Dreaming the World We Could Become
A Meditation by Rev. Cameron Trimble
“Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” — Matthew 6:10
When Jesus teaches his friends to pray in the Gospel of Matthew, he does not start with personal improvement or private salvation. He teaches them to dream collectively: “May your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” This is not a prayer of escape. It is a prayer of imagination and courage. It asks us to envision a world ordered not by fear or scarcity, but by belonging, mutual care, compassion and shared responsibility.
The kingdom Jesus names is not elsewhere. It’s here in this moment, as a field of possibility. It is relational. It is the world as it could be if love shaped our economics, our politics, our communities, and our daily choices. My friend and theologian Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox teaches that compassion is not a mere sentiment. It is the work of justice.1 Dreaming the kingdom means allowing that compassion to organize how we live together.
This way of dreaming is not unique to Christianity. Across wisdom traditions, the future is imagined not as conquest or control, but as alignment with justice, with compassion, and with right relationship. Different languages name it differently, but they point toward the same moral horizon: a world healed by shared responsibility and love made visible.
Imagine a world…
Where no one’s dignity is conditional.
Where care is understood as essential infrastructure rather than an afterthought.
Where children are protected, elders are listened to, and difference is met with curiosity instead of fear.
Where communities that know how to tell the truth, repair harm, and remain in relationship even when it is hard.
This kind of dreaming is not naïve. It is disciplined. It requires us to look honestly at the world as it is while refusing to believe it is all that can be. Writer and teacher Brian McLaren reminds us that faith is not certainty; it is trust in the midst of complexity.2 To pray for the kingdom is to trust that another way of being human is possible—even now.
Buddhist teacher Thích Nhất Hạnh once suggested that “the next Buddha may be a sangha”—a community practicing compassion together.3 The dream becomes real not through heroes, but through shared practice.
Of course, the distance between the world we inhabit and the world we long for can feel vast. But the prayer does not ask us to build the whole world at once. It asks us to align ourselves with a deeper grounding and begin where we are. Mother Teresa, following in the mystical lineage of St. Teresa of Avila, once wrote,
“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
The dream becomes real through participation.
This year will ask much of us. It will require discernment, stamina, and courage. But it also offers us a profound invitation: to practice the world we long for in small, faithful ways—to let heaven take root on earth through how we treat one another, how we organize our lives, and how we choose to show up.
So let us dream together. Not as escape, but as commitment. Not as fantasy, but as orientation. When people dare to imagine a more beautiful, interdependent world—and then choose to live as if it matters—that is how heaven comes to earth.
Thank you all for being on this journey with me. As we enter into this new year, as we dream of a new world, I am so very grateful…
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
When you hear the phrase “on earth as it is in heaven,” what kind of world do you actually imagine?
Where do you already see glimpses of this world taking shape—in people, communities, or movements you know?
What small, shared act could you participate in this year that moves life toward greater interdependence and care?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer For A Shared Future
God of life and breath, we confess that we have often imagined salvation as something private, something that leaves the world unchanged. Stretch our vision. Help us long not only for personal peace, but for a world where justice and mercy meet, where dignity is not rationed, and where no one is left to carry life alone. Give us the courage to believe that another way is possible, and the humility to build it together. Teach us to recognize heaven not as a distant realm, but as a pattern of love waiting to be practiced. May your kingdom come— in our relationships, in our communities, and in the choices we make every day. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
Practicing the World We Long For
Today, choose one ordinary interaction—a conversation, an errand, a shared meal—and consciously practice the world you want to live in.
Listen a little longer.
Offer dignity where it is not required.
Choose cooperation over convenience.
Let your presence signal safety rather than urgency.
Do not try to fix anything. Simply practice alignment.
At the end of the day, ask yourself: What did the world feel like when I lived as if we truly belong to one another?
Carry that feeling with you into the days ahead. It is a seed.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
January 6, 13, 20, 2026 - Protest and Action Chaplaincy Training with Rev. Anna Golladay. This live, online training offers a framework for providing compassionate, grounded spiritual care during protests, advocacy gatherings, and social movements. Learn more here.
January 15, 2026, 7-8pm EST - FREE Online Webinar: When the Internet Hurts: The Hidden Online Dangers Facing Our Teens and How Faith Communities Can Respond, Join me in conversation with Sharon Winkler, survivor parent and nationally respected youth online-safety advocate. Sharon’s son, Alex, died at age 17 after experiencing cyberbullying and algorithmically targeted pro-suicide content. Since then, Sharon has dedicated her life to helping parents, educators, and faith leaders recognize online dangers and build safer communities for young people. Register here.
NEW!!!! February 5, 2026 - Margaret Wheatley and and I are launching a new online course called “Leading with Spirit,” a six-session journey into soul-grounded leadership designed to deepen your trust in guidance, nurture perseverance, and rekindle imaginal wisdom for our fractured world. Take a look at the course outline. We are really excited and hope you can join! Scholarship are available if needed. Learn more here!
February 11th and 25, 2026 - Join Our “Building a Culture of Leadership Within Congregations” Cohort facilitated by Rabbi Benjamin Ross and me! A two-session course for ministers and faith leaders ready to strengthen how their congregations and ministries identify, develop, and support leaders. Learn more here.
July 19-24, 2026 - Join me and amazing co-facilitator, Victoria, on retreat in the back-country of beautiful Wyoming. The Art of Wilding is a 5-Day Expedition for Women Leaders. We will spend the week reconnecting to nature, exploring our inner landscapes for change, and engage the wisdom of spiritual teachings. Click here to learn more.
I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.
Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…
I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.
Scholar and teacher, Vanessa Muchado de Oliveira Andreotti, has been developing an extraordinary body of work on meta-relational AI. I’d encourage you to do a deep-dive here: https://burnoutfromhumans.net/ She has also written two books that I think are required reading - Hospicing Modernity and Outgrowing Modernity. Check them out!
Have you discovered Dr. Stacey Patton yet? Buckle your seatbelt! She is an award-winning journalist and professor who is offering a powerful public lecture series called “Manifest Delusion.” Learn more here.
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
I hope you are subscribed to Matthew’s Daily Meditations. His teachings are such a gift for this time: https://dailymeditationswithmatthewfox.org/2025/01/12/week-of-1-6-11-2025/
See Brian’s book, “Faith After Doubt,” where he explores what faith looks like in a world such as ours. I also recommend his later book, “Life After Doom,” where he further develops and complexities his thinking in a collapse framework.
Read his full address here: https://inquiringmind.com/article/1002_41_thich-nhat_hanh/
Five or six years ago, our small church lost its pastor and couldn’t afford to hire one. It fell to me as worship chair to somehow provide a weekly message. Some weeks I hired help and others I scrambled to do it myself. I don’t know how it happened but I began receiving your mediations via emails. This was during Covid when all congregations were struggling. I took your messages that spoke to me and either expanded on them or just used them verbatim. I want to thank you for helping me through a rough and scary time. Thank you for being there when I needed you, and for helping me to grow as an adult. Becky
Love the references in this one! Brian McLaren, Teresa of Avila, Thich Nhat Hanh - among my favorites! Also I find it so sad that many try to differentiate heaven from this world… when Jesus was clear that the Kingdom is here and now! Or can be! It is up to us to see and usher in heaven here on earth. 🌍