Filed under: Uncategorized
I was talking with a couple different friends the other day about dreams. We were talking about how when you start to let go of those dreams, no matter how lofty they may be, the loss of those dreams can leave you wondering what to do next. I’m talking about kid sized dreams. The kind that sound stupid to other people. The kind that even deep down inside you, you know are not likely to happen. The kind like you dream when you are a kid. To be a professional athlete. To be an astronaut. To be president. I think those sized dreams are important.
I am getting to the age where more and more of my friends and people I have grown up with are slowly letting go of their kid sized dreams. Slowly they are settling for relationships that are easy, rather than pursuing what they have always dreamed of in a partner. They are settling at jobs that continue to pay the bills, though day in and day out they are miserable. They are purely functioning to survive and letting go of living.
I know this might sound like some Joel Osteen board game or book, and I don’t mean for it to, but the more I see people my age settling for things they don’t love, I start to worry I might do the same. And it’s not that I think everyone can be president or astronauts, but the dreams should be the thing that keeps us going.
My opinion, is no matter how stupid my dreams seem to others, and no matter how far off it seems, without those dreams in life, what else do you have? My wife and I have dreams together, I have dreams for myself, we have dreams for our family, and as lofty as they may seem to others, if we let go of those we are simply existing. And to me, simply existing means we have given up. Given up on our kid sized dreams of becoming anything we want. Given up on the chase for something exciting and dangerous.
We all have dreams out there that are kid sized. Dreams that we look at and say, “That will never happen”. But why stop shooting for that? Why let go of something just because it’s so far off? Because it’s hard? What are some kid sized dreams that you have that you have started to let go of? What’s the first step in walking toward that dream? And why aren’t you doing it?
18 Comments so far
Leave a comment
...in case you were wondering. 
I think I jive with where you’re coming from, so long as you balance it out with verses like Prov 19:21. “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.”
If I’m settling for a run of the mill job just because I’m not actively caring for myself as a part of maintaining my relationship with the Lord, that’s not good. But if I’ve settled for working for The Man in support of my commitment to providing for my family, that can be very godly.
I’m knee-jerking to your post a bit, because I’ve seen people go too far that way and get so involved in Life!! they screw up the basics.
That, and I still struggle with this. When am I not pushing myself too hard and when am I not relaxing in what the Lord has for me and making sure I get some rest to keep up the strength for my daily responsibilities?
Comment by Chris Morris November 24, 2007 @ 11:07 amHmmm, I see myself as a dreamer and there is a song titled “Dream Big” I actually have that and several verses, song lyrics…posted in my room just so I can always remember to DREAM BIG because believe it or not, the sky is the limit.
Also, it makes a BIG difference to dream with God because He makes each and every moment AMAZING. The visions that lead to dream become so very real that HE makes them into GREAT ventures that last a lifetime. I may plan and set goals, but I thank my God with each breath that He is the driver and the one that is leading (Proverbs 16:3,9) because HE NEVER FAILS to surprise us with more than we could ever imagine.
Thanks for bring that subject up, Brody, as it is unfortunate that most settle for the easy way out, but we have to use wisdom and discretion with our ultimate trust in God in balancing our everyday lives and knowing when to rest, and when to work hard and smart. May the Lord guide our decisions as we acknowledge HIM for surely He will direct our path (Proverbs 3:5-6) and set it straight and exciting for us whether in the valley or on the mountain.
May we continue to have those “kid sized dreams” because we ARE His children and He plans bless us with “a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11).” So, go on–you and your wife, and us all–“…dream big–as big as the ocean…” In Christ.
Comment by Kelly November 24, 2007 @ 11:48 amI think many Christians who give up on their dreams are either: too scared of pissing God off to strive for their dreams, when it’s God who planted them there, or they are to scared of failure and blame it on God, calling it “surrender.” Hanging over it all is the idea that if you peruse your dream and you “aren’t’ the big dog” after you do, then you have failed, and that is just poop. Pursuing is all a big part of the achieving, because pursuing is probably pure obedience. And God is surely pleased with obedience.
