Gum

My first long-term layoff lasted a year and a half. During that time, my second church plant attempt also failed. It was a sad time, a hard time, a really, really frustrating time. A perfect time for growth…

Hebrews 12:7

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons.

When you go through something like that the first thing you do is ask God why. Not to question His plan, but to make every attempt to understand what our correct response should be.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“Is there some hidden sin?”

“Am I missing some direction you are pointing to?”

To do this, I spent lots of time in prayer and contemplation; searching for any message of direction, or hope from the Father.

He was pretty silent.

So, I figured out that if there was something I was doing wrong, He would have pointed it out. If there was a new direction, He would have shown me the way. No, it was just a time of trial for growth in Faith, Hope and Love. Yup, He was pretty silent through most of that year and a half. He did, however, give me a re-occurring dream. If I remember correctly, I had it roughly every other month for about a year. It had slight background variations, but the main theme was always the same.

The Dream:

I was chewing gum. Standing, sitting, or walking, I was always chewing gum. The gum would lose flavor and I would spit it out. However, one small piece would be stuck in between my teeth. That piece would start to grow. It would grow bigger than the size of the gum, that I had just spit out.

I would spit out the gum, again. Yet, still another piece was stuck in my teeth, and it would grow to fill my mouth. The dream would end with me in a panic pulling gum out of my mouth as fast as I could while it continued to grow, faster and faster. Creepy…

Since our church plant had failed, we began to again attend the church that sent us out. One of the pastors there, named Emmanuel Qureshi , was from India. Emmanuel had taken a course from a prophetically gifted man on dream interpretation. So, I went to ask him about the dream. I have no idea how solid the course was, it was just the reason that I picked Emmanuel to talk to about the dream.

When I told Emmanuel the dream, he said…”It is funny that you came to me about the dream, because in my native language, from the village where I grew up, the word “gum” means “worry””… God made His point. I never had the dream again.

Sad to say, I am in a similar situation right now… and I am still chewing on my “gum”. Although, remembering His message to stop “chewing”, I am a wee bit better at it now than I was back then.

Faith, Hope and Love, are always worth growing into. Faith in Jesus and His plan, Hope for a great end result in His timing, and trust in His Love, that He is doing this for our benefit. Remember… the hardship shows that we are His sons and daughters. The Father never wastes His time… He will finish the work He began in us… and it will end in a perfect creation.