Kalein – Dream Big
Thursday afternoon at Recreate. Perhaps the most inspiring and challenging afternoon in as long as I can remember. Something about it just hit me. Grabbed me. Moved me.
Kalein – A Greek word used in the New Testament (I believe only once). It’s meaning: calling. It’s underlying nuance: beauty. The beauty of your calling. Thus – Kalein: Beauty Is Calling.
Kalein is the brainchild/dream of Randy Elrod. He has purchased around 150 acres outside Nashville, TN to serve as a retreat center. A place where artists from all over can come to develop and discipline their crafts under the teaching of master teachers. A place where artists can be prepared to go out into the world and create the culture. 5 star accommodations. In really cool tree houses. Gourmet food. A beautiful setting.
This year at Recreate we became the first group Randy had brought out to see this land outside of his board and a couple close friends. He said you had to be on the property to really catch the vision. On a certain level, he was right. But hopefully you can get a piece of it from the pictures and video below:
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We arrived and all received hay rides up over a ridge to get onto the actual property.
After arriving, we all had the opportunity to take a tour on the hay, which is where the video above came from. As we were out, we managed to have a friend meet us along the path. Check it out:
Oh, the captions I’m sure we could come up with for that photo! We definitely weren’t in Cali anymore!
We all met back at the bonfire…the biggest bonfire I’ve ever seen, where Randy shared with us the heart and motivation behind this dream that God had put in his heart. We finished that time with a very special ceremony of sorts. Randy has a good friend with Native American heritage who he says he has learned a lot from regarding the way their people view and respect the land. This friend came out to bless the land where so much will be taking place. I threw together a video with some snippets of this special time. Check it out below.
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So…cool thing happening there, but why so encouraging for you Bobby? Here’s the deal. Randy is a dreamer and an inspiration to be around. He is a regular, down home guy who received a vision from God, and now he is taking huge leaps of faith to see it happen. The road has been extremely difficult, but God has seen him through it…and still is. He shared about the million dollars that it will take to get the first buildings up and running, power run and everything. He has none of that. But already there are possible, interested donors stepping forward to make it happen.
There are certain people in my past who have been big dreamers. These people are so encouraging and inspired me to dream as well. As I saw the fruition of what Randy is already doing, I was so extremely challenged to dream so much bigger than I do. But even as I type this, I am reminded of something that I just wrote. This ultimately isn’t Randy’s dream, it’s God’s vision given to him. Yes, I need to dream big. But even more than that, I need to be asking God to give me a vision, a BIG vision, for what He wants. And when those things become clear, be obedient in following through and watch God work.
And so, more than anything, I need to ask, and also surround myself with dreamers. Surround myself with creatives. Surround myself with people who are too naive to think any dream is too big to accomplish. Time to seek those people out relentlessly.
Thanks for the inspiration Randy. Thanks for the example. And I encourage the rest of you to be praying for this project in the meantime.
Can’t wait till I get to visit it someday further along in the process.
How about you? How big are your dreams? Are they so big that without God, there’s no way they’ll ever happen? If not, why not?
