Thank you for allowing me to share my heart with you. Each year, a theme seems to come out of “IDB” and this year was no different. One word…hope. I know first-hand what it feels like to live without it and I know what it feels like to be overflowing with it. A simple word – the extreme depth of emotion that it represents, the power and beauty, is so easily lost through the struggles of life.

But the absolute best thing about hope is that every one of us is fully capable of giving this incredible gift to others; it doesn’t cost anything. I say that because love is free, it is freely given to us from the Lord and we are designed to pour it out freely ourselves. This year, we focused our efforts as a team on finding those dark places of hopelessness and replacing them with an abundance of hope, emphasizing the second greatest commandment – to love your neighbor as yourself.

This act of “find and replace” was impressed upon me 4 years ago when I made a commitment to God to change my life and the miracle of His grace; that influx of hope in my life, started with a literal dream. You see, dreaming gives us hope, and dreaming is where it all starts. One of the greatest feelings in the world is the power of a dream within your heart. The great MLK Jr’s famous speech began with, “I have a dream.” He dreamt of a society of racial equality where all will be treated as children of God.

In 2010, I too had a dream and at that time it seemed to me as crazy as MLK’s dream likely was to him. However, as I looked around the room tonight, both dreams had become a reality. Pursuing a dream in the face of resistance takes tons of prayer, fortitude, resilience, desire, support and will. These are the heart of longing for a better tomorrow with incredible efforts made today; efforts displayed by all the people involved in making this celebration happen tonight.

Ironically, a God given dream is simultaneously the best and worst feeling you can experience. It’s exhilarating because it is beyond your ability but it is frightening for the exact same reason – the battle is balancing that emotional tension, and facing this fear.

Romans 12:6-8 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. We all have the capacity to dream, we all have been given gifts, now let’s put them into action! You can make an impact, be a game changer, achieve more, reach higher, alter history for the better and leave a mark on this World. You are more than you think and YOU DO HAVE HOPE. It is time to ripple the “water” around you.

“IDB” 2014 ~ one dream + lots of selflessness + an abundance of love = restored hope: 400 people entered the doors tonight as strangers and 3 hours later, left as friends, each making impressions on one another’s hearts…..A perfect recipe of hope transformed

When you are sick, Dream of health. When you are in poverty, Dream of prosperity. When you feel like a failure, Dream of success. When you are feeling low, Dream of upliftment. Dream surplus out of lack. Dream heaven out of hell. Dream love out of hate.

Consider this, in a drug and alcohol induced state walking into a bus at a Nascar race to get free chewing tobacco, I stared at hundreds of magnets and I chose three individual words. I Dream Beautiful, not knowing why. Five years later, I am constantly reminded of how awesome God’s grace is and that he has a plan for all of us even if it makes absolutely no sense at the time.

Right now, tonight, Dec. 21, 2014 I challenge you to not only start Dreaming Beautiful, but to give the best gift you can ever give, hope…and lets change the World around us. Never stop dreaming friends and always be more-self-less.

Merry Christmas and happy birthday Jesus,
Brady Schmitz

IDB main 2014
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