7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess-Chapter 2 Day 14

Day 15 -

I had a dream recently.  A vivid dream....here's how it went:

I was doing a practice race/run in the cities with a bunch of church people. I had never ran this race before. In the practice run I was way out ahead of everyone else. But then I got lost. There was no one leading the way. I had to ask for help, but no one was certain which way I needed to go. I lost my shoes, too, and started running barefoot. I ended up in a homeless part of town. There were other people lost with me there, too. The homeless were mad we were even in there "home." I said something about God being the way out of hopelessness and then, I woke up.

I couldn't stop thinking about this dream for some reason.  I was talking to Brad about it, "May be it just means you want to start running, again," he said.  "Maybe." I said.  And then it hit me like a ton of bricks.  It was a metaphor for my life.

I am ahead of the pack (not in an arrogant way, but that my soul is on fire/yearning kind of way) wanting to build my relationship with God. But, I'm lost and I don't have anyone leading me which way to go with it. No one can point me in the right direction. The losing of the shoes is me shedding the old me. And the homeless man represents my desire to serve. I think I was trying to tell the homeless man that loving God was the way out of hopelessness. Which really comes full circle to me in that God is the only one that can give me the directions and show me the way to go. He is the only one that can lead me to the right path.

Later on that day I heard this song for the first time ever....

Truth be told...I've been searching for one word.  One word to be my word for 2015.  A word to work on. A word that might transform me.  A word that might help me strive to become the person I am mean to be.  I have prayed about it, mediated on it and agonized in frustration over it....and then the whisper came to me.  My world is Running:  Running to God, Running to Serve, Running to the Me I'm meant to be. Running!!

I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.  No dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. Phillippians 3 3:12-14

Are you running the race? Have you tripped up recently? Get back on the track. Look up and remember that it is Jesus whom you are running for. The One who loved you so much that He went to the cross, shed His blood, died, and rose again from the dead... is waiting for you at the finish with open arms. SO get up... shake it off by seeking God's forgiveness through confession and repentance... and keep running!