When I saw her in the dream, she exuded fab.  She sauntered in high heels and a tailored dress, her red hair sweeping wild over beaming eyes.

But the girl before me: her eyes are hidden dim behind frames.  Her hair, the color of auburn leaves drenched by fall rain, drips over stooped shoulders.  As I prepare myself to tell her something she doesn’t want to hear today — that our ministry has to let her go — I suddenly remember her in the dream that circled my mind all the night:  in the dream she was radiant, exuberant.  Her confidence swelled a room of a thousand people.  That hot red swoop of her hair swept the man beside her off his feet.  She oh-so-brashly waved goodbye to me, clicking away in stellar heels, not an insecurity in a single cell of her body.  In the dream, she was life to the full.  Her best self.

As I deliver the news of her release, the real girl in my office understands.  Then speaks, her voice cracking hard and heart spilling wide open.  Insecurity floods the space.

When truth gushes, we cannot brush past it.

Her truth is that of so many!  It’s truth I’ve known and walked:  she’s afraid.  In the past, a former boss slayed her with words of anger, insulting cuts that made her fear to be confident in who she is.

But two nights prior in the dream, I saw who she is, who she can be, the way her Creator made her.

Herein lies the cry of our hearts, to be known as we are, to be fabulous as we are made.  To declare, “Body and soul, I am marvelously made!”  (Ps 139:14 MSSG)

You are More than you think you are:  more Beautiful, Stronger, Wiser.  In the light of Christ, security is totally accessible to you.  As He is in your reach, Security is at your fingertips if you just extend your hand to His.

In His eyes, you are already your best. You already have Peace and Joy and Strength for the battle you are facing.

If we are going to spend eternity with Him this way, why don’t we start with confidence today?  Not “US” confidence; GOD confidence.  Security that we are His talented, destined, appointed children on a journey with Him by our side.

What would happen if you dreamt of your redeemed self?  What would your walk look like?  Your talk?  Your dress?  Your stature?

If we are going to spend forever WHOLE, maybe we should all stop walking BROKEN.

Whatever words slayed you in the past, whatever experience shook your best self, whatever way you’ve lived that you want to shed like old skin — shed.

The girl before me in my office wipes tears for the second time, and we laugh about how a new fiery red haircut could be a good start.  She leaves my house ready for a new day, where her past won’t determine her future.  Ready to find a GOD-confidence that won’t fade or slump or dim, but will grow brighter and more beautiful within her.

What can God redeem in you today?  Ask Him to show you how he sees “marvelously made” YOU — you with those big dreams and that big heart and that GOD confidence that could fill a room of a thousand people (or an audience of One), if only you would let it.

In love,