Issue #4 — Dreaming with God

In the new year, how will your way of being reflect God's design?

Happy New Year!

Today is a Monday—the day on which this newsletter is published. But it’s New Year’s Day, so I’ll keep it simple:

I Have a Dream

In the most recent iteration of PILGRIM, participants were asked to write an “I Have a Dream” speech (see ch. 9 — Desiring What God Desires).

As the New Year dawns, I want to encourage all of us to work on a fresh version of this.

Whereas Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamt about the Kingdom come with respect to racial reconciliation in the United States, I think we should dream today about the Kingdom come in our way of being.

In other words, dream with God about how your way of being—at home and at work, in public and in private—will reflect more and more of God’s design in 2024?

What does God desire to cultivate in you? patience? honesty? compassion? deep listening? self-sacrifice? confidence in your belovedness? courage? curiosity?

This exercise does not take long. Can you carve out some time today to write out your dream?

As you dream with God, I want to share this word of warning from the PILGRIM notebook: make sure you focus on yourself. In order for your life to reflect God’s design, it is always dependent on transformation in yourself. If, in the process of doing this exercise, you focus on the faults of others and dream about them being transformed, then you have missed the point of the exercise. The goal is to dream with God about the ideal scenario—i.e., Kingdom of God on earth—and all the while, ask, "what will be different in me so that this vision comes to fruition?"