Salt And Light And Dreams In The Night: A Reid's-Eye View.

"What do you dream of? Do you even dream?" -Pastor Althea

As we endeavor to be salt and light in the Bronx and in the world, are dreams even practical? Do dreams matter?

I would say yes. I believe that God plants dreams in our hearts, then gives us skills and opportunities to live out those dreams in reality. Let me use my little household as a case study.

My husband is an accomplished musician. Throughout his life God has blessed him to have excellent teachers. His most influential teacher, though, was a man who taught by example and not by precept. Dr. Paul Liljestrand, simply by loving God through musical and spiritual gifts, planted a dream in the heart of my husband when he was a young boy. My husband grew up, completed his musical training, and the dream became real. If you were to ask him today what his role is in the kingdom of God, he would tell you that he teaches the Bible through music. In his ministry he trains children and adults to not just play instruments and sing, but to do effective, relevant ministry appropriate to their skill levels and cultural/denominational contexts. He lives his dream by using music to turn people's hearts towards God.

I, on the other hand, did not begin dreaming until I was an adult. While growing up, I had no real sense of what "salt and light" looked like in my life. Then about five years ago, a conversation between myself and four people (Rev. Ronald Benjamin, Dr. Marilyn Maye, Ms. LillyJune Webb, and Dr. Sam Vassel) birthed a dream to have, in essence, an "e-mail forum" where discussion of the Sunday sermon could continue through the week. My dream morphed into what is now Glossa Water. Earlier this year God sent a fifth person, Rev. Joseph Henry Cortese, who encouraged me to post links to this blog through Facebook and Twitter. Pastor Joe's suggestion increased reader traffic from less than 300 to over 1000 views per month, with new readers viewing from as far away as Australia and the Far East. I now live my dream by using writing to turn people's hearts towards God.

Pastor Althea shared a very important point during her sermon last Sunday: "The church is not the building. It is the people of God." And we, the people of God, are privileged to take the church to the world. Most of us are not world-famous. I don't have millions of followers on social media. My husband doesn't have millions of students. But God can still use our ministries, no matter how small, to touch the world. He can use yours too!

I pray that we will surrender our gifts and our deep desires to the Lord. He may send us a dream that sets us on a path to touch millions, or thousands, or hundreds, or just one... but when the Spirit of God is at the core of our work, empowering us as we work, we can be sure that the work will bring glory to our great God. Dream! Pray! Be the salt! Shine the Light!

Be encouraged to dream God's will. Be empowered to do God's work.