Category: jumping tandem: the retreat

Gate: A Means of Entrance or Exit

I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.
(John 10:9-10 The Message)

See the freedom Jesus has provided?
 To enter and exit
as He watches over you and me.
He is the gate from death unto life.
Cemeteries are for the dead.
Come and live the incredible life
that surpasses the grave.
This gate reminds me of the night Jennifer Dukes Lee bravely stood before us to share her dream journey, to bolster our courage in order to remove the obstacles of sin and fear from our path.
She said, “Gates are made to pass through.” As I look back over my notes, I can’t remember if the invitation to write our sins on the rock came before or after the gate illustration, but now it doesn’t seem to matter. I just remember the hard struggle I had to identify my sin or at least the one I was willing to write on the rock. And as I struggled, I realized I had to write the word that was keeping me from passing through the gate or I would never get to those green, lush pastures that Jesus promised.
I didn’t want to write my word because it didn’t seem as important as other sins (comparison points out my sin).  I thought my sin was more difficult to overcome. Fear and self-doubt seemed easier to release in light of God’s love. (I’m not saying that it is, it just felt that way to me in the moment.)
My struggle to even write the word on the rock indicated my sin. I was afraid I might get the wrong word or that I might make the wrong choice. Most of my life I have been afraid of getting it wrong. And in that moment, clear as the glass pebble, we would receieve Sunday morning, I knew I had to write PRIDE on my rock.
Both fear of failure and fear of success are rooted in pride, in the belief that I control my accomplishments and in the doubt that if I don’t get it right, I somehow don’t measure up to God’s standards. Pride in my life has often worn two faces: self-sufficiency and self-pity. Two sides of the same sin.
Placing the rock in the basket was a simple, physical act that released a rush of joy into my soul. And to see Jennifer’s daughters throw them into the bottom of the lake is a visual reminder of how God has triumphed over and over again in all of our struggles, and that we are not alone.
But I know whom I have believed,
and am persuaded that He is ABLE 
to keep that which I’ve committed
unto Him against that day.
(I Know Whom I Have Believed David Whittle, 1883)
Posted on by kelrohlf 2

Revisiting the Dream Retreat

In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the saying will come true:

 
Death swallowed by triumphant Life!
Who got the last word, oh, Death?
Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now?
 
It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God!


With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work [the dream] of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.  (1 Corinthians 15:53-58  The Message)

 
 
As I strolled through the historic Key West cemetery, I was looking for some metaphor of life overcoming death. Mostly I saw rusted gates and concrete angels. Row upon row of family plots and cement boxes stacked on top of each other memoralizing lives now gone. Some were topped with crosses and others with plastic beads and silk flowers.
 
Then I came upon this plot, where the cement beds looked quite worn, the names of the deceased long eroded. Yet grass was growing up through the cracks. How can life flourish in the midst of death? That is the miracle of resurrection and Easter.
 
And that is the mystery of dreams.
 
Just about the time you believe your dream has died and been long buried, growth appears. An idea pushes up through the cracks.
 
I checked the church calendar today. It’s the sixth week of Easter. Most of the candy is gone, the palm branch is drying out and the fancy clothes have been pushed to the back of the closet, but the pulsing life of Jesus still runs through my soul. It calls me to live and to dream big. To embrace the resurrection power. To claim a mind that is not daunted by fear, but filled with Spirit strength and love and sound thinking.
The dreamer’s retreat has faded to the back of my mind, but I still pull out the notes I scribbled in my notebook, looking for those words that moved me and affirmed that I should keep moving ahead.
 

I appreciated how Holley Gerth  invited us to explore practical, tangible ways to handle our dreams: Write your dream on a card. Draw three intersecting circles and list your skills, your strengths and those people you want to serve. What connections do you discover?

I rediscovered that I am an encourager who loves to use words and creativity to draw out the beauty of our God-created identities, so together we can live generously and graciously toward one another, like God lives towards us. (See Matthew 5:48b The Message)

 
And that’s the point. Holley said it well, “God is the point of the God-sized dream.”
 