Also, to follow the desires God puts into your heart requires that you accept the FACT that there will be trouble. “In this world you will have trouble, but my peace I leave you.” Jesus tells us to be like the Lilies, or the birds. Be who you are and who God has made you to be, or is making you to be, but then he tells us to get ready… Because if you do, that kind of faith is scary and things might get rough. But life isn’t a cozy Kenkade painting, it’s a sweaty, passionate, tiring, exhilarating race where you get poured out like an offering and drain down the cold floor.
There’s this great Lewis quote that I try to keep in mind. It helps me to remember my goal, in any dream.
“Every poet and musician and artist, but for Grace, is drawn away from love of the thing he tells, to love of the telling till, down in Deep Hell, they cannot be interested in God at all but only in what they say about Him.”
Comment by Seth Ward November 24, 2007 @ 12:05 pmBig thought Brody. I am a dreamer and sometimes that can drive people, wife included, around me a little insane. I’ve also noticed it makes a lot of people seem uneasy around you. Weird. It’s funny how ordinary the people who claim to have it all figured out or all together are. And I find ordinary to be quite boring. Dreaming is so important and chasing down those dreams is just as important. I know that the chances are I’ll probably never end up in this huge rock band, but that doesn’t mean I quit writting and playing out whenever I get the chance. Maybe we should tweak our dreams sometimes instead of letting them go to the wind. Shannon Hoon said in the song Change, that “when you stop dreaming it’s time to die”. I have to agree with that. Another thing is that sometimes dreaming gets me out of the funk that either I myself or life in general has put me in. “When your life is so, so dreary. Dream.” And Christ was a huge dreamer. He reached and is reaching for things that seem so unimaginable or unatainable, but when his dreams manifest themselves in our homes, communities, nations, and universe, man its something special.
Comment by P.D. Ross November 24, 2007 @ 12:13 pmAnyways, great thoughts Brody!
What is settling to some can be relaxing into what we, as we mature, realize we were made by God to do well all along.
I gave up the dream of becoming a soccer player when I was sixteen when realized I was the worst player on the local team. I settled for being a bible teacher and musician and advocate for children in the third world. Sometimes the dream can stand in the way of our attaching to the better fitting alternate God made us for.
How do you know when a dream is yours though and not God’s?
For me: friends. You got a better a way? A less painful way, hopefully?
What’s your dream, everybody?
Comment by Shaun Groves November 24, 2007 @ 4:02 pmShaun, would you really call what you are doing settling? More like moving on right? Aside from the obvious fun sarcasm, you strove to be a songwriter. You moved to Nashville, you slaved away as a staff songwriter and endured “failures” and so forth and came out the other side with plenty of goals and dreams achieved right?
I see what you are getting at as far as God changing your mind about things. He most certainly does that, but it is no sin to give things a go and fail. Don’t ya think that maybe you wouldn’t have come to where you are now if you hadn’t tried to be a star soccer player and failed, right? It just seems too many people sit in the rafters, thinking “ahhhh, I could have yadda yadda.” Instead of giving it a go and seeing where it takes them, or seeing where God takes them. Of course, I think God will take care of you either way. But why not let him take care of you living your feeble dreams (be who you are) rather than just sitting around and secretly blaming God for “not letting me go for my dreams because he didn’t give me more talent like joe schmo over there wailing at the mic dripping with awards.” I mean, crap, who would right a note of music after Mozart with that attitude? Its much safer to work your desk job that you hate, and tell stories about how you could have been this or that, than actually getting of keister and trying “this or that.” Peter gave walking on water a go, he sucked, but hey, he made it few steps right?
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say there isn’t a single dream that doesn’t come from God. (I’m talking good things, not world domination and obvious sinful desires.) Pretty bold, but I think I can back it up. Do they all come true just they way you envision them? Heck no. But some do and the ones that don’t usually lead you to ones you didn’t know you had, if you always are willing to accept God’s will above yours. There are stories upon stories about people nobody saw coming. It seems like God is in the business of creating beauty from ashes and fools out of critics.
