His birth was untimely, amidst a mass genocide. The authorities permitted a purge, the legal murder of infant boys. That didn’t stop his mama from doing everything she could to protect her baby. She committed a felony by hiding her son from the powers that be. Her maternal instinct was stronger than the will of an evil dictator. She hid him for as long as she could. The day came when she sent him along the river to be discovered in the reeds by a woman who could save him.
His big sister trailed behind and convinced the stranger to hire someone to nurse him. The stranger, a compassionate woman, agreed with the little girl. Someone should nurse the baby, and she, a woman of means, of power, would protect him.
She could have used her power to destroy the baby boy, but she chose to wield it for his protection. Before he could even utter his own name, his life had the ups and downs of a well-scripted play. Loss, separation, and a dramatic rescue marked young Moses’ life.
One day he would do great things and dream great dreams of freedom, but first, God orchestrated his first act from the shadows by enabling strong women to live from a place of conviction: his mama, his sister, and his adoptive mama.
Moses went on to be a great man who stepped into a grand destiny as the emancipator of the Israelites from Egypt. But before all of that, women of conviction, women who wouldn’t bow to the powers of the day, stood their ground, and made a way for a sweet baby boy to make it past his first birthday. They dreamed of greater things than simple adherence to a regime that lived in fear of an uprising. Their dreams bucked the system. Their commitment to resistance was born of conviction.
In this modern day, we have opportunities, whether we see them coming or not, to dream of greater things for the people around us: the people in our own home, our community, our nation, and our world. We can go along with the popular, accepted culture that has no problem demeaning, ostracizing, or demonizing that which we don’t understand, agree with, or fear, or we can allow our convictions to define our next move. We can dream of living with grace, beauty, dignity, and compassion. While that may not sound all that flashy, it will change the world.
Think of Malala Yousafzai, Margaret Thatcher, or Rosa Parks. Think of Clara Barton, Sojourner Truth, or Mother Teresa. What do these women, who lived at different times in history all have in common?
Conviction. Tons of it.
It changed the way they lived. It changed the way they dreamed.
Like them, we can assess our reality and dream of what can be. We can live from a place of conviction and dream with conviction. We can boldly stand our grand, even in the face of opposition and carry on. We aren’t after popularity or fame, our dreams are far more sacred than that. We are after the life that we, deep down, know we were created to live for. One of freedom, grace, peace, and truth.
Perhaps you feel there isn’t much in your life that is amiss or nothing in your world that seems out of balance. If that’s the case, dream on behalf of those who feel cut off at the knees, those who feel like they can’t catch a break, or for those who feel like no one is coming for them.
How do I know who that is? you may ask. You can usually find where your conviction lies when you think about what breaks your heart or what leaves you in a puddle of tears. What makes you sick to your stomach? Is it when someone else has less access to the same table of life, justice, and equity as you? Is it the sweet mama down the street who feels like it’s all too much? Is it your kid’s friend who comes over hungry? Is it the images of those babies in the refugee camps? For some of us, we dream of serving those who won’t have to endure the hardships we did. For others, it may be a dream of creating connections that benefit the people around us. For all of us, there is room for our gifts, skills, power, and conviction to convene, marking out a path to chase dreams. Every one of us was born to dream, born to journey toward something greater. The best part about chasing our dreams is that, more often than not, others are blessed by our noble pursuit.
When a woman dreams, the status quo is no longer the goal. She knows greater, sweeter, majestic ways await the one who gets up every morning with a conviction that life for her and those she loves can be different.
We can be the revolutionaries our hearts long to see rise up and we can dream of living our lives differently. If a mama refused to give in to the orders of the ancient day, just think what you and I are capable of when we live from a place of conviction.
Remember, that’s why Malala spoke up.
That’s why Margaret Thatcher ran for office.
That’s why Rosa Parks sat.
It was their conviction that led them to dream great dreams, to live the life they knew they were created for.
If they can speak up, raise their voice, and stand for freedom, so can we.
We can be dreamers who pursue the dream at all costs, against the odds, and live with conviction, because we know that when we dream, others will be immeasurably blessed.
This blog was inspired by my latest book She Dreams, available wherever books are sold.