"...like men who dream"

Two weeks ago, my wife Julie tuned me in to a passage of scripture that I hadn't known before. The first lines of Psalm 126 go like this:

When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion,
we were like men who dreamed.
Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
"The LORD has done great things for them."

Possibly the greatest gift of the time we took this summer to recalibrate personally and spiritually has been the renewed ability to dream. And, because of that, our family, our extended church staff family, is experiencing a recharged capacity for laughter, and music, and joy.

God strengthens the link between dreaming and joy. A God-given dream--vision--is born out of hope, excitement, life, a healthy dose of fear, optimism, blessing, faith...you get the point.

A few reasons why dreaming and laughing gets choked out:
1. We get tired. When we let ourselves get run down physically, emotionally, etc.--especially for an extended period of time--we severely compromise our ability to dream big dreams.
2. We get financially strapped. Lack of money over a long haul can create a survival-mode mentality that becomes a rut. Financial provision is part of who God is. Stacked up against the Red Sea and the Resurrection, funding the dreams He gives is a layup.
3. We listen to the wrong people. Love everyone, but move with movers. There will always be haters. Nehemiah stayed on the wall while the haters called for committee meetings and hurled false accusations against him. Don't waste the time and energy it takes to address their stupidity. Keep a trowel in one hand and a spear in the other, but stay on the wall.
4. We get spiritually dry. The word enthusiasm comes from Greek, en-Theos ~ in God. To even sniff a vision worth chasing, you've got to be en-Theos--in God regularly, through prayer, worship (personal and corporate), and in normal conversation with other movers and dreamers.

Fun. Dreaming. Laughter. That's God-deep.