“I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.” Joel 2:28 NIV

My wife and I have been blessed with three kids of our own. They, in turn, blessed us with some “extra” kids. In addition, some of their friends have grown to be part of our family. It’s a pretty cool thing to be able to watch them succeed in life. They get married, they have kids, and we get to have a place in their lives as well.

One of those kids called us to ask us to hold – I mean carefully supervise educational play – her one-month-old son. This momma used to be one of Jordyn’s closest friends. Jordyn called her a soul sister. We love educating babies, you know – for their future.

My wife was first in line to hold this beautiful human being. When she finally gave me a turn, I settled in nicely. There is no more relaxing thing on earth than having a baby. I cannot hold on to stress or worry with a baby around. It’s special.

This one-month-old was dreaming, as I could see rapid eye movement when he smiled in his sleep. He sometimes cried while he was sleeping. His breathing changed to match the emotional changes I could see on his face. He slept for over an hour while I was holding him – I mean, teaching him to stay still. He dreamed nearly the entire time.

This baby has not experienced much in his life. Sleep, eat, poop – repeat. I started to wonder what in the world he was dreaming. I have wondered what is going on in another person’s mind from being around our son. We are talking about 30 days of human existence.

I realize that human experience varies for us all. Some people experience many struggles, while others seem to fly through life with ease. But I think we live far below our potential, not in terms of physical ability or accomplishment, but in terms of spiritual capacity. So do we stop dreaming about what God says is possible?

Some struggles are extreme – losing a loved one, life-threatening illness, divorce, and many others are genuine. But I think we let some struggles become more than they should. For example, if you struggle financially, have you allowed your mind to dream about overcoming that, whether in fact or perception? If your marriage is struggling, do you allow yourself to dream about it thriving?

Do we dream of dreams, or do we dream nightmares while wide awake? Do we seek to prophesy into our own lives, or do we let the world set the narrative? Naturally, the world wants to establish a negative story. But, if a one-month-old baby can dream with no experience, why do we make our minds set the limits of what we think is possible? Maybe deep inside a 30-day old human is something pre-wired by the creator Himself. Perhaps he dreams about something God planted in him while I tend to let it be covered with work, stress, anxiety, and “experience.” Maybe the same wiring is still inside us.

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