As far as dreams go, I usually ask God to do the door shutting. If he does, I move on. If he wants me to keep trucking, He’ll usually send just the right encouragement along.
I guess my point is… do what you love to do- your dreams- until God says different. He’ll take care you and your family before, during and after.
Comment by Seth Ward November 24, 2007 @ 5:19 pmThanks for sharing Seth! Very true. I also pray that and boy does He shut the door when it is not His will! I love it because all we need to do is seek/let Him and He will do/take care of us accordingly. 🙂 I am truly enjoying this…
Comment by Kelly November 24, 2007 @ 5:53 pmHi Shaun, excellent point! At times, we tend to have our own dreams AND THEN we ask God to bless it, while we should REALLY seek Him first before we venture out. Sometimes people do come up with sage words in movies, such as “…it is at the end of a man’s life when he realizes how important his decisions were at the beginning.” I think that is true because when we give God our daily plans we will never regret our book of life. Therefore, we MUST let go and let God! As one of God’s son mentioned, “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken.” We MUST be flexible to His calling for our lives and yield to it because ending up in the wilderness for years or in a fish belly may end up being a worthwhile experience, but applicably, obedience to God is always crucial over defiance or sacrifice…
I am truly enjoying this topic because one of my dreams over a decade ago was to go into missionary medicine, etc. But guess what, our Father had a different path in life for me and I love it! He is leading me there but in His own way and time; I am always amazed by the strokes of His hands as He paints the picture of the portrait of my life or shall say His life for me. It is as a patch of the chapters of my life being formed with daily decisions into a quilt=a book. 🙂
He completes me and I look to the day when He will show me the work that He began and has completed in me. I love the way He moves and is moving in my life. I can see His footprint in ALL that I do and I pray to remain in that wonderful embrace as I would rather have Jesus than silver and gold, as a song goes; however He gives us more than silver and gold; instead adds silver and gold. 🙂 What a great Father! I thank Him for each and everyone of you because He is doing a mighty work in and through you!
I enjoy waking up each day and saying Lord, this is your day…take it and do with it as You will. He is my Planner for crying out loud and indeed a better planner than I. I am so very fragile because I am human (not an excuse, by the way), but we know and He instructs us based upon all that He knows about us, to rest in Him. “…Why worry when you can pray…?” {Phil.4:6-7}
Lord Jesus Christ. Adoni. Thank you for the lace of your love and blessed assurance that your line is never too busy for us. That Yours dreams for us are best. I pray that our will would synchronize with Yours because You come first (Matthew 6:33, John 3:30). Love you Lord and thank you so much for your children who You have given this topic and others. God bless you all!
PS:
{Psalm 121:4-5}
4:
Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5:
Comment by Kelly November 24, 2007 @ 5:56 pmThe LORD is your keeper;
The LORD is your shade at your
right hand.
Absolutely, Seth. To everything.
I’m behind Brody on this post totally. We need more dreamers! We also need more people who don’t tell the tone deaf kid on Sunday morning that he should move to Nashville and try to get a record deal. And we need to build our dreams on the foundation of our ability, not just what we enjoy.
I bring this up only because I’m constantly contacted by people with little if no ability – in my almost never humble opinion – who are moving across country, stressing spouses, abandoning kids, wasting money and time, quitting jobs that matter and that they’re truly great at to pursue a dream of music stardom fueled more by ego than actual God-given vision and ability. And it makes me sad.
Our heads are pumped full of “dream big” propaganda and few are telling us what kinds of dreams to dream. “You can be anything you set your mind to” is a lie. You can’t. I can’t play center for the Dallas Cowboys. It won’t happen. No matter how hard I try. But there’s plenty I can be.
