«For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind» (2 Timothy 1:7).
PICKING UP the pieces of our broken dreams and trying to make things right is one of life’s biggest challenges. The disappointment and pain we feel can be so great that we are terrified of the idea of dreaming again. We would rather settle for what we have than take an emotional risk and feel disappointed again. The problem, as Scott Reall wrote in Journey to Living with Courage, is that giving up dreaming is «the fastest way to empty a heart of your desire to live. Dreams are the heartbeat of life! They stimulate passion, they give us sense and meaning.»
A paralytic was by the pool of Bethesda. For thirty-eight years he had dreamed of only one thing: being healed. Thirty-eight times the earth had danced in its elliptical orbit around the Sun. Thirty-eight times autumn had given way to the rebirth of spring, bringing only more disappointments. To this man, who had a soul filled with grief, Jesus asked him something seemingly cruel: «Do you want to be made well?» (John 5:6). Do you dare to dream, even today, of a better life? Do you really want healing, or have you resigned your heart? After the man described the difficulty of his situation (he had no one to put him in the pool in time when the water was stirred up) Jesus asked him to do something even more difficult: «Rise, take up your bed and walk» (John 5:8). Jesus told him to do exactly what he could not do: get up and walk. Sometimes, believing again feels like this: we look at the mat, the comfort zone that ties us to the ground, wondering if we heard correctly. Does God really expect us to walk again? Literally taking a step of faith, the paralytic got up and walked again.
Living in faith is risky. Dreaming involves facing challenges and disappointments because not all of our dreams and projects will come true. However, not dreaming is more risky: it means giving control to fear. Shauna Niequist described it like this: «I stop dreaming sometimes because I am terrified of what would be needed to change my life, because I am afraid of the chaos the dreams could bring, what new dreams would demand from me.» But God gave us not a spirit of fear and cowardice, but of power and love. Rise, take up your bed and walk!
Dear Lord, please show me the aspects of my life in which
I have given up and where You want to give me new dreams.
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Take From: Devotional Thoughts for Women 2022
«NO FEARS»
BY: VANEZA PISSUTO
Collaborators: Alexandra Pérez & Angelica Cuate.
