Yesterday I woke up from a nightmare. I knew it was a result of the newscast I had watched the night before, which was top notch, truthful and to the point. Obviously the facts stirred up a realistic deep-seated fear about the world’s dire circumstances, but the fear morphed into an exaggerated zombie apocalypse.
This morning I woke up from a dream. In this dream I was invited to speak and sing to a new church plant, and like many similar dreams before I couldn’t remember my words to the songs or the presentation I had prepared. Quite often these kinds of dreams are an indication of a normal nervousness before a scheduled event. But this time I knew there was an important message I needed to heed.
“I am not prepared” I told myself. I thought about the gifts God has given me. One of the songs from my dream kept replaying in my brain, but I only got as far as the first two lines. I tried over and over to remember the entire first verse but couldn’t.
I thanked God for the message. I knew He was alerting me to implement new disciplines, to dust off what I had decided to put on a shelf.
So often we do things based on cultural standards. If we feel we don’t measure up to those ideals we can shut down. It isn’t about measuring up, it is about using the gifts God has given you for such a time as this.[1] It isn’t about what people think, it is about what God is asking you to do for the sake of others. It is important to have God fearing mentors and leaders to approach with questions and guide your interpretations.
If we are reading God’s Word cultural standards will not be the measuring stick by which we live. Through reading the Bible we gain a spiritual insight, we show up when the going gets tough and we’re ready and relevant.