Wide Awake

I’m just finished reading this book called Wide Awake by Erwin McManus. Below is an excerpt from the final chapter where he is using this example to begin a discussion on the importance of imagination in each person to not settle, but live into their fullest potential. I thought it really embodies our vision with Come, Let’s Dance and tension we hold as westerners trying to come alongside and dream with our Ugandan friends:

Africa cannot be fixed; it must be re-created. Not by us who have even the most noble of intentions, but by her own heroes. We must serve them and make their journey less perilous where possible – and more possible where impossible. It is they who must reimagine Africa and lead in her re-creation…

I’ve seen how poverty can create a famine of the soul. Dreams become a luxury when your sleep is filled with the pangs of hunger. I have also seen how having can be the enemy of imagining. The more you have, the more you have to lose. The longer you have, the more you become dependent on the available resources. Wealth often moves us to depending on resources where once we were depending on resourcefulness. If we are not careful, what we have can establish the limitations of what we imagine.