The Four Paths Your Dream Might Take

Are you dreaming about a future mate, another career, or a child in the womb?

Are you dreaming about eternity?

“I have a dream,” shouted Martin Luther King in a sermon that still reverberates across the ocean of time. He saw a situation and envisioned a better day for minorities. His dream is coming true. What would have happened if he had never uttered what God had impressed on his heart?

Deidra at Jumping Tandem is sponsoring a writer’s retreat specifically about unleashing the dream in you. Dreaming isn’t just for creatives. It isn’t just for women. It isn’t just for mystics. It’s for all of us. 

Whether you are dreaming of a bicycle or world change, there are four types of dreams — 
Those that are fulfilled
Those that are delayed
Those that are denied
Those that are suppressed

Of all those, the most difficult to live with are those that are suppressed. We’ve all had God put something in our hearts and then we spend our days denying it ever existed, or making excuses why it can’t be done. The shadow chases us until we finally give in. But when we don’t give in, it gives up the pursuit and finds another who is more willing.

I remember reading Genesis, when the brothers of Joseph had a little fun at his expense. “Here comes that dreamer!” they said. Leaning on each other’s shoulders, doubled over in mockery, the older brothers had quite the laugh.

The lad with the big ideas wasn’t the most popular brother. He saw things no one else could and it caused division. And so it is with dreamers. They will never be popular. They’ll be called “out of touch.” They’ll be scorned and talked about behind their backs. They’ll lose friends.

But someone around here has to dream. Someone has to see things the way they ought to be and then work at articulating and planting that dream in all of us.

Maybe no one else will see that dream and you’ll spend your lifetime fulfilling it, alone with only God at your side. Such is the burden – and joy – of a dreamer.

What have you always wanted to do and never pursued? I have a big problem when dreams are automatically equated with financial reward. Just because you have a dream of helping children, painting, writing, sculpting, or starting a mission, doesn’t mean that it will replace your day job. Some are fortunate and find financial success along with their dreams, but most labor in the dark hours before and after work. And that can be just as fulfilling.

What excuses have you thrown up to keep you from chasing that dream? Are any of them too great for God?  It’s never too late to turn the dream suppressed into the dream fulfilled.

What’s your dream?