Down the Rabbit Hole
By Susan McKenzie, in the series: "On the Way Home"
Have you ever dreamed you were late – like, very late – for a very important date? Alice, from the movie, Alice in Wonderland was fortunate to see the rabbit (no one else did!) and courageous enough to leave her engagement party to follow the rabbit who impertinently kept pointing to a watch dangling from a gold chain. "You're late! You're late for a very important date!" the rabbit cried to Alice.
Some of us are running late. We each have a purpose in life to accomplish! Most of us may miss it because we've fallen asleep on the job. We've lost our creativity and imagination!
We grew up. We got jobs. We work and work and work… for someone else.
Fortunately, for Alice, she fell down the rabbit hole instead of taking on an identity her culture was imposing on her. She landed in a new and strange world where her curiosity outweighed her anxieties.
Hardly knowing whether up was down or down was up, if small was large or large was small, Alice discovered clues every step of the way to help her, as if Someone had planned this odd adventure especially for her.
Little did Alice realize this was a date with destiny and this parallel dimension, if you want to call it that, was to be the preparation she would need to break away entirely from the world's system in her natural realm. She was escaping to freedom.
Alice learned that she must, once again, become like the child she used to be in order to break free. She had to trust her instincts and trust that the right answers would be there for her at the right time. In fact, in breaking free she was destined to set a whole world free, both in Wonderland and in her natural homeland.
Perhaps the message is: Just do what everyone says can't be done!
“Seldom do well behaved women make history”~ Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Alice was poised to marry a very influential man and start her family, and in her culture that was the highest dream a girl could hope to achieve. It still is a very good dream. But Alice was destined for something more, something different. She was to take the seeds of her father's dream and plant them in China, creating trade routes that had never been conceived before as possible. She changed the world!
Most people are still sleeping and it's getting late – very late. They have conformed to their culture's expectations. Like well-programmed machines they get up each morning, send off their kids to educational institutions to program their minds, enter into the rat race of commuting to work, get their jobs done, try to eat and exercise, and do all the right things.
Perhaps the message is: Move in the opposite direction!
Cultural expectations are like a strong riptide that will grab and pull you off course, and I was one of the victims. My dreams were shipwrecked. I lost my creativity. I "grew up" and did the right things and experienced a measure of happiness and success. But something was amiss. It took a spiritual tsunami to wake me up.
"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." ~ Henry David Thoreau
It's takes a little bit of crazy to defy our culture. Yet it's the crazy people who change history.
Only childlike people dare to do the "impossible" on a daily basis. That's the problem with growing up… we leave our childlike faith behind, shrinking or ignoring our dreams. We don't want to be pestered by the "something more" we could have done.
Yet Someone leaves the door open. We may be too busy during the daytime to hear the knocking. So He arrives in our dreams at night.
He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds. ~ Job 33:15
Vivid dreams can be annoying. You may think you need a psychiatrist. You may be tempted to ask for a prescription to help you sleep. When, in reality, the child within you may be trying to wake you up! Your true destiny may be at stake.
Most people are not even aware of their purpose in life. Even fewer people learn how to create goals to use as a rudder and compass in the sea of "busy-ness" to chart their path to that purpose.
It's important to chart your dreams, visions, and your progress toward those goals. It helps to keep you awake and focused in the sea of busy-ness that will so often blow you off course with the winds of cultural expectations and norms.
Don't conform to the world. Don't just float, sleepily unaware, without a vision, a purpose, and goals to get you to where you need to be!
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. ~ Romans 12:2
Your dreams may be like Alice's rabbit, urging you and pointing you to your destiny. You may not understand them right now, but writing them down will help show you what the child within you already knows.
Let your childlike imagination come to the forefront. Become childlike again. Trust the right clues will be there when you need them.
Dare to dream. Dare to follow your dreams. Become childlike. It's how you enter the Kingdom of God!
“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ~ Matthew 18:3
Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to – to God's kingdom." ~ John 3:3
Saying a "sinner's prayer" might get you "saved" – or it might not. Going to church might help you, or it might not. I went to church and said the prayer and led others to say the prayer but I did not immediately live the great adventure of the "abundant life" Jesus promised.
