First: Exciting news! If you’ve preordered Our Daily Breath: 365 Prayers and Practices that Whisper Peace in a Shouting World…you have some amazing gifts waiting for you.
I’m most excited for this surprise I’ve been holding for far too long: THERE IS AN AUDIO BOOK!
Everyone who preorders the book gets a 30-day devotional audiobook for free as a thank-you gift from my publisher and me. It’ll play just like a daily podcast, so every day, you’ll get one short breath prayer, Scripture, and reflection (usually around 3 minutes long).
AND THAT’S NOT ALL! (Said in my best infomercial voice.) Pop over here to see the other thank-you gifts.
DISCLAIMER: We’re putting the finishing touches on the thank-you package, but you can go ahead and log your preorder here so you get it fresh as soon as my publisher gives me the OK!
This week, my family and I got to experience the glory of Lake Michigan. It reminded me of what I wrote in Every Season Sacred, and I hope it resonates with you this week, too.
from Every Season Sacred
To observe children on the beach is to watch dreams unfurl.
Children haven’t yet unlearned their God-given imaginations the way we grown-ups have. They inherently and intuitively accept the slow rhythm of a sun-soaked summer afternoon.
Kids create whole kingdoms out of grains of sand and accept the divine invitation to get swept up in a dream. They lie flat on long stretches of sand, burying limbs and burrowing bodies. With closed eyes and slowing heartbeats, they feel the sun warm their faces. And in that moment, they’re transported somewhere magical, to a dream both in and out of time.
As children, we’re told to dream big. This is a sentiment we pass along to our children. But as we grow older ourselves and our worlds grow colder, we forget the wisdom nestled in a dream.
How easy it is to refuse those God-given invitations to imagine something better!
As time marches on, and we with it, cynicism seeps into our souls. We forget to dream of the world as it could be and become consumed by the sorrowful ways the world is.
As we grow older, perhaps we realize that to dream is to be vulnerable, to be like a child. It’s a fragile thing to hold on to hope for beauty to break in, for healing to come. So to protect our hearts, we harden them against dreaming.
But what if God is ready to do something new through a dream—if we dare to hold it?
The prophet Isaiah invited the people of Israel into a divine dream:
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:19
We live in a time of spiritual wilderness and wastelands.
All around us, we see suffering and sorrow, discouragement and darkness. Why bother dreaming when everything is so. . .wrong? Bishop Michael Curry says that’s exactly why we must dream—that dreaming is what saves us from falling into despair and destruction when the world is at its darkest, when evil seems to have had the final say.
“Dreams are love’s visions,” he says, “the boundless faith that the world can be remade to look more like what God hoped for his creation.”
With God, our dreams can remake the world.
When we soak in the pastel colors of a sherbet sunset or close our eyes in the sun, we are not wasting time. We are making space to hear God in a new way.
Inhale: Breathe a new dream
Exhale: Into me, O Lord.
O God who dwells in dreams, be near in the darkness of our world. Help us not to fall into cynicism or despair, but illuminate in us the beauty and vulnerability of dreaming new dreams. Give us the powerful, profound faith of a child, and make us brave enough to speak the language of hope.
O God, help us to imagine a new way, rooted in Your justice and anchored in Your truth. We believe You are doing a new thing! Help us to listen so we may be prompted by Your Spirit to dream new dreams for the flourishing of all creation.
Amen.
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