In the Presence Is Where Our Dreams Come Alive...

This weekend, I had the priviledge of speaking to the young people from New Hope South Bay. There were about twenty or so of them as well as the leaders. As it so happened, my friend Dave was supposed to lead them, but this plan changed pretty last minute. And, as it so happened, I was at Expression58 a few weeks ago and heard God tell me to "prepare two messages". Of course, I thought I heard wrong knowing that Dave was coming to speak as well. It wasn't until the following day, I got the shock to hear that Daniel Iwao asked me to speak for the two evenings.

I ended up speaking to the young people about the presence of God, with the first night focused on the presence of God for their personal life, and then on the second night, showing them how when they are in the presence of God, it affects their place in the world.

So at the beginning of the second night, I had each student write down what their dreams were. Dan, their fearless leader, made sure to yell out that they shouldn't put they want to be a basketball star. But to Dan's dismay, it was exactly those dreams I was wanting them to write down. You would have been amazed like I was to hear what their dreams were:

To be an FBI Agent. To be a dancer. To be a pro-golfer. To publish a book. To find a cure for AIDS. To start high-end, 5-Star hotels around the world. To be rich. To be a doctor. To be successful and have a good family. To start orphanages. To be a singer. And to be in the NBA!

So many good things! I even shared with them how my brother wanted to play basketball, but the odds were against him. You have 30 basketball teams with a minimum of 14 players each. That means only 420 chances out of the 300 million people living in the world that you will be on an of the NBA's teams.

But I shared with them the reality is that God is outside of reality. God is not confined to statistics and figures. When we read in 1 Samuel, Jonathan wanted to take on the whole Philistine army with his armor bearer. That was the Jonathan's dream in that moment and he wasn't worried about the statistics. This is why he said his words in verse 6:

"Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few."

He wasn't concerned with the odds, the many or the few. His armor bearer responds to him in verse 7:

"Do all that you have in mind," his armor-bearer said. "Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul."

Jonathan rested in the reality of the presence of God. He could see what not many could see. But he would have gone no where if not for the man at his side. There is something when we, who have dreams (and we all do) can be encouraged when we open and share those dreams with others around us. We are all Jonathan's, but we also all need to become armor-bearers, carrying the dreams of our friends. I even told them not to make fun of those who wanted to be rich and wealthy, because maybe it would be them who would be able to pay for the research so the others could find cures for AIDS, end poverty or rescue trafficking victims.

It was encouraging to hear some of the stories back from the kids. Here are some reports:

"Thanks for coming out to camp with us you rocked." - Josh

"Just wanted to say thanks for coming out and talking to us, especially me with your friends.
you definitely encouraged me rethink about my future and my dreams. Thanks again!" - Michael

"Really enjoyed you at camp by the way. Thanks for speaking to us!" - Jason

"You did a great job at our camp. The kids really enjoyed ur message last night! they told me. - Myong

"After you talked to us about how you approached random people because you felt like God was pushing you. I felt like that was what God was trying to do with me. I prayed about it, and I was able to confront one of my former best friends. I think I helped her because she seemed better, but it might be for the time being. She was going through alot and I felt like I should talk to her about it instead of cooing her and telling her stuff that would make her feel better...We have a pretty strong bond. I suggested she talk to God about it because I know that he listens even though it doesnt seem like it at first. I felt alot better after I talked to her about it. Hopefully it helped her too. I want god to give me more of these pushes now." - Hope

Thanks to Seth, Anna, Aimee, Ray and my parents for helping me out on Friday night. The kids were blessed by that and the above words show it.