Jesus told this simple story, but they had no idea what he was talking about. So he tried again. “I’ll be explicit, then. I am the Gate for the sheep. All those others are up to no good—sheep stealers, every one of them. But the sheep didn’t listen to them. 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 10:10
That's why I'm here, at Team Family Online. To look crazy, if I must. To be stupid, if that's what it takes. To be a co-navigator on this adventure – the Life Story Adventure, to share how we create our world, and to simply be a friend on this journey I call, "On the Way Home". I hope you'll join me on this adventure 🙂
Be who God made you to be, no matter what anyone else says. Have the life of your dreams. Do what they say can't be done!
Sue
Susan McKenzie is passionate about "immunizing" young women and teens against abuse. She knows how it feels to lose everything: marriage and family, church and reputation, finances and businesses, and more. Susan's upcoming book, "On the Way Home: Diary of a Prodigal Daughter," tells the story of how she came to be known as "the most abused woman" her counselors had yet met and how she navigated her way out of hell to a rich and satisfying life. In her lifetime, Susan has served in duties ranging from home school mom – to pastor – to full-time deliverance minister – and to Midwest regional prayer coordinator for a large international ministry. These days you can usually find Susan soaking in her favorite hot springs pool, reading a book (or several), blogging, baking bread, or hanging out with her family and friends. You can get a free copy of Susan's upcoming book, "On the Way Home: Diary of a Prodigal Daughter" by registering here.
Copyright 2012, Susan McKenzie, http://TeamFamilyOnline.com. Permission is granted to copy, forward, or distribute this article for non-commercial use only, as long as this copyright byline and bio, in totality, is maintained in all duplications, copies, and link references. For reprint permission for any commercial use, in any form of media, please contact Susan McKenzie.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
You write with such elegance and you sound real! A lot of people with this kind of blog just can't keep an audience panting! you sure can 🙂
I cant wait for the next edition
William
Real… getting there, I hope 🙂
Thanks so much, William – your words help keep me going!
Susan
All of the worlds best and brighted people were or appeared to be 'crazy' It is only through being different do you get noticed for what you do.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks, William… do you ever get the “crazy” label, yourself? I know you’ve stepped out of the box and have succeeded in going counter-culture…. your testimony is amazing!
This is the most wonderful story to end my day on Susan. I feel like a broken record, but you seriously have a way with words. You preach without preaching and teach without teaching. Your writing is the closest thing to Jesus' parables I've seen.
And I love where you say … "When, in reality, the child within you may be trying to wake you up! Your true destiny may be at stake."
And I know the kid in me is trying to break free. I'm bouncing to bed like a child now and when I hit the pillow, I'm going to say (quietly so as not to wake my husband but with every fibre of my being) "God, there's a child inside of here and she want's to be woken up whilst she sleeps!!"
God bless you Susan.
I’m speechless, Trish… because I don’t know if you know this or not…
But back in December 2006, at “Create A Dynasty” with Dani and Hans Johnson, in Orlando, Florida… the Johnson’s brought in a prophetic team from Morningstar (Rick Joyner’s ministry) and they prophesied over every single one of us.
A team of two people prophesied over me, not knowing me or anything about me, and they said words I cannot forget: “You are writing your life story, and in writing your story you are awakening the child within you. It will give birth to renewed joy and creativity. And when people read your story, their own inner child will awaken and they will experience renewed joy and creativity as well. You will go on to write many books, children’s books.”
And so when I read your comment, Trish, I recall that prophetic word and I believe it’s activated, now, in you… you are bringing the manifestation fo it into existence with your own faith. I’m very excited to see with this takes you (us)!
God bless you, Trish, and your family!
What beautifully crafted blogs you write Susan! A lot to think about in here! And I love the Alice in Wonderland analogy! Very nice.
~Robin
You are very kind, Robin – thank you for stopping by and reading 🙂
Great post Susan – thanks for "looking a little crazy'" not really – but I understand what you mean, I like how in tied Alice into your post. I feel it has taken me awhile to wake up – I have conformed to what was expected – the job and more – and now I am looking at things differently. Corinne
Thanks, Corinne – I love how Alice’s father taught her, “All the best people are crazy!” I believe it’s true 🙂 I’d love to hear more how you look at things differently, Corinne!
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