Awaken the Dreamer Within

Dreamer, are you sleeping?

Here's what Paul the Apostle says in Ephesians 5:14:

AWAKE, O SLEEPER

In this article, we touch on the last stage of the Journey to Wholeness ReFrame, The Results Awakening.

Over the previous articles, we've talked about the other three stages of the ReFrame. 

Each of these builds upon the other to help you create a life of purpose and wholeness. 

The ReFrame Advantage

Dream. Dream, Dream, Dream....

I told a bit of my dreamer story on my podcast, ReInvent Your World. But maybe you haven't heard it, so I'm going to give you the TLDR version here.

In 2012, my husband Richard came home from a week on the road with pain in his right arm. It turns out that the pain was a tumor which had broken the humerus. That began an intense 8-year battle of two kinds of cancer: multiple myeloma and clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Though we prayed and battled, Richard went home to Jesus in July 2020.

I say it this way: one day; I was filled with hopes and dreams of what the future would be as Richard and I travelled and enjoyed our later years. The next, the future went dark.

It isn't exaggerating to say that over the last years, everything in my life has changed. Relationally, emotionally, physically, financially. And if you've experienced any kind of life loss, you know what I mean.

But, God

Ephesians 5:14 says, "Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light."

When I first read this verse in the Greek, it changed my world forever. And when I remembered it in the days of my grief, it created a shift for me.

Basically, it says "stand up from among the dead ones". And when I realized that the things of my past are dead, and I'd been living in the middle of them, mourning them, I understood one powerful thing. The Lord doesn't want me mourning at the grave of the past. He has LIFE for me - and YOU. But we have to choose it.

So, maybe I won't travel with Richard. That doesn't mean my dream of travel has to die. So what if I didn't make the top sales associate in the company I was with at the time? That doesn't mean I can't still excel in the areas He has called me to now.

In fact, that brings up the next point...

Actually, everything I experienced in those 8 years created fresh places of strength, hope, and wisdom in me. I learned to write books. I learned to be a coach. I learned to do social media and on and on and on. Ultimately, those years gave me new dreams, new hopes, and new opportunities.

Unlocking Your Dreamer

If you've read any of my other articles, you'll know that honesty with oneself is the core of my teaching and belief. Because if we aren't honest about how we got to the place we are today, we can't go beyond it.

Albert Einstein reportedly said, "you cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it." In modern terms, Marshall Goldsmith says in his book of the same title, "what got you here won't get you there."

Because Lovely, let's face it. If what you are, or I am, doing is working, we wouldn't be stuck. Agreed?

This is where awakening and unlocking your dreamer begins the deep work.

Ask the Hard Questions

So here are a few of the tough questions we need to ask ourselves:

If the answer to the first or second is "no" then we must dig into the answers of the next. And when you intentionally address the third question, it opens the doors wide for the last. What. Might. Be. Possible?

Good morning, Dreamer.

A Dreamer of Possibilities

Luke 1:37 in the NKJV says:

For with God nothing will be impossible.

What happens when you read that? Do the warning signals roar, or does your heart yearn for it to be true? Maybe both.

Because in our Christian tradition, it almost seems unholy to believe in impossibilities. It feels selfish to want more than we have, or desire to be more than we are.

A mentor of mine, now long gone to heaven, used to say,

"We think humility is saying we don't need or deserve anything nice or good. 'It's okay, just give me that old cracked plate and the chicken neck. That's good enough for me.' But that isn't what the Lord has paid for and provided for us. And to reject the good and promises of the Lord is wrong." Thank you Pat.

Ask the Harder Questions

This is when we need to be the like the father of the boy thrown into the fire by the demonic spirit in Mark 9:24:

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

Where in your life is the Lord asking you to wake up and believe? And to go beyond the believing to the walking it out?

Is it a relationship challenge? Or a financial setback? How about a physical battle? Perhaps mental or emotional turmoil?

As long as we say "this is the way it's always been, so it's the way it will always be" we relegate ourselves to the realm of the problem. 

But when we allow the SUPER of God to come and touch our NATURAL - anything is possible.

A Dreamer Exercise

The Circle of Sevens is a powerful tool. It forces you to brainstorm your way into the world of possibilities. And you don't have to stop at just seven ways. Here's how it works:

What is your challenge? Put it in the center of the circle. Then brainstorm (at least) 7 ways you can meet that challenge. Put those ways in the other circles.

This pulls you up out of the realm where the problem is, into the possibilities of what might be possible.

Here is the place for bravery Lovely One. Things don't change if we don't change. And if we WANT better, we have to THINK better. When we THINK better, we DO better. And when we DO better, life IS better.

What is your next step? Let's talk about it. Apply for a clarity conversation.