Port Moresby, PNG, 11 October 2024 -- God speaks to people through dreams. There are numerous examples in the Bible of when he communicates with prophets and the faithful through dreams. Dreams come to us; we do not control what we dream. A true dream cannot be self-designed or created. Dreams are unique, unconscious inspirations. Inspiration, by definition, is the act of filling someone with the urge to do something, especially something creative. This reminds me of how God inspired and breathed life into all of Creation in Genesis, and continues to do so with each passing breath.
As we breathe, God inspires life into us. As we dream, God inspires us, breathing life into us.
In 2006, still a teenager, I was challenged by the need to balance the culture of the world around me with the mystery of the growing Godly faith in my spirit. As a young woman, my eyes were wide open and curious to know, learn, and discover. My youthful heart wanted to love, form opinions, and stand strong for justice and my own passions. However, as a Christian, I knew the only True Way was the path with Christ. I had faith, but it seemed God was a very stoic, silent Father, waiting for me to figure out life the hard way. This was a great spiritual challenge that I could not overcome. Longing for more tangible answers and more direct clarity, I remained frustrated.
One night, while sleeping, a strange word came to me. It stuck in my mind—a mysterious word I did not understand; it didn’t even sound English. Soon afterward, I asked one of my teachers what the word meant. The word was Honduras, a Central American country in great need of spiritual and corporal works of mercy. “Coincidentally,” a friend’s church was planning a missionary trip to Honduras. I thank God that my spirit was open enough to accept this invitation. As a missionary in Honduras, I was inspired, to live the dream.
For the few days I was there, the spiritual challenges I sensed in the U.S.A. were gone. The lush landscape, humble faces, and joyful service revealed God, the God of the Beatitudes, so clearly. Smiling through the rain, standing in the back of a truck bed on the cliff of a mountainous jungle was where my faith and my spiritual connection to service were inspired. This was an inspiration—God breathing life into me, His Creation, an echo of Genesis…
Upon returning to the U.S.A., the juxtaposition of Meta modernistic American middle-class life awaited me. Godly joy was shadowed by college-age curiosities, professional pride, existential exhaustion, and life-path limbo. Nothing made sense anymore. I questioned the meaning of my existence and worried about what my life should be. The clarity of God on mission seemed so far away. I doubted I could ever become close to God in the same way again. I feared that it was somehow fake, an illusion. But, at the bottom of it all, I was sad. My spirit was sad to be so far from God. I was sad, searching for joy, but in all the wrong places.
Isolated and misunderstood, I began to truly grieve the life I thought I would have. I am not a CEO of a non-profit organization. I am not a wife with three children. I am not who people thought I would be. I am not who I thought I would be. I began to allow myself to surrender to the Truth.
The Truth is who God says I am. God inspires and breathes life into me. Where did I feel life breathed into me? Where did I feel joy?
Turning my eyes from the world and re-focusing on Christ crucified, I relaxed my fears, confusion, doubt, and grief, submitting them to Him. Through God’s Word, prayer, and community, I found comfort in the Truth of my life with Christ. In the peace of Christ, I rediscovered joy. I experience joy when I am in service to God and my neighbor. Inspired by my new community in Christ and with newfound confidence in my uniquely inspired life, I restarted my focus on missionary service.
Many people felt confused, concerned, or scared when I told them I joined a lay missionary organization called VIDES. They were worried as they watched me neglect my summer vacation with them to live with Religious Sisters in Guatemala, Vietnam, and Papua New Guinea. However, I felt confident that service brings God’s kingdom closer to Earth and brings me closer to him.
Now, with hindsight, I see God’s providence permeating everything in my life, even my unconscious dreams; His hands are guiding and holding me. I live life with more confidence, believing in the One who inspires, the One who breathes life into all things.
God calls us all to be missionaries. Wherever we are, whatever we are doing, we are to be the inspiration of Christ to all. With my re-focus on being a daily-life missionary, my job has become my vocation. With this mentality, everything we do is inspired, sacred, faithful, and directing us toward the Lord.
How is God inspiring (breathing life into) you?
What word, phrase, or image has God inspired (breathed into life) in you?
How is he inviting you to say “YES” to His inspiration, his dream for you?
