Every now and then I watch a movie that stirs my soul in ways that causes me to reflect on the whole concept of sacrifice and what it means. I was watching “Saving Private Ryan” the other day and as I watched the older man playing Ryan, now old and walking slowly, it caused my emotions to swell because I remember his concern in the movie of whether he had lived a good life and was a good man. The captain in the end of the movie, as he was dying, grabbed Private Ryan and said “Make Your Life Count” because a whole squad of men had died to save just one man.  Some people don’t like war movies but this one spells out the great cost of victory.

This is the fourth and final part on dreams, so if you haven’t read the first three, please do so before reading this final article. Dreams are far more important than we have been led to believe and I believe they can be awakened and developed if we understand their importance.

Everyone dreams though not everyone remembers their dreams. Some people have learned to “Process” their dreams and they have found a way to remember what seems elusive to most of us. Dreams are a powerful tool in our lives whether we understand them or not. Some kids have grown up be afraid of their dreams because of perhaps having one particular dream that was more of a nightmare. Some have learned how to “Program” their minds to drift off to dream in a certain way or on a certain subject. Some people just discount dreams all together as a mystery that can’t be understood or just relate them to chemical changes in the body.

All of us experience worry, anxiety and fear from time to time. This is a human experience. These issues become a problem when they become long-standing “friends” that seem to bring about a paralysis in our spiritual and emotional development. When the average professing Christian reads the New Testament the picture that is portrayed is one of victory and success. All too often believers in the forgiveness of Christ aren’t yet sold on how God wants to impart victory as well as forgiveness.

The topic of being spiritually and emotionally paralyzed will be covered in a total of 4 parts. If you have not read the first two parts, I would suggest reading them first. This is Part 3 and we will be covering a root cause that many fear looking at. It’s a target to look at when trying to figure out and overcoming the problem of being spiritually and emotionally paralyzed.  Keep in mind that all of us have a tendency to look for a “silver bullet” fix and resolve our problems no matter what they might be. The truth is that life is often more complex than we care to realize and so are the problems. That being said, there are answers to resolve this problem of being paralyzed in our lives and a passage from the Gospel of John is a good example.

I spent time with a good friend in Denver, Colorado this week and was gripped with a fresh awareness of just how good friends are. We are meant to be encouragers in this life rather than consuming our time and energy purely for our own comport.  How sad when friends gather together with just entertainment as their main objective. We are called to do so much more if we only would listen to the Spirit of God and surrender our will to the Creator who can make our life count for something other than just being a consumer or just for entertainment.

This series started with an article on “What Paralyzes You?“, which dealt with the topic of things in our lives which can paralyze us both physically and spiritually. I also stated that when an area of our soul becomes paralyzed through actions of others or ourselves our perspective of life becomes distorted, thus we live less than God intended. God always intends for us to do great things with our lives yet so few grasp that truth, let alone walk in it, myself included.  If you haven’t read the first article on this topic please read that first.

When I travel around, especially in airports or overseas, I see many people who are paralyzed from various debilitating diseases and it hits me how fortunate and blessed I am to only have a few things wrong with my body that hinder my life experiences at this age. When I see a person who is partially broken or paralyzed I pray a simple prayer for them and myself. First, I apologize to the Lord for my complaining over small pains and problems and I also ask the Lord to bless that particular person with the obvious difficulties. That he or she would be healed both physically, emotionally and spiritually. So often I recognize they do better with their disabilities than I do with my seemingly normal life.

In Part 1 I talked about getting trapped in the deception of idols in our lives. That it’s not just an Old Testament idea or practice. I shared that Israel being set free from the slavery of Egypt were trapped in the wilderness because they continued to have idols in their lives which messed up their relationship with God. Finally, I closed the first article with how Joshua, the leader of Israel after Moses, challenged the Israelites to rid themselves of the idols their parents had brought with them from Egypt and had taught their children to embrace at such a high cost.

So often we go to counseling to help us unravel our past to reveal the things that might have had a negative impact on our lives and therefore cause us to respond to people or behave in some negative way. There is a lot of good that can come from counselors who are gifted in discerning and unraveling past issues and encounters, but have you ever heard of a person going to a counselor and asking the question of why they behave well and make good sound decisions? I’ve been counseling people for nearly 40 years now and in all that time not one person has asked that question.