captive imagination

yesterday i visited a satelite branch of willow creek. normally, i'm not a huge "satelite" kind of person, but i really enjoy some of the aspects of willow creek, so i thought i'd check it out. well, needless to say, the sermon was one of those that likes to sit with you for a while. ever notice how sometimes when you leave church a little piece of the message just followed you right out the door? well, this is exactly what happened to me yesterday.
Damien Whitehead has been doing a series on the Church. this week's sermon was called "believe." i wasn't sure quite what to expect from it. i mean, i've heard several sermons about how the Church should be living and responding. yet, this one was so incredibly unique.
he began by sharing a story about his daughter. one night he was awoken by his little girls screams coming from the other room. and being the devoted father he is, Damien rushed in there to see what was wrong. there she was, sitting up in bed, crying. he asks if she had a bad dream. "yeah," she replies. he then asks her what the dream was about. and quite unexpectedly, she says, "elmo." wow. elmo? Damien thinks to himself that he was not quite expecting this one. he walks away confounded that his 4 year old daughter has just had a nightmare about elmo. granted, we all might think it's strange to imagine such a cute cuddly animal from Sesame Street acting out in a "monster-like" way. however, this was not what baffled him. he was taken aback by the fact that his daughter's imagination had been taken captive by the world. when she laid down at night and dreamed dreams, the best her subconscious could do was to conjure up a picture from the media, something that had been fabricated and absorbed.
you can probably guess where this is going... this is incredibly applicable to us as a Church today. our imaginations have been taken captive by the world. if you ask people in your local congregation what things they might hope for in life, they will probably respond with "health, financial stability, a nice home, a loving family, etc." ask the same question to anyone else you might run into on the street and you're more than likely to get a similar reply. "money, security, relationships, etc." our dreams are no different than those of the world.
what does this mean for us? joel told us that in the last days, God will pour out His Spirit on all people. "sons and daughters will prophesy...old men will dream dreams...young men will see visions." (2:28) where have our dreams gone? since when have we settled for what the world has to offer us? isn't God so much greater than that? will we be so easily satisfied?
i walked away challenged to let God radically move...to pray His kingdom come on earth, no matter what that might look like...or what that might cost me. my dreams must shift. no longer can i hope for a productive job, a future spouse, a nice community. i must hope for a life filled with the overflow of God's grace, a passionate awakening of His Spirit, and a mighty movement of His power...to loose the chains of the broken, to bring healing to the wounded, and set the captives free.
what dreams do you dream? we serve a God who is able to do "exceedingly abundantly more than we ask or imagine." don't let your life be defined by the parameters of this culture or the standards of this world. be willing to dream bigger dreams...to imagine the impossible...because we serve a God who is just that BIG.