Read biographies of modern successes – in business, music, art, writing, politics, whatever – and their stories are very similar. They discover a knack for something, a unique ability. They foster that by being trained, working hard, practicing. They hit road blocks and persevere. They see people with just as much ability and perseverance fail and yet they succeed. They’re humbled by that. Oprah, Billy Graham, Einstein, Reagan, Bono, Pascal – all the same story: They don’t just love something and then dream of being great at it. They are great at something they love and then dream of being the best at it. And then they do the work to get there.
Comment by Shaun Groves November 24, 2007 @ 6:33 pmI am so blessed to visit a blog where such passion, purity, and purpose flourish all in the name of Jesus. When I first read this post Brody, I was inspired and immediately excited to comment on the dreams the Lord has woven into the very fabric of who I am and who I’m to become in Him. All for His glory and ministry. As I read through each comment God spoke to me. Yes, such sweetness in my spirit. Thank you to everyone who shared their heart – Shaun, Seth, Kelly, P.D. Ross, Chris, Brody.
Comment by Melody Milbrandt November 24, 2007 @ 9:58 pmI believe everything stated above is relevant, even profound. I’d like to mention one more thing. Our Jehovah God is so AWESOME because when He’s placed seeds of greatness and destiny in us, He never gives up on them. Even when we have. Whether we abandon His dreams intentionally or not – they are there. Little “mustard seeds” buried deep in our souls just waiting to be watered.
Praise God for always picking up the shards of our lives and crafting a beautiful new masterpiece. Not just a painting on a canvas, but a three-dimensional creation with purpose, intended to be filled up and poured out with the power of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you Father that I am who You say I am and that I can do what You say I can do. Lord, here am I send me!
Hebrews 11:8 “By faith, Abraham when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”
With faith, passion, and Jesus’ dreams – Melody
(Didn’t Billy Graham admit later in life to having neglected his family some in his pursuits?)
I like Shaun’s last comment, I think it says better what I was trying to say. Esp. the nod to Public TV/Nickelodeon-ism.
And how’s this for a inspirational verse on dreaming? “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you.” – 1 Thess 4:11. Or even “Give us today our daily bread.”
I don’t think I would put so much emphasis on dreaming, as much as trying to pursue understanding of God’s will and putting faith into His ability and not be shutdown by fear of unknowns. I think this is the same point Brody is making, I just personally find ‘dreams’ too distracting, probably because of how our society frames that sort of thing.
Comment by Chris Morris November 25, 2007 @ 1:24 amThanks everyone for posting, and let me say how much I love to hear your hearts. As for me…I will try to make this brief as this is a subject near and dear to me, and I know I will not be able to give me thoughts justice. That being said…
I am at a place in my life where I am dreaming to such a kid sized degree that people often try to talk me down. They tell me my hopes are too high and expectations too great. Before I believed in Jesus I was a dreamer who was convinced that none of her dreams would come true. To live in that belief is to exist; and that is what I did, existed.
The moment, literally, I first believed in Jesus was the moment I began to see my dreams come true, because that was the moment my dream of not being alone was realized. It is amazing how my dreams changed as I began to see more and more of Christ in me, and less of myself, and as I began to view my dreams in the spectrum of eternity, and that His dreams for me far exceed my own. God has taught/is teaching me that Christ in me is the hope of glory, and that anything short of that is not worth living for. There are things I want to experience and places I want to see in this blink of a life the Lord has given me to live on Earth, but if He does not desire those for me, then who am I to say He is worng and I “woulda, coulda, should?” Charles Spurgeon said “No joy on earth is equal to the bliss of being all taken up with love to Christ. If I had my choice of all the lives that I could live, I certainly would not choose to be an emperor, nor to be a millionaire, nor to be a philosopher, for power and wealth and knowledge bring with them sorrow. But I would choose to have nothing to do but to love my Lord Jesus-nothing, I mean, but to do all things for His sake, and out of love to Him.” Because when I meet my Creator face to face, I will not care about whether or not I fell in love or saw Paris with my own two eyes, unless it was for the sake of furthering His kingdom and bringing Him glory.
