Dreams are overrated

What is your dream or once was a dream? Are you living your dream?

These are questions we have been asked since we were small children. If you would have asked me that when I was 10 years old, I would have said things like: to live in a castle, have a horse, and be a missionary. While those dreams have obviously changed (however, I still want a horse), there is one that remains the same. The desire to be apart of something greater than myself. Growing up in church, when the guest missionary would come and speak, I would think, "Wow they really love Jesus and do crazy things for him." I saw how their radical love for him was and how it was expressed by their actions, and I wanted to make sure I do the same. I thought that making big moves like traveling across the world to preach about Jesus would prove my love for him, and mainly show that I was doing something with my life.

Moving forward with life, as I began my college studies, I realized I had developed other passions and hobbies. I loved to write, work with kids, help people, and serve in my church. So, my dream changed. I was going to school to get my degree so that I could eventually live out my dream. I learned so much, and thought surely by the time I graduated my "dream" place to work at would eagerly accept me. WRONG. I quickly learned that in the real world, it is not that easy. Over the summer, I began to feel disappointed and frustrated because all the doors that I was knocking on were not opening. I literally thought, "Lord, that's not fair, I worked so hard to get to this point, and I believed you would give me this position."

Boy, that's where I got it ALL WRONG! I soon realized that dreams are never about your "position" and what title you obtain. It is not about the place or the ministry that you are called to that define you. Dreams are never about who you need to know in order to grant you access into those well known organizations. After all, we have the GREATEST networker, we just need to connect to Him. When it comes down to it, dreams are NOT about you.

See, the problem with me was that I was confusing my calling and my dream with making a name for myself. That is why I was so frustrated. Instead of focusing on who I am and what God is doing in me in this season, I chose to define myself by my inability to reach my "dream."

Now, let's pause for a second. I believe God has put passions, ideas, and has a specific calling for each of our lives. You have purpose, and He intends for you to seek Him to find it. It also might be that the Lord has given you literal dreams of what He has created you to do, and that is amazing. He put those passions in your heart and that desire to be apart of something greater. That "greater" is to know Him and it results in expanding His kingdom. Where we can get caught up is with thinking it is up to us to "make it happen" in order to reach our dream, when all God asks from us is to TRUST Him, keep BELIEVING, and be OBEDIENT.

When God calls us, he calls us to pick up our cross and follow Him. That means our life is no longer ours, but His. What better place to surrender your dreams and life's journey than to the One who holds your future in His hands, and what a journey it is. I am an elementary teacher today, and maybe in a few years I'll be something else. It truly is a beautiful, messy, and worth every breath journey. In this part of the journey, I am at the forefront of need as tiny humans are at a place in life ready to be molded and to be shown the love of God. I couldn't see it at the initial time, but now in this very moment I have begun to see that I am placed exactly where I'm meant to be. More than ever, I am learning that I am apart of something bigger than myself and in whatever I do, it is to bring glory to Jesus.

Jesus cares about your goals and what you are doing for him, but he cares more about WHO YOU ARE. I challenge you to try something different, focus more on WHO HE IS. Only then will you have a better perspective of what your dreams really are, and are they for you or for Him?

So take a deep breath, embrace the journey ahead, and love every moment and season He places you in (even if it doesn't feel like the dream you had in mind.)

Don't be lazy, make moves, create, be obedient, but most of all KEEP BELIEVING THE DREAM He has placed inside you, and that that promise will be fulfilled by Him.

Let's go Dreamers!!

xoxo,

Dezzy