“God is the ideal, and we want what He made us for. But we get shifty, wanting something quicker and slicker that it comes or in a way that He didn’t intend. We reach lower than the sky for what we can touch and create and spin that feels and looks like Him. My ideals had more power than I realized before I named them. Before I noticed them.”- Sara Hagerty
In Chapter 5 (“The Myth of Dreaming with God”) of The Gift of Limitations, Sara Hagerty that dreams can satisfy one’s hunger to live in a fantasy. Not big dreams but tiny dreams. Dreams with an outsized potency to wreak havoc.
However, Sara notes, many of us do the dance of wanting not too much and not too little either, albeit unknowingly. And each end of the spectrum carries the feeling that our desires limit us.
Consequently, we need to separate the sweet inception of idealism from clinging to those ideals more than clinging to Jesus. Because those ideals function as a cover for our discontent. One that’s bigger than we know how to name.
Above all, our pursuit of idealism makes it tempting to skip steps. Thus, in the process our hearts wind up getting cheated. Because idealism diffuses hope. In our idealism, we think that we sow into a dream of God’s heart. But in reality, we’re trying to avoid feeling the pain of what isn’t.
In conclusion, Sara counsels:
“What isn’t rarely gets named, yet its power in and throughout our lives is unparalleled. . . . Idealism can become an intoxicating way of avoiding the pain of what’s real, right in front of us. The temptation when we’re faced with a life that isn’t matching our ideals is to lose the ability to live in what’s real and, instead, to imbibe discontentment.
We are master pain evaders, and idealism, cloaked in spiritual language, can become a sophisticated tool for those who’d rather not face the pain of what’s in front of them.”
Today’s question: What Bible verses help you counter the desire to reach lower than the sky? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “False peace of avoidance”
