I've been teaching on the subject "Finding your kingdom dreams" here at the Awakening in Brasov, Romania. The response from the racers has at times been electric. They're getting awakened to all kinds of needs and possibilities as they travel the world and they've begun to dream about how to embrace them.

Remember the Supertramp song "Dreamer"? The lyric taunts, "Dreamer - you're nothing but a dreamer." And we resonate, because who hasn't felt taunted for their dreams?

Most of us are at least ambivalent about our dreams. I'm not talking about the dreams we
have while sleeping. It's our waking dreams and what they might require of us that we're a bit scared of.

We come by dreaming naturally. As children we play at being adults. We create alternative worlds in our daydreams. We dream about getting rich, solving problems, getting married. In this world we're lonely, poor and we feel ugly. In our dream we're a prince or princess. We're inventing a cure for cancer, running a successful business, having a family. We see someone across the room and find him or her "dreamy."

But if someone dreams too much, they have their head in the clouds. They're impractical.

The reality is, dreaming is an important part of living. God is a "dreamer." He shares his dreams with us and lets us call them our dreams. Jesus asks us to pray "your kingdom come." It has not fully arrived - that's God's dream. The world is not spiraling down into decay - it's getting brighter. And we Christians engage our faith when we dream and pray our dreams into being. Dreams are hope-filled visions of the future. With a dream, we have hope and can bring hope to others.

I gave the racers the following points about kingdom dreams:

1. We need a dream

• We are hard-wired for purpose
• We practice dreaming - daydreaming
• AIM was a dream. The World Race was a dream. Swaziland was a dream.

Sometimes we'll go for months or even years without having a dream. It's not a good way to live. We need dreams – they keep us going. God gives us his dreams for us to birth and then steward.

We need to re-imagine our lives from time to time. That's the point of the WR. It introduces you to God's dream for the world and helps you re-invent yourself according to it.

2. Our dream is shaped by four things

• World's needs
• Our passion - heart
• Our plan - head
• Our skills - hands

Most of us have dreams, but they're much too small. They center on our needs. We want a certain kind of car or house or experience or relationship. We need to look beyond our lives for God's dreams.

3. We need to serve someone else's dream first

         There are four reasons why:

• Mentoring - we get it when we serve others.
• Humility - if we get our dreams too fast, we become proud.
• Kingdom connectedness - we borrow the relationships of our mentors.
• Start with a two-year internship somewhere and you'll have the raw materials for your own dreams.

My dream: To fill the nations with God's glory. For the twenty years that AIM has been in existence, I've been dreaming about raising up a generation of radical disciples. I'm starting to see glimpses that the dream could one day become a reality.