Tabitha is a charitable person. Unfortunately, Tabitha dies. Naturally, Tabitha’s friends are distressed and hearing that Peter is only 15 miles away, they send some men to get him. I can’t imagine what they would have in mind. Why would they send for Peter?
When Peter gets there, he spends a few moments with the grieving widows. They show Peter all the beautiful garments that Tabitha had made. They made sure that Peter knew that Tabitha was an extremely giving woman. I’m sure that he already knew this, after all, he came at once heeding the request of the grieving widow society. He sent the women out of the room and knelt down and began praying beside Tabitha. Then Peter did something that Jesus had done before him. He brought back a dead person! He called the others to witness this miracle. The miracle became widely shared and many came to believe in Jesus as Lord.
When I read this scripture—I noticed a distinction made between the widows and the believers. I don’t think it is implied that the widows are unbelievers, but clearly there is a distinction between believers and unbelievers. He calls back to the believers to see Tabitha. It is like he is saying, “The unbelievers aren’t going to believe it anyway—they are going to say she was never dead!”
Think back to a time when you really believed something. You knew you were right. You had an idea—you knew it was a great idea. How many times does it happen that you are onto a great idea and others don’t seem to follow?
The recent NFL draft inspired me to think about this more. Teams have the belief that they are absolutely choosing the right player. In a billion dollar business—being right—really matters. One player can make or break a franchise, a team, a season—every pick is important! There are prognosticators who make predictions and they all believe that they are right.
Did you ever see the movie RUDY? Rudy is about an undersized kid who dreams of playing football at Notre Dame. He is from a blue collar catholic family in Indiana where everybody is a Fighting Irish fan. Rudy is so possessed with the dream, that he is willing to do whatever it takes.
He isn’t good enough to play college football. He isn’t smart enough to get into Notre Dame. He isn’t wealthy enough to go to college. But Rudy has a dream.
He wants to be the first from his family to go to college. He wants to be the first one he knows to come running out of the tunnel at South Bend as a Notre Dame football player. Everyone laughs at his dream. Everyone thinks he’s crazy. What does Rudy do? He applies to Notre Dame. He gets rejected. But, he learns that if he goes to community college and does well—maybe he can get into Notre Dame. So he applies and gets accepted at a community college. He keeps getting rejected from Notre Dame after every semester. But after two years, he earns an Associate’s Degree, which wasn’t his dream, but certainly a perk for pursuing the dream. Finally, on his last chance attempt, he does get an acceptance letter from Notre Dame! Now there is the really difficult part—getting on the team.
It is really an endearing part of the movie to see this pint sized player running into a brick wall—guys twice his size, play after play! But after every play Rudy gets up and dusts himself off. Every practice, Rudy gave a 100% effort. He is head and shoulders above the others when it comes to effort. He is rewarded by being placed on the practice squad- which means he gets to practice every day, but won’t get to put on a uniform on game day.
He overcomes the obstacle of not being smart enough—He goes to community college and gets his scores up. He overcomes the obstacle of poverty. He gets an on-campus job and lives in a maintenance room. He sleeps w/ the slop sinks, ammonia and mop buckets.
Finally, he makes the football team. He plays in one game, the last game of the season.
The thing that really impresses me about Rudy is his undying belief that he can achieve his goal. He knows in his heart that he can achieve that goal. Every day of his life he did one more thing to advance the dream.
His co-workers told him he was crazy. His friends told him he was crazy. His family told him he was crazy. He doesn’t listen! He gets a new job. He gets new friends. Like all of us, he is stuck with family. He is able to surround himself with people who won’t criticize him for dreaming big. He surrounds himself with those who are encouraging him to pursue his dream. Every day that Rudy got up, he had to look at himself in the mirror and make a decision: Do I advance the dream—or do I prove everyone else right?
I am sure that the disciples felt the same way. They needed to surround themselves with believers. Peter asks the widows to leave the room because he can’t have negativity around him. Peter doesn’t need it. He is trying to bring a lady back from the dead. It never would have happened if he surrounded himself with people who didn’t believe he could do it.
None of us wants to surround ourselves with unbelievers. We don’t need naysayers or negative nellies! However, we do need one or two practical realists, but we don’t need dream-crushers. Did you ever have a dream? Did you ever have someone tell you that you couldn’t achieve that dream? Did you get enough resistance that it eventually wore you down? Did you listen to the naysayers, defeatists, + dream-killers?They suffocate dreams—they keep us in line.
Every one of us who has a dream—can do something about it, it can be achieved.
Jesus and Peter want us to dream big. After all, the Kingdom of Heaven is a pretty big dream! Jesus and Peter want us to surround ourselves with believers. That is what church is about. I want this church to dream big. I think we should dare to dream big? The only kind of dream worth our time—is big dreams. Peter wants dreamers. He wants to be surrounded by believers. Jesus wants dreamers. He wants to be surrounded by believers. A dream of this church is to be filled with believers. A belief of this pastor is that this church should be filled with dreamers. It is time to dream big.
There is something else that is required…it is something that Rudy understood—Jesus understood—Peter understood—and I think deep down, we all know—dreams don’t just happen. They require a realization that every day we need to work on that goal. Every day Rudy advanced his goal. Every day the disciples advanced the goal. Every day Jesus spread the gospel. Every day—we need to make our dreams happen. Surround yourself with dreamers. Surround yourself with believers. Dare to dream. Dare to believe——great things will happen!
