began telling me the dream, while simultaneously recording it on her phone. Fifteen minutes later, after extremely detailed scenarios and sometimes seeming randomness, she completed her retelling. 

‘What do you think it means, overall?” I asked her, sitting at my desk and separating out junk from treasure.

She told me, in one complete and succinct sentence. Stunned, I realized that she was relating an exact topic her dad and I had discussed the day before about a future plan we were considering. Her interpretation of her dream represented a family dream we have had for several years.

Instantly, I remembered the bookmark. Digging my way into the piles, I found it. It was just as full of potential as it was the first time I chose it. Then I knew. Things could not have been more clear if they had been written on the wall.

This is a year to dream. This is a year to give expression to those dreams. This expression will access the power for dreams to be realized.

A dream will continue in the realm of fantasy, shrouded in misty potential, until finds expression. An expressed dream has inherent power within it to become a reality. It is a seed. The expression of a dream is like giving sun and water to a seed. The seed of a dream can then germinate and begin to take on life.

“And then God answered: ‘Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. This vision-message [or dream] is a witness pointing to what’s coming. It aches for the coming – it can hardly wait! And it doesn’t lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It’s on its way. It will come right on time.” (Hab. 2:2-3, MSG)

Before you attack the resolutions and the responsibilities, and before the busyness of 2016 begins full force, take some time to dream. Dreaming isn't about things you should do. It is not about things that will likely already happen. Dreaming is about what might be, what you hope for. It involves faith. It also involves courage to move those dreams into reality. 

In the precious time before you are fully engaged and awake -- that space between what is and what could be -- dream. And then, express your dreams. Write them down. Tell someone.

The dreams, and their subsequent expression, will carry with them the life and potential necessary for fulfillment. 

Happy 2016. 

“There is a point when you stand at the edge of hard evidence, look across to what lies on the other side, and step forward. Otherwise you wind up going nowhere.”  
                                       -- Jodi Picoult