God is Hospitable to Your Dreams
Jesus articulated a leadership that is hospitable to dreams when He promised “life in all its fullness,” or as The Message has it, “more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” Hospitable leaders foster environments that encourage dreamers. Sometimes that means literally cheering them on.
In 2005, my wife, Sharon, ran the New York City Marathon, her first marathon. It was a pretty big deal in our family. Sharon has spent a lot of time in her life cheering for each of us, literally and figuratively. This was our chance to cheer for her.
The marathon took place on a Sunday, and we had decided that I could be at our first morning service at the church where I serve and leave directly from there to cheer for Sharon at the eighth mile marker.
After much time and effort, we finally stood at the prearranged marker and waited for Sharon. After twenty minutes of watching thousands of athletes pass by, we came to the horrible conclusion that we had missed her.
Three subway connections later and after running our own mini-marathon, we ended up at what was probably the most crowded place in New York City.
Not five minutes later I saw her…on the opposite side of this expansive street. Not about to be discouraged, I yelled her name at the top of my lungs and waved my arms like a maniac, trying to get her attention. At one point she lifted her head and looked around, but—not aware of us—she quickly put her head down and kept running.
At that moment, I was flooded by an inexplicable desperation.
I knew Sharon needed to see us, and we needed to see her. So I did what any normal, reasonable, and supportive husband would do. I took off running again down the sidewalk to try to catch up with her.
I climbed up on a barricade at one point and shouted, “Sharon! Sharon! Sharon!” but she had already passed. As I got down from the barricade, I realized I was totally separated from my kids and the other folks who were with us. I didn’t have my cell phone and was basically lost. But it didn’t matter; I knew our group would find each other eventually. I had to find Sharon.
So I took off again, this time in a full-fledged sprint, toward the park across Manhattan. By the time I got there, I was literally soaking wet, my stomach was growling from hunger, and I had to use the restroom. But I found a place at the twenty-fifth mile marker and stood there for an hour and twenty minutes, waiting for my wife.
After watching thousands more people plod by, I finally saw her. Her head was down, she was obviously exhausted and in tremendous pain, and as she trudged toward my position, I screamed out her name: “Sharon! Sharon!”
In an indescribably beautiful moment, her eyes met mine.
I jumped out from the sidewalk, told her how badly we had wanted to see her, and started to encourage her. I ran the last mile with her, jumping out before the finish line.
Here is part of what I learned that day. Though I already understood how much Sharon needed her family to cheer for her, what really surprised me was how much I needed to cheer for her. I needed her to hear me yell her name, to know that I was for her, to know that I loved her.
It might sound a little crazy, but I believe God is desperate to cheer us to our futures. He is our primary audience, and He wants us to hear Him shouting our names.
“God is desperate to cheer us to our futures…and He wants us to hear Him shouting our names.”
It’s like that final scene in Gladiator where a battered, bloodied, and bruised Maximus stands in the Colosseum, barely able to keep from collapsing. He has defeated the most vicious gladiators in the empire, and he’s won the favor of the tens of thousands in the crowd. They start to chant his name with a deafening roar. “Maximus! Maximus! Maximus!” reverberates throughout the stadium. See, I think God is that kind of audience.
Can you hear His voice—“like the roar of mighty ocean waves or the rolling of loud thunder”—shouting your name (Rev. 14:2 NLT)? Listen. Listen carefully. Listen with your heart. Hear Him calling to you.
He sees it all. He has witnessed your victories. He is aware of your defeats. He wants your God-inspired dreams to come true. He wants you to help make His world all He knows it can be. He is for you. Cheering for you. And if God is for us, how can we do anything but believe that our best possible future is within our grasp? It is.
“Better life than we can even imagine is just ahead. And God wants it for us even more than we do. ”
How does someone live “more and better life than they ever dreamed of”? By living the life God dreams for them. Hospitable leaders create environments where people and their dreams can flourish in alignment with God’s dreams for His world.
Do you lead in a way that encourages dreamers? Has someone cheered for your dreams? Drop a comment and tell us your story.
Adapted from Live Ten (Thomas Nelson) and The Hospitable Leader (Baker Publishing Group) by Terry A. Smith. All rights reserved.
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