The Feast of Your Dreams

Let’s say you’re invited to the White House for a once-in-a-lifetime dinner gala. Of course you buy a new dress and wear the most painful heels. But the dinner rewards you a hundred-fold. It is nothing short of spectacular. You eat five courses of endless deliciousness. Every bite of each dish is proof that you’ve died and gone to heaven. Exquisite flavors. Divine delight. Nothing was held back in the preparations for this fine feast! Now, what if you were given the original recipes that the chefs used, and you wanted to go home and recreate each of them so that your family could taste what you did? The task may seem daunting. You don’t have the same expensive cooking tools or equipment. You don’t have access to the rare ingredients that were used. You don’t have the time, and you certainly don’t possess the cooking prowess.

There in your own home, the flavors fading fast from your tongue, you’re tempted to settle. You want to make substitutions and take shortcuts. In the end, you’ll serve the meal on your worn and chipped dinnerware. You may have started this task with gusto, but along the way, the difficulties cause you to shrug your shoulders and settle for something that’s a poor imitation of the original.

Now, what if I told you your God-given dreams face the same threat? The truth is, God has mighty plans for you. They are as specific as each of the five courses of that White House meal. God’s plans for you are wonderful and magnificent! When we first realize them, we rejoice as a hungry dinner gala guest. But when it comes time for us to pursue His dreams for our lives (which He places in our hearts), we feel we’ve been given a recipe card and nothing else. There’s no way we can create the feast ourselves! We balk at the thought. We stall under the obstacles (our grocery store doesn’t carry those exotic ingredients.) We become frozen by the setbacks (20-year-old cookware). We see a cook who doesn’t stand a chance (our own lack of training and skill).

It’s SCARY!

It’s certainly IMPOSSIBLE!

So, we then do one of two things: we try making cheap substitutions for the real dream along the way, or we give up on the dream entirely. Neither one is what God wants for us.

What He wants is to bring His dreams to fruition in your life! He does not want your obstacles to have the last say. He does not want you substituting. Or whining. Or giving up. What He wants is for you to take your inexperience, your lack of resources, your skeptical outlook, and give it all to Him. He is the Master Chef. HE has the experience. HE has the resources. HE has the ways and means. HE will accomplish His purpose for your life.

So, how do you embrace the impossible dream? You recognize that you are not the chef, after all. He is. You are His assistant. You are to listen for His voice in the kitchen and respond by doing what He asks. It’s your life, yes, but they are His dreams. Obstacles do not have the last say. You are to simply bring your insufficiencies and shortcomings to Him. Let Him slice, dice, and blend up the perfect concoctions … His dreams for your life.

He wants the feast of your dreams even more than you do. Together, the two of you will accomplish “the impossible!”

“Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).

By: Kristin Beasley (Jodi Carlson)