We Are The City Harmonic Sample

"Plans and Dreams"

Missional living is hard.  Most of us are willing to sacrifice our dreams and plans to a certain point in order to care for the marginalized and love neglected neighborhoods, but we all have a breaking point.  Maybe it’s because the person we are helping is asking for assistance yet again, maybe it’s because our neighbor needs to borrow more money, or because the refugee we’ve befriended misconstrued our intentions.  There are two common complications when it comes to living missionally:  1) we live life in our own strength and 2) sacrificial living interferes with our plans and dreams.  

All of us dream and make plans.  We determine if we will work, go to college or attend university.  We pick a vocation.  We find someone to marry.  We purchase a home.  We plan where to go on vacation, which part of the home we want to renovate and whether or not we’ll play hockey, soccer or both.  We dream and make plans frequently…often without dependence on God.  Most of us aren’t postured in humility, acknowledging that every breath we take is a gift from Him, submitting to His will. 

The truth is this.  Any God who would become the solution to my sin - the Creator knit together in a woman’s womb, living amongst us, dying the torturous death of a cross while the Father’s wrath is being poured out on Him - has a plan better than mine.  My sin creates mess, His plan deals with my mess.  Always.  His plan was so good that three days later He was raised to life again declaring His victory over Satan, sin and death.  His plan is always best.  

Posturing yourself to humbly live out, ‘if the Lord wills,’ will not ruin your life but rather show you how to live abundantly.  Praying this pray never limits your dreams and plans but rather takes our feeble efforts to the one who can do more than we ask or imagine.  Then we live in His strength, doing His will, for His glory and the good of others.  Living missionally is hard.  It will interrupt our plans and our dreams.  But as we trust in God’s will for direction, His plans and dreams become ours.  

-Dwayne Cline, Pastor of Hughson Street Baptist Church in Hamilton, Ontario