Last thing, and then I am done…the Holy Spirit just reminded me of this awesome thing someone gave me a couple years ago that I think captures best what I am trying to say…here
is a blog I previously posted it on.
Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving and is having a nice weekend!
Comment by Molly Ranae November 25, 2007 @ 2:13 amI think I agree and disagree a bit with you Shaun. I think if some kid who can’t sing worth a hoot wants to up and move to Nashville, because, well, that’s his dream and passion, so let him.
Now, if his dream is to be someone else, then he should think twice. But if not, I would say he is following the will of God, the best way he knows how: following the God-given desire in his tone-deaf heart. What is the worst that would come of it? He would get rejected and fail as being at big famous rockstar. But then he might find out that he is really good at being a sound engineer, and maybe after he got there he realized being a Rockstar was NOTHING like he thought it would be, or what he really wanted was just to be a part of the thrill of the glitz and glamour and he becomes some sort of promotional guru… anyways, the point is, when someone has a dream, realistic or un-, I tend to encourage it more than not.
I refuse to believe in the Darwinian philosophy that if you can’t “the best” than why try? I think God’s kingdom has enough room for a whole array of talent in any given area. At that point, it is up to the dreamer to figure out if what he seeks is to be someone else, having their fame, their notoriety, OR if they are simply doing what they love. So in the end, I think it is passion that one really needs, rather than loads and loads of talent. There are plenty of examples of God using people in areas where they showed no extraordinary gift. Moses, Sarah, the disciples… Of course, then there was Paul… The point is, that even though Paul was a torah stud, it didn’t stop Peter from shouting the good news and writing those two great letters himself. Even if he did have help.
I do agree that the American “be anything you want” philosophy is tainted. I think it is tainted because it starts with the premise of comparison. “You could be the next Michael Jordan, or the next Albert Einstein,” and so forth. Rather than, you could be a great ball player if you have the passion and drive, or a great scientist if you study hard enough. Take Edwin Hubble. Einstein was much smarter, however, because Hubble loved astronomy, he proved Einstein wrong about the universe by proving the universe was expanding. Hubble wasn’t really a genius, just a guy with passion, and a BIG telescope, being himself. Ever seen the Special Olympics with the guys in the wheelchairs? Tell those guys not to play ball.
To be the best at something is a dangerous goal. It is a mirage that is fueled by pride and self-searching glory. Do something because you love it is right. Whether you are medium good or really good or bottom of the talent-totem pole. Doesn’t matter. If you love it, do it. God put that love there. I think someday the kingdom will be filled with people doing what they are passionate about at some level. And they’ll do it with a servant’s heart rather than a self-serving heart.
Comment by Seth Ward November 25, 2007 @ 3:06 amNot loads and loads of talent. Just some.
Comment by Shaun Groves November 25, 2007 @ 7:05 am“I think if some kid who can’t sing worth a hoot wants to up and move to Nashville, because, well, that’s his dream and passion, so let him.”
… I agree, presuming the motives of his heart are godly, and he’s not neglecting responsibilities (e.g. taking care of a family, not making stupid financial decisions, etc.)
Comment by Chris Morris November 25, 2007 @ 11:01 amI just figured out my link does not go directly to the blog…and I cannot figure out how to get it to…poop.
Comment by Molly Ranae November 25, 2007 @ 6:30 pmAlways great to read the comments and ponder on it. I concur that God’s will should come first–ALWAYS–otherwise nothing is worth striving for AND it is highly paramount to be content wherever He places us because Father knows best. It is about Matthew 6:33…in fact, without Christ we are nothing AND cannot do anything without HIM. God bless you all! Our Lord Jesus Christ is our hope and reason for living therefore may all our heart’s desires be what He has purposed for us for He does complete that which He has begun (Philippians 1:6). Happy Monday!! 🙂
Comment by Kelly November 26, 2007 @ 10:28 amMaybe some. However, what would American Idol be with out that Chinese fella? More importantly, where would he be?
Comment by Seth Ward November 29, 2007 @ 12:23 pm