Be the Ball

I know that is an interesting title, and one that will hopefully be a bit clearer shortly. In prayer this morning I was reminded of a dream I had back in October.  I wrote about in my blog at that time, but am including it here again.


I woke from an interesting dream which has Spiritual connotations. In my dream I was in a class with several people and our teacher had assigned us several simple tasks. The first task is the one that really stands out. He had several bowling pins set-up and spread-out over a large area. He gave us a tennis ball and asked us to try and get a strike (knock all the pins down with one throw or roll. All of us tried to throw or roll the tennis ball to knock down the pins but were clearly unsuccessful. Once we all failed, the teacher stepped forward and said, "Let me demonstrate how to do this task." He then proceeded to place the ball between his knees, holding it in place, and walked to each pin and knocked it over, simply completing the task. We were all dumb-struck at the simplicity of the solution. None of us had thought outside the normal rules of the game of bowling.


At that time I woke up and immediately thought of the verse from Isaiah 55:8, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD."  The Lord was clearly speaking about learning to think outside the box, looking at things through His eyes.


This morning as I was praying I felt like the Lord gave me additional insight. In this imagery, my effort is like the tennis ball, relatively ineffective in light of the task before it, but if I am wielded by Him, I can become very effective.   If I maintain connection with Him and let Him direct me, I will see impossible things accomplished. The teacher is clearly the Holy Spirit, and I just need to let myself be used by Him.


Lord help me to allow myself to be used by You, help me to be the ball.