Enlarge the place of your tent and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. Isaiah 54:2 ESV

I have always been considered a bit of a klutz. I find black and blues like other people find pennies.  My biggest accomplishment as “Klutz Extraordinaire” came two years ago when I took a misstep on my stairs. I wound up breaking all the bones in my ankle and ripping off all the ligaments and tendons. My foot dangled in the ambulance.

My new cast meant a few things:

• I was non-weight bearing for -----ever.
• I wouldn’t drive for------ever.
• I wouldn’t be able to get up the stairs into my bed for------ever.

The recliner was my new best friend and a wheelchair would serve as my hotrod for the months to come.  I settled into a new pattern and established my small world in my Living Room.  The first two weeks I was getting used how to do life on one leg.  By the third week, I was bored. By the fourth week, I was melancholic.

I noticed I wasn’t sleeping well and was restless as the evening approached.  One thing was different: my mind was empty. All the thoughts, plans, and projects that spoke to me, had vanished. Before the accident, dreams, plans, and adventures were my companions as I drifted off to sleep. After the accident, my ankle consumed every aspect of my being. My circumstances had overtaken me.  I was robbed of hope and joy, allowing my trial to dictate every aspect of my awareness, defining my very being.

You might be in a season in which your circumstances have overshadowed every aspect of your being.  I want to speak to your dreams today. I want to remind them that they have a place in your heart.  I would like to give them permission to erupt into your consciousness again.  I would like to encourage you to blow the dust off those projects and get behind those adventures again.  I want to encourage you not to allow any season to overshadow your purposes and passions.  If you were to enlarge the place “of your tent”, i.e. to enlarge the very small world of your circumstances to a broader view, and if you were to not hold back as you stretched out the scope of your habitation…..what would your everyday look like? What if your present circumstances did not own your present and your future?

I had to choose to deal with the challenges that were my new reality, but I didn’t have to let them define me. How will you break free from your circumstances? What if you started today by simply allowing the thoughts, plans, and talents of yesterday to be allowed to exist in your today? Can you write down adventures you want to go on?  Talents that you let slip away through the ins and outs of daily life? Dreams that are so big only God can bring them into being?  

Jesus, Would You ignite the purposes and passions that You planted within us before there was time? Help us to shift our eyes from our present circumstances, allowing us to dream again. Remove every barrier, so that we may take the next step in fulfilling Your purposes and passions. Give us the strength to walk in our present circumstances with patience and grace, strength and dignity. In Jesus’ Name,  Amen.

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