Dreaming

This past weekend, my son and I went to the mall and watched the new Shrek movie.  Though the plot was simple, it was quite interesting.  The movie starts with Shrek doing duties of a father..annoyed that he can't even take a nice mud bath without interruption.  For the first 15 minutes it is about friends, family, those closest to Shrek...annoying him with questions, comments, tasks to do etc. etc.  Finally Shrek has enough and busts out of the house where the whole community had gathered together to celebrate the 1 year birthday of his 3 kids.  Shrek, out of frustration, tells his wife how he wishes life was back to normal where he didn't have so much responsibility and he could just be an ogre where people were afraid of him and thought he was disgusting.  Long movie short; Rumpelstiltskin hears Shrek, get's Shrek alone, and has him sign a deal where Shrek can be an ogre for a day...the problem for Shrek was getting what he wanted for a day, cost him his family, his friends and everything that he worked for the past 3 films of Shrek life.  

Dreams/life is interesting to me.... from pretty much day one...we are working, striving for something...aren't we?  Our first car, our first house, true love...I will be happy if I just have financial freedom...I will be happy when I get married and have kids.  My dreams will come true once I graduate from college...and so we pursue and chase.... AND we have our wedding ceremony, our graduation ceremony, our signing on the lease of our car/mortgage...and then we live with that person for (hopefully) years to come...and we pursue a job that our diploma declares we are ready for...and live in our homes that need repair and lawns to be mowed....as we continue to pursue....a nicer, bigger, better, different...pursue pursue pursue......I wonder when we stop pursuing?  I wonder what is enough?  I wonder when we have the insight of Sheryl Crow who sings; "It's not getting what you want but wanting what you got"  and then Sheryl enjoys the simplicity of soaking up some sun.

I wonder what you pursue?  I sometimes wonder why people even read a blog about kids that are as far away as a person could potentially be from East TN.  Sometimes I wonder why you even care?  I don't know too many people who want to hear sad stories of kids starving, living in shacks (if they have one), being sold into slavery or prostitution...I mean...as you are going about your day; with your own kids running around...what makes you want to know about these kids who don't have fathers?? 

It's father's day today.  Pretty cool... I don't have a clue what it would be like not to have a father.  My dad has been around my whole life, if I don't know how to fix stuff, he fixes it...still to this day.  He took me to church, read the Bible to me, showed me what was important in a man's life and how to prioritize a man's dreams.  That is pretty awesome father stuff... I hope I live long enough to do that with my own son.

So as I am doing all this wondering....I wonder what these street children who live in a dump site dream of?  You know, my son dreams of owning a Monster Truck and going to Disney World and getting a Monster Spectacle on a Nintendo DS game he has.  I can relate to my son...but I can't relate to these street children.  Do they dream of not being raped?  Or, having a big meal, or feeling accepted or loved?  I truly don't know the answer, but for some reason I don't think they do to be honest with you.  I think that what they experience every day is what they have come to know as life.  That their life of living on the street simply includes the horrific things.  I think their dreams are not too different...I think they WANT to be famous basketball players or famous boxers...or even movie stars....you know the unrealistic dreams; but unlike us...the normal things that you pursue and obtain...and then dream is VASTLY different.  The normal way of life is not getting married, having a family, going to college, getting a car, getting a house etc. etc. etc.  That simply doesn't happen.  This is a city of millions of people....with 90% without a house or car...that is just for the rich.  I mean; what are the odds that one day as you are doing your normal routine of picking through the trash for something to sell that someone half way around the world would offer to give you something to eat....that they would say you could live in a HOUSE...and that they would pay for you to go to college.  Those types of things never happen...and if they do they come with a cost of being in slavery or being abused.  I mean, who offers you these things without a hook?  without a catch?  ...that certainly happened to Shrek...he was able to be an ogre for a day...but it cost him everything that he had.

I wonder what you are hoping for out of your life?  Jesus talked about our wants.  He called them treasures.  He said that whereever your treasures are that it is a reflection of your heart.  Because you put your heart into your treasures.  And boy do we.  We put out hearts into our work so that we can get that swimming pool, ..so we can go on that vacation.  We want to get those new clothes so people will accept us and think we look cool.  And then eventually we look at retiring..so we save and we prepare...and then we retire so that we can...uhm..fish, shop, spend time with grand kids etc etc...so that...according to Jesus...moth, rust, the elements of this world will pretty much destroy all of that stuff..and then we will die and erode away...and well...that's the end of the story.  That's a pretty stinky way to think about life if you ask me.  Pursue your dreams...get all of this stuff...and then it erodes.  End of story??  Thankfully Jesus does give us an alternative. 

According to Jesus we can store up treasures in heaven.  At the sake of not sounding sacrilegious but how in the world do you go about storing a treasure in heaven?  Do you pray?  Do you go to church?  Do you give money to some Filipino?  I mean...how do you do this?  If I understand Jesus correctly (and this could be a pretty big IF)...a believer can join God in what He is doing and work to build His Kingdom.  Right before that Jesus was praying what is called the Lord's prayer which talks about Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven...that...we can be a part of building the Kingdom of God.

So...how does all that I have been writing about make any kind of sense?  Well... I believe my point is ...that we pursue dreams that mean nothing.  And sometimes when we pursue them...everything that we have that is good...that God has given us...well...we could lose....because we get so wrapped up in pursuing...we forget to live and experience the life that we have been given.  Once we slow down a little bit to live; we might realize that how we are living and what we are pursuing are not the right things.  And if we get that far in our thinking, we might start thinking about the meaning of life and purpose.  Now, if we slow down long enough to think about that..then we might remember our Saviour, our life giver...and that a life of meaning and purpose is probably through God.  Now...I am hoping that we then get to wrestling with ourselves and God to the point that we want to Build His Kingdom.  And as we pursue...we see people at our work who need an ear; we encounter senior citizens who need a ride to the store...we see our children as gifts and not as annoying...and our spouses as partners who God has given us to serve Him alongside...and our eyes are opened to kingdom building...and then a blog about kids being prostituted, harmed and neglected are no longer a sad story, but suddenly their lives give us an opportunity to build His Kingdom.  ...their dreams become important to us...because like us..they were dreaming about the wrong things too....they were dreaming about getting stuff as well...and being actors, and maybe having a meal, or not being harmed...but that isn't what it is about either.  Whether we are being harmed or safe...whether we are rich or poor....regardless of what we are dreaming of....the point is to first encounter our God, our Saviour...and then to build His Kingdom so that it can be filled with His creation.  I hope you join me...that we can dream together, that our treasures can be the same...and those who have not heard of Jesus...or His Kingdom...may hear...so they can walk by our side and join us on our journey...that a street child...can share with other children about a Kingdom..another place....and together.....Jesus' name will be known and our lives here in America and in the Philippines will make sense.  That we won't ask why we have so much or why they have so little...but we will ask where and how God is working...and how we can join Him in order to advance His Kingdom.

In the words of Gump...that is all I gotta say about that.

Peace, Dustin