SANTIAGO MONCADA REMEMBERS army-crawling through his house with bullets flying through the window when he was a little boy. He also remembers tanks driving down the street, helicopters hovering overhead, and bombs blowing up all around him. Santi’s father worked as a chef for the guerillas who supplied cocaine to the Colombian cartel. In fact, he once threw a party for Pablo Escobar, the “King of Cocaine.” At the height of his criminal career, Escobar was worth an estimated $100 billion as a result of supplying 80 percent of the cocaine smuggled into America.
Santi escaped the crime and violence with his mother and immigrated to America. But he left part of his heart in his native Colombia. In December of 2012 Santi made a pilgrimage back to his hometown of Miranda, nestled in the Cauca valley at the foothills of the Andes mountain range. Over breakfast with a local pastor, he was introduced to two farmers who had risked their lives and livelihoods to stop growing the coca plants that would ultimately turn into cocaine. They dreamed of becoming coffee farmers, but they didn’t know how to export the dream God had given them. For three years they had prayed that God would show them how to fulfill their dream. That’s when Santi showed up, and their dream became his dream.
Santi returned to America with five pounds of coffee beans and a dream called Redeeming Grounds. Last year they helped Colombian farmers in a conflict zone transition fifty-four acres from coca to coffee cultivation. In doing so, they took 1,740 kilos of coca paste out of production, with a street value of more than $85 million. What started out as a five-pound dream has turned into a five-hundred-pound lion as thousands of pounds of coffee are imported from converted coca farmers.
Redeeming Grounds is living up to, living out its name. It’s not dissimilar to the dream God gave us for Ebenezers coffeehouse on Capitol Hill. A decade ago we turned a crackhouse into a coffeehouse. Our dream was coffee with a cause, giving every penny of profit to kingdom causes. What we didn’t know was that our dream would help fulfill the dream of coffee farmers in Colombia via Santiago Moncada. Redeeming Grounds isn’t just one of our roasters; they’re the middleman between our dream and the dream of courageous coffee farmers in Colombia. The faces of those farmers whom Santi first met over breakfast now grace every bag of Redeeming Grounds coffee sold at Ebenezers coffeehouse.1
Whether you’re aware of it or not, your dream is contingent upon someone else having the courage to pursue his or her dream. And someone else’s dream is contingent upon you pursuing yours! Those Colombian farmers needed Santi, and Santi needed them.
We live in a culture of individualism that celebrates lone rangers, but even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. Without his mighty men David would have lived out his days as a political fugitive. And just as David needed them, they needed a dreamer like David to rally around. Our dreams are more interconnected with one another than any of us could ever imagine, and the best way to fulfill your dream is to help others fulfill theirs.
Dream Jealousy
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
Sometimes it’s worth $27,000.
Santi recently sent me a fifteen-second selfie where he’s holding a kilo of cocaine in his hand with a bonfire behind him. I don’t know if Santi was scared, but I was scared for him! That kilo of coke has a street value of $27,000 once it crosses the border and gets into the wrong hands. The look on Santi’s face as he tossed it into the fire had to be the same look Benaiah had on his face when he snatched the spear out of the hands of that giant Egyptian.
The key word is snatched. Benaiah did a little jujitsu—he used the Egyptian’s weapon against him. Santi has perfected the same maneuver.
Every time I worship I try to key off a line of lyrics. It keeps my worship from becoming lip service. I often write the lyrics in my journal so I can meditate on them and pray into them. Then I put the song on repeat to let it get into my spirit. A recent favorite is “Sovereign over Us” by Aaron Keyes. Part of the reason I like it is that I like Aaron. And his lyrics are a great paraphrase of Genesis 50:20: what the Enemy means for evil, God uses for our good and for His glory.
Remember the story of Joseph? His heartless brothers faked his death and sold him to human traffickers. Then things went from bad to worse, and Joseph ended up in an Egyptian dungeon. Thirteen years later, in the most amazing rise to political power ever, Joseph became Pharaoh’s right-hand man. That’s when his brothers came begging for food. But instead of taking revenge on his brothers, Joseph said, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”2
Let me reverse-engineer this.
Do you remember why his brothers sold him into slavery in the first place? The short answer is Genesis 37:8: “They hated him all the more because of his dream.” They mockingly called Joseph “that dreamer.”3
Your dreams will inspire many people, no doubt. But your dreams will also summon opposition. Why? Because you are disrupting the status quo. Your dreams will cause a wide variety of reactions, including jealousy and anger. Some people might even want to kill you because of them. Santi can testify to that.
Every time Santi helps convert a cocoa field into a coffee farm, he’s snatching the spear out of the drug dealers’ hands. Like Benaiah, he’s putting his life at risk. But when you experience that kind of opposition, see it as affirmation! The Enemy wouldn’t mess with you if you weren’t messing with him. Opposition from the Enemy is often a good sign, a vital sign. You’re on the verge of a breakthrough.
Every dreamer has to deal with naysayers, and I’ve had more than my fair share. So let me share how I’ve dealt with criticism. First, don’t let an arrow of criticism pierce your heart unless it first passes through the filter of Scripture.4 Second, you have to come to terms with the fact that you can please all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot please all of the people all of the time. You’re going to offend someone, so you have to decide who. My advice? Offend Pharisees! Jesus did it with intentionality and regularity. Your dream is going to ruffle some feathers, but don’t play chicken. Operate in a spirit of bold humility knowing that God goes before you. And remember this: a compliment from a fool is really an insult, and an insult from a fool is really a compliment. Make sure you consider the source.
Measured in Dollars
Throwing a kilo of cocaine into a bonfire reminds me of the bonfire in Acts 19:19. They weren’t toasting marshmallows either!
