We are all trees

My life is like a tree. We are all trees. Jesus loved this analogy and used it often. I am the true vine and you are the branches. Remain in me and I in you. Stay in me. Stay. The branch cannot bear fruit by itself. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples (John 15). Most of my days and my walk are spent trying to bear fruit, trying to do what God has called me to do. Grow. Bear fruit. Provide shade and support to others. Love. Etc. Doing what He has commanded me to do. And this is all truth, but I often miss the point entirely. Answer this... What is the primary purpose of an apple tree?

My first response when asked this question was "bear fruit". "Wrong" my friend replied. "That is secondary" he said. Jesus said in John 4 "Whoever drinks of the water that I give will never be thirsty forever..becoming a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The primary purpose of an apple tree is to find water. To focus on your roots and dig down deep. No matter how hard the tree tries to produce fruit and grow and help others, if it doesn't find water... it will die. This simple truth changes everything. And this is the result. You find water below ground and everything else above ground will happen. This means a focus shift, a tipping point. Stop trying above ground. Start pursuing living water. Start pursuing our Savior and let him change what happens above ground because He will. It's what He does.

Here's what it looks like to dig down deep, to be rooted In Christ, to drink from living water... something practical. Read Psalm 63:1-8.

And so I dream...

I feel like a boy whose always wanted to be an astronaut.
And so I dream…

And so do you. Not like dreams when you sleep, but the dreams that consume your soul. Dreams for life. Dreams for others. Dreams for the world. These dreams. Are they real? Can they even become real? Do you still dare to dream? Daring leaves you hoping for more and not settling for less. True dreamers understand this. True dreamers have the courage to stand by their dreams.

Yet a star once bright and full now fades… Does the ability to dream pure dreams become harder with age? As things start to set in their place within the world then things become more concrete resisting the liquid flow of our dreams. We start to build hedges and boundaries around them. We take away from them. We substitute them for smaller ones. We convince ourselves that it wasn’t “meant to be”. And the dream fades. Slowly. Surely.

Too many people give up on dreams. Maybe its more realistic. More sensible. More real life. Or maybe. Its giving up on the world. Giving up on the amazing secret you’ve gotten tired of keeping. Giving up on the destiny your dream intends to become. Giving up on the child that still beats within your chest. Giving up on the pure life that is… a dream.

So dream… Because if you’re awake and alive to catch it then the wind will brush past just long enough to whisper in your ear then disappear. But it’s enough. Enough to remind us to believe…

To believe in dreams again. That dreams are real. That they do come true. That dreams aren’t just for princes and princesses. But they are for you and me too. And those with the courage to stand by their dreams and not sacrifice them to the lull of reality may live to see their dreams become that reality.

We all have dreams. Remember? Imagine again what it was like to dream. Get lost in it. And let’s light those fading stars on fire.

I feel like a boy whose always wanted to be an astronaut. I really do.
And so I dream…

Genesis 42:9 “And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed…”