DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
We Have a Dream
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We still have a dream.
Do you?
My recent “I Have A Dream” moment happened a year and 1/2 ago.
I wasn’t on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial mobilizing 300,000 marchers as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did 50 years ago. Or on the steps of the Capitol being sworn in with millions around the world watching as President Obama was today. Instead, I was in my bedroom in my pajamas, alone. But it was just as historic, to me, none-the-less.
I woke up, pressed.
Felt like I’d tossed and turned all night. Who am I kidding? It had been several nights, several weeks actually. I was so frustrated with our family – God’s family. I had seen and experienced such inequality in that past year that was, for lack of a better word, unbelievable.
Words lasered through my soul and spilled onto the page:
I Dream of a Church…
That’s how the manifesto started.
And I dreamed, in technicolor – of a family – male, female, young, old – that looks like heaven with people “from every nation, tribe, people and language” worshiping together, serving together like in John’s vision in Revelation 7:9-17.
I dreamed of a family who loves people as sacrificially as God loves us, sending His Son to give His life for us, Matt 22:34-40. I dreamed of a family living out the Great Commission, doing what Jesus did – teaching, preaching, healing, serving, meeting needs. His life was not His own, Matt 28:16-20. I dreamed of artists using their gifts in truth and lives being changed.
Wouldn’t all that be radical?! Instead of folks fighting over gender issues or chasing fame, fortune and power?
Who knew?
I didn’t know it at the time, but that heart’s cry, with about 10 declarations, soon became the foundation of our vision when we started our bible study a few months later with 15 dream chasers and dream makers in our living room in the Hills. That bible study became Hope in the Hills. http://hopeinthehills.net/
Through much prayer, we embarked upon simplifying those declarations into a clear, concise vision. We remind ourselves of it most Sundays when we gather to worship together. Kevin recently composed it into song. Simply put:
We dream of a church that
* Looks like heaven
* Sounds like heaven
* Loves like God loves
* Lives like Christ lives
That’s our dream, Fam.
And it’s coming true.
What’s yours?
Naima, aka Dream Pusher
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