Pipe Dream

I sat down the whole day yesterday reading scripture, reading A.W. Tozer, and Francis Chan, and watching the video podcast from the church where Francis Chan preaches. One idea or concept keeps coming back to haunt me and convict me. It's the idea that if we call ourselves Christians and have the power of God in us, our lives ought to show evidence of that power. I mean just listen to that phrase... when we believe, we are filled with SPIRIT OF GOD! When we say we are Christians, we are saying to the world that we have the SPIRIT OF GOD inside us. If that's true shouldn't that Spirit be very apparent to all those we come in contact with. I am convicted by this deeply lately because I think its very possible that the secular world I come in contact with wouldn't know me to be any different than anyone else. Is the Holy Spirit so evident in my life that people could look at me, people who didn't really know me that well, and would they know that I am who I say I am?
Francis Chan had a really good analogy on a video podcast sermon I watched yesterday. Let's say we played basketball in a church basketball league and all the while we were playing you knew me to be a very average to less than average player. Then in the off season one day I come up to you and explain that I feel that the Spirit of God has really filled me and has supernaturally enabled me to be amazing at basketball, and that next season I am going to be completely amazing at basketball because the Spirit has enabled me to be so. Then when the season comes around, you discovery that I am the same old out of shape and slow Rick, and I am no better at basketball than I was the previous year. How would that look? What would you think of me? You'd think that either I am liar... or a fool... and it would appear that I had just made a mockery of the Holy Spirit. Is it not the same in life. If we profess to be how we say we are, should it not show? Anyway, deeply convicted of this lately I wrote a new song yesterday. It's got some harshness and aggressiveness to it, but I wrote the song to myself and I do feel strongly that its something the Holy Spirit has been laying upon my heart lately. So my hope is that this song will push some buttons for other people as well and get us all thinking about what it is that we really believe, and how we are portraying that to the world around us. It's called Pipe Dream.

Pipe Dream

You say you believe
but you live like you're diseased
you make the whole world laugh at me
as if I'm only your pipe dream

cause what I see in your life
is that opposites deny
the very truth you keep inside

and that you only love when you've been loved
and only give when you've had enough
and you keep the least of these away from me

You say you believe
but you live like you're diseased
you make the whole world laugh at me
as if I'm only your pipe dream

so tell me one more time
that you want me in your life
cause I can see right through your lies

and that you only love when you've been loved
and only give when you've had enough
and you keep the least of these away from me

You say you believe
but you live like you're diseased
you make the whole world laugh at me
as if I'm only your pipe dream

maybe dreams mean more to you
maybe you're more false than true
maybe I'm not real to you
maybe we are nearly through