A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.
A drachma was a silver coin worth a day’s wages. Based on the median income in DC, they burned $12,328,767 worth of scrolls in today’s dollars. That is a statement of faith, a financial statement. We don’t typically measure dreams in dollars, but in my opinion it took $27,000 worth of faith for Santi to throw that kilo of coke into the fire.
Sometimes faith can be measured in dollars.
There comes a moment in every dream journey when you have to put your money where your dream is. It might be a $50 date, a $100 application fee, a $500 plane ticket, or a $2,000 lease. Think of it as a down payment on your dream.
At different points in my dream journey, I’ve taken $50 steps of faith, $85 steps of faith, $400 steps of faith, $5,000 steps of faith, and a few much larger steps of faith. When we purchased the crackhouse on Capitol Hill, it required $325,000 worth of faith, plus the legal fees to get it rezoned as a commercial property. Then it took $2.7 million worth of faith to build it.
Whether it’s a for-profit or nonprofit dream, it takes dollars to fund it. If you have the cash up front, count your blessings. If you don’t, you might need to get creative with crowd funding. But don’t feel as if you’re at a disadvantage if you don’t have an angel investor. The more money you have to raise, the more faith you’ll develop early in your dream journey.
Our budget at National Community Church is now eight digits, but I remember when our gross income was $2,000 a month. We weren’t even self-supporting until our third year. It was stressful at the time, but those lean years kept us grounded and grateful. And we’re better stewards of the millions God has entrusted to us now simply because we had to pinch pennies then. In fact, we still pinch pennies.
Dream Markers
In every dream journey there is a point of no return. It’s a decision that cannot be undone, like chasing a lion into a pit or throwing a kilo of coke into the fire. Sometimes it’s a rule you break, a risk you take, or a sacrifice you make. And once you break it, take it, or make it, there is no turning back. I call them dream markers. And Scripture is full of them.
In the Old Testament it’s Abraham putting Isaac on the altar. It’s Moses saying to Pharaoh, “Let my people go.” It’s Rahab harboring Jewish spies. It’s David taking off Saul’s armor. It’s Esther entering the king’s court uninvited.
In the New Testament it’s the wise men following the star. It’s Andrew dropping his fishing nets. It’s Zacchaeus climbing the sycamore tree. It’s Peter getting out of the boat. It’s Jesus surrendering Himself to God in the Garden of Gethsemane and then surrendering to the religious mob.
In the plot line of our lives, dream markers are defining decisions. They aren’t just part of the narrative; they become metanarratives. As far as we know, Benaiah chased only one lion. Granted, that’s one more than anybody I know! But it was more than just a one-off. It became a storyline, as evidenced by the adverb used to describe the two Moabites he slew: lionlike.5
One moment defined his life—in a pit with a lion on a snowy day.
One decision defined his approach to life—chase the lion.
A few years ago I spent a few days with a life coach putting together a life plan. In one of the exercises, I identified thirty-nine turning points. Each of them changed the trajectory of my life, but a few rank as dream markers. One such marker was giving up a full-ride scholarship at the University of Chicago and transferring to Central Bible College.
When I walked into the admissions office at the University of Chicago to notify them of my desire to transfer, I knew it was a decision that could not be undone. I not only gave up a full-ride scholarship at the U of C, but I also had to pay out of pocket for my education at CBC. On paper it was a net loss of $92,500 over two and a half years. I didn’t think about it in these terms then, but the decision to transfer took $92,500 worth of faith. Of course, the net gain is impossible to quantify.
Every dream has a price tag. There is dream tax too, and don’t forget about all the hidden costs! But a God-sized dream is worth every penny, every second, every ounce of energy.
How much is your dream worth?
Pay the Price
One of the defining moments in our dream journey as a church was the decision to start giving to missions before we were self-supporting. It was a financial statement of faith based on a core conviction: God will bless us in proportion to how we give to missions. In the last decade NCC has given $8,957,527 to missions. This past year we hit a new high—$2,005,000. But it started with $50 faith.
Twenty years ago when I first felt impressed to start giving to missions, I was reticent. How can you give what you don’t have? I felt that God needed to tap someone else to give to us, not the other way around. Plus, what difference could $50 make? Well, we quickly discovered that it makes a 200 percent difference in God’s economy! Our giving tripled the next month, and we’ve never looked back.
Nothing sets us up for God’s provision like sacrificial giving. If you want God to bless you beyond your ability, try giving beyond your means. Now, a material reward isn’t what we’re after. That’s the least reward. We’re after an eternal reward in heaven. But one way or the other, this promise holds true: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”6
You cannot break the law of measures. It will make or break you. The bigger your dream, the greater investment of time, talent, and treasure it will take to accomplish it. God-sized dreams require more risk, more sacrifice, and more faith.
One of the dream markers in our dream journey of building a coffeehouse was an auction where I bid $85 on a two-inch-thick zoning guidebook published by the Capitol Hill Restoration Society. We didn’t own 201 F Street NE yet. But if by some miracle we were able to purchase it, I knew we’d need to get it rezoned. That guidebook, filled with rules and regulations, had to be the least sexy item up for bid. And if we didn’t get a contract on that property, it was a waste of money, a waste of paper. But the dream was worth an $85 bid.
How much is your dream worth?
Is it worth $50? How about $85?
What price are you willing to pay?
The law of measures is more than a financial principle. It applies to every facet of life. The nicer you are to others, the nicer others will be to you. In other words, what goes around comes around. But money is most often where the rubber meets the road. When God gives a vision, He makes provision. But in my experience, you often have to take a financial step of faith first.
So one last time: How much is your dream worth?
Count the cost.
Pay the price.
Repeat as necessary!