 
Posted on by kelrohlf 6

Going to the Chapel of Love

 
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world
that you are my disciples.
(John 13:34-35 NLT)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Holy Family Shrine, Nebraska
 
 
 
On a hill faraway in the prairie of Nebraska, we noticed this beautiful chapel. We jumped off the interstate, turned down a country road and rambled up the hill to dedicate our dreams to God. (We just had spent the weekend at Jumping Tandem-The Retreat, you remember the place where dreams were unveiled and affirmed.)
 
After visiting the  chapel, we noticed Jesus on our way out, or at least a sketch of His face smiling at us from a postcard. On the back was a prayer and a challenge that beautifully described what we had just experienced:
 
 
“Nothing is more practical than finding God,
than falling in love
in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination,
will affect everything.
It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you will do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read, who you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in love,
stay in love,
and it will decide everything.”
(Father Pedro Arrupe, S.J.)
 

 
Posted on by kelrohlf 10

Jumping Tandem Dreams from Lynn Morrissey {Guest Post}

For nothing will be impossible with God.
(Luke 1:37 ESV)
 
 
The Jumping Tandemretreat—the one all about seemingly impossible dreams—was a dream come true. Imet women I’ve longed to meet, whose faces I’ve only seen and whose hearts I’veonly known, as they bare them generously on the screen, across time and spaceand cybermiles. But actually to meet them in person, to converse tête-a-tête,heart-to-heart, soul to soul, was breathtaking. What transpired in Ashland,Nebraska in the rich workshops, the shared meals, the walks and talks, prayersand commitments, laughter and tears, gleanings and healings, and always the embraces, irrevocably changedus, like wine poured through water. Each dreamer’s heart was indelibly coloredby His Spirit and the dream He alone has infused there. Using the acrostic, JUMPINGTANDEM DREAMS, I share this alpha poem, hopefully to capture what it means todare to dream His dream for you.Never give up. It’s impossible to stop dreaming His dreams, because with Him, all things are possible!

Just when I think there is not one dream left to dream, I come to
Understand that dreams aren’t mostly about me, but the Dream
Maker. When God
Puts a dream in your heart, whether He
Iniates it with a gentle
Nudge or catapults it with a
Gargantuan push, the question is whether I will jump in His

Timing, engage in His
Activity, and revel in the
Nuances that define His
Dream for me. If it’s just mydream, it will be
Endangered. It will die in the self-
Made idol factory of my heart, where other

Dreams have been forged, and then have
fragmented.
Real dreams, God-designed dreams, are inspired by Him and
Emerge like butterflies from the
Atrophied chrysalides of our human hearts. God’s dreams always
Mount on wings and soar on the breath of His Spirit. They
Soar with His purpose and passion, with pleasure and promise …

(Copyright 2013. All Rights Reserved. Lynn D. Morrissey)
Lynn D. Morrissey, is a Certified Journal Facilitator (CJF), founder of Heartsight Journaling, a ministry for reflective journal-writing, author of Love Letters to God: Deeper Intimacy through Written Prayer and other books, contributor to numerous bestsellers, an AWSA and CLASS speaker, and professional soloist. She and her beloved husband, Michael, have been married since 1975 and have a college-age daughter, Sheridan. They live in St. Louis, Missouri.
You may contact Lynn at words@brick.net.
Please feel to comment on this post, as she will be checking comments. As all writers do, she appreciates feedback and your responses to her work.
 
 
Posted on by kelrohlf 9

Not Alone from Kelly Greer {Guest Post}

 
A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.  
(Ecclesiastes 4:12 NLT)

Today, I am giving the floor to Kelly Greer, over at Ain’t No Mountain Too High. I know you will be blessed by her reflections from her experience at Jumping Tandem: The Retreat. She is a soul sister, who always has your back with encouraging words and dynamic prayers.

And now . . . here’s Kelly!

My Photo

I packed in a hurry, indecision stuffing my bag with more than I needed, insecurity filling it to the brim. I was off to a retreat with women who are somewhere in their dream journey. A place my heart longs to be, living the dream.

Click here to read the rest of her heart.



Posted on by kelrohlf 2