Last night I stood in a room and it was actually what I would dream of seeing. I stood in beautiful worship as around the room, looking pretty, was different stations of Painting, Creative Writing (authors, lyric writers, poets, bloggers, journaling), Clay, Play&Create (Lego/duplo), Collage and Restore (a section to rest and have Jesus restore your soul as you soak in His presence).

I didn’t want to go to any of the stations, I’m not arty. I just loved being in this environment. For me I love worship in the sense of just singing and being in the music. Yet I loved being surrounded by people expressing their praise to Jesus through different creative forms.

A friend I was leading with, Gemma, stepped out of her comfort zone to share what she felt God was saying. She had made a shell out of clay. She made a pearl and put it inside then closed it up. When she’d finished she realised that only her & Jesus knew that there was a pearl in there. Anyone else looking at it would have just seen a shell.

This really stuck with me as I thought about this group of creatives in the room. We had a wonderful group of people come whom we have been working with from a refugee centre. They have had to flee their country and come here. Suddenly everything they worked as, their position, their wealth, their connections and friends had all gone. It looks to me as though you can loose your individuality and just feel part of this big group of ‘refugee/asylum seekers’.

Yet last night they had the opportunity to use their gifts. Three of them sat with my friend Lauren, a beautiful artist. She came over to me & said I have to see what they’ve made. I went over and saw each of their incredible drawings/paintings. Like, really incredible! It turns out these three are architects, they met a university. They had position and qualifications and yet now in our country, they are lumped together, at risk of loosing their own identity and are having to start from scratch.

It was beautiful to see them be able to show a pearl that would otherwise be hidden. To see the creativity and skill and celebrate that with them. I know God also spoke to them & met with them through it. The pearls are not hidden from Him, He has been with them every step of the journey and it was an honour to be able to see a glimpse of His kindness.

There were other people last night who have, I’m sure ,been keeping their gift, their creativity, to themselves. Between them & God. Yet I was excited to see that in this safe environment of praise, people we’re opening up and starting to share their pearls.

I came home to a postcard.

I had stood in that room and felt I was stood in a dream I’d had, I loved seeing the vision of it become reality. The team who made it possible-and we’ll do another, but I feel like God was showing me that it’s not too hard for him. Last night didn’t feel hard, even after a very hard week!

I’d started my day feeling miserable. Yet a friend sent a bible verse, I didn’t feel like reading it. She wasn’t happy with my half-hearted reply that ‘I hope I feel it soon’ but told me to declare it over myself. I didn’t feel like it, but I did. Then my 2yr old ran in with his guitar & said “we need to worship mummy”, I didn’t feel like it but you can’t argue with him when it comes to music. So I played guitar and he drummed, we are an awesome band-He lead me in worship. Then it all changed. It lifted me as I declared and worshipped despite feelings or circumstance. I wasn’t pushing through the day waiting for the worship night, I got my breakthrough at 9am, despite not feeling it, by His grace! 

God has pearls in you. He has things that He has given you and maybe they have just been between you & Him. Maybe you don’t feel like sharing! Maybe you don’t feel like asking him for vision and it feels too much. Let’s start by declaring truth. Telling our feelings to come into alignment with our all powerful God, the ultimate creator whose word is the voice of truth.

Let’s start by being little girls/boys with dreams as we worship. Then we can see it’s not too hard for Him as our dreams become visions we see fulfilled. So we dare to dream again and again and again.

I’m excited to dream again..