Dreams, desires and passions

"God is not in the business of helping you succeed at achieving your dreams -- even ones that involve sacrifice for His purposes. In fact, I believe he is more committed to dissolving and re-creating our dreams. God births dreams in us and then allows the desire to move us; it is in the pursuit of our dreams that we encounter tragedy and meet the deeper desires that only loss and heartache reveal" - To Be Told - Dan Allender

This is the quote that has been on my mind for the last couple of days. I think that it describes my thinking and my outlook both before and after this week. I am no longer going to Syria. It was my dream and it was even a dream that involved sacrifice for His purpose. I could have sworn that this year in Syria was God's plan, even to the point that I felt like I could see the way that he was working to prepare me for this all spring. Now that dream has been dissolved and I see the way that God has been working in a different light and with a different purpose.

Thus what I feel like I must do now is to continue to pursue my dream, but this time I am searching for the deeper desires, for the recreated dream that God is working to create in me. Yet again I find myself searching with only my passions in mind. But more than just my passions I am looking for the way that my passions can reflect the glory of God. Hopefully that will become clear in the coming days.

I want to leave you all with the two things which have played a major part in this search in the last week. The first in Josh Garrels new Album "Love & War & the Sea In Between" which is amazing especially the song "Further Along". The second is the book "To Be Told" which is helping me to place all of this in context and rethink my plans in the context of the story of my life.