Living The Dream

If you read last week, you might be thinking, “It’s kind of confusing. What do I do? Go kid! or Grow up!?!”

Janan and I were reminiscing about the first years of our marriage and those first places we lived. One of the biggest things I remember about them was the fact that if you didn’t like something – tough luck. Renters don’t get the right to change stuff – at least not in the settings we were in. But if you own something, it opens up all kinds of opportunities.

Owning is a really cool concept. It means it’s mine. I get to choose what goes on with it – with written permission from my HOA. I get to choose the colors. I get to benefit from improvements.

Kids come by that concept naturally. They love having toys, dolls, video games,… all the fun stuff. Over time with birthdays, Christmases, and grandparents, they can accumulate an incredible amount of stuff. What amazes me as much as what they can accumulate is they know who “owns” what. They can have 50 My Littlest Pet Shop figures and know exactly whose belongs to whom. And they think having a sister is really cool, until that sister starts trying to use their stuff.

It’s all about control. It’s all about possessing. Janan and I are passionate about breaking that tendency in Carina and Christi – about teaching them to grow up.

Yet, I’ve got to confess. I’m kind of skeptical that we ever “grow up” or “grow out of” our desire to possess. In fact, I believe the greatest sign of God changing us as adults is when we stop looking at who’s touching our stuff and start investing our stuff to impact the Kingdom of God.

The truth is the best way to Go Kid! is to Grow Up! The best way to pursue those silly dreams is quit worrying about who’s touching your stuff. You can’t be looking at your stuff and your design at the same time. You either serve the Creator and do His design, or you serve your stuff and find ways to protect it. You can’t do both. That’s Jesus’ take anyway [Matthew 6:19-34].

At Cross Connection, that’s our passion. In fact, even our potential of stepping into a new building is all about other people and not ourselves. Even more, our willingness to release the death grip on our stuff will determine our ability to make that step. It will also determine how impactful that step becomes. If you stop protecting and start investing, you’ll reap the harvest of the dreams of a design God created within you. And we’ll get front row seats in seeing His Kingdom come.