Pursuing the Dream-Breather
Posted by Caroline Collie
At the end of my first overseas mission trip, three months in Mexico had placed a burning passion in me to spend my life serving the Lord in missions. Though I didn’t know what it would look like, I knew my life would never be the same.The next summer I visited South Africa and Zambia. I fell in love with the people and culture of SA. That knowing I’d felt before was present again. But I left Mama Africa with another sense in my heart, too.
As strange as it sounds saying it, I felt I’d heard the Lord say I was going to marry a South African. Hesitant to be certain, I decided to treasure this whisper of a dream in my heart, and see if the Lord brought it about. I knew I had to keep pursuing Jesus.
The following spring I spent a week scouting out the land for a church plant in Edinburgh, Scotland. I left with a heart torn for Scotland, and began to pray what Peter said before he got out of the boat: “Lord if it’s You, bid me come.” If the Lord wanted me in Edinburgh, I trusted I’d hear, and after a few months, I heard an unmistakable “Come.”
There was one uncomfortable uncertainty as I prepared for an unknown future in a new country. I feel like I’m going to marry a South African. But I’m moving to Scotland. I (fearfully) wondered if this puzzle could fit together. Many suggested, “I bet you’ll meet your husband in Scotland!” I’d smile, but think... I seriously doubt it.
Little did I know the land of the Scots had South Africans by the dozen. One in particular, whom I met a few days after my arrival in Edinburgh, would two years later become my husband.
While I have a treasure-chest of life lessons after four years in Scotland, there’s one that stands out: Above all else, keep pursuing God. Trust Him, and don’t lean on your own perceptions of how things are or how they might become.
With God’s leading, the move of a rook that looked like the death (or postponement) of a dream on the chessboard of my life has often been the move that put me in the right position to gain a victorious checkmate, and a dream come true.
Psalm 37: 3-4 says Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
I’m still learning to trust the Lord with my dreams…to follow Him into valleys, even when it seems mountaintops are the right direction. I’ve found that when I keep pursuing the Dream-Breather, He places the right dreams in my heart, and I have the joy of seeing Him breathe life into them, until one after another, they become beautiful out-of-the-boat reality.
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Caroline Collie is a thinker and a dreamer, a Missionary Mom, and a lover of bacon and avocado. She and her husband, and their Scottish-African-American son, live just outside Cape Town, SA and are the Directors of a Charity called Samaritan’s Feet South Africa. You can read more from Caroline at her blog, From Africa, With Love.
