This Beautiful Dream

I'm sure the fact that the last few days all I've been hearing about is hope and being anchored in hope and that we can put our hope in God has nothing to do with this dream I had last night. Haha ;)

(I was planning on sharing this but now that I'm writing it, it's like "wow this makes me feel totally vulnerable and this dream is not HALF as wild as my normal ones!")

I was on a ship. An old looking one like you see in the history books or movies. It was huge and had sails. There was a storm and I was literally being tossed too and fro. The weird thing about this all is that I knew it wasn't real. I wasn't afraid because I somehow had a sense that it was all a dream. And in my dream I asked the Lord what was going on. The wind and the rain were like temptation flying around my head: falling out of patience, anger, depression, worry, lack of self-control. The boat and the ocean were my life's circumstances. He said "Run to the anchor." Not walk, not stumble, but get up and run. And so I did. When I found it, the anchor was already let out into the ocean. All that I saw was the chain. It was HUGE. I couldn't even wrap one hand around one side of the link. It represented Christ. He said "hold onto Me." And I did. And I woke up.

A couple of things I'm taking away from this is that first of all, the anchor was already let down (at least I got something right). Sometimes it doesn't feel like it. Sometimes in our circumstance we don't see Him. We don't experience Him or see the influence He has on our storm. But He's there. If you've welcomed Him into your life He's there. Next? You have to run to Him. It's not enough to just be on the boat. To just ride it out. Run to Him.

The scripture quoted to us so often at the women's retreat I just attended was this one, and I think it's totally appropriate this morning.

Hebrews 6 MSG

^18-20We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It's an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us, in the order of Melchizedek.