Soma

We all have dreams.  As Americans we are told to follow our dreams, to dream big, and to never let anyone take away our dreams.  But, what are dreams?  And what happens when they don’t come true (as many of them often times do not)?  The truth is, dreams can often times be very healthy desires.  They can be big picture visions that spur us on toward a life that is more and more radically lived for Christ.  To often, however, our dreams aren’t about Christ at all…they’re all about us.  And just like every other thing that is all about us, they quickly become idols.

This is why so many people are so unhappy in their jobs.  It’s not that they’re not getting paid (they are!), it’s not that they’re being abused and enslaved (they’re not!), it’s that their current carreer doesn’t look like the “dream” they had in mind.  The Bible has a word for a dream of this kind…”idol.”  It also has a word for this kind of unhappiness…”discontentment.”

We all have dreams growing up.  And we also all have dreams now.  The quesiton isn’t whether those dreams are good or bad, it’s how tightly are we holding onto them?  Is your life chiefly about Christ, or is your life chiefly about the other forms of fulfillment and accomplishment that you desire to achieve?

As I look back over the past ten years of my life, I realize that the road is littered with shattered dreams (maybe you relate).  Things I thought I might be doing, achievements I hoped to attain, even ways that my ministry in the church would look like are starkly different than i envisioned.  10 years ago I thought that counseling and sitting down to talk about your problems was for wimps and was a total waste of time…now I spend much of my day, every day, doing that same thing.

But the thing that I have realized among the mess of shattered dreams is that they are shattered not because they were too big, but because they were too small.  God is ridding us of tiny, self-focused dreams and calling us to His unimaginable large God-glorifiying dream for us.  As C.S. Lewis famously put it, the problem is that “we are far too easily pleased.”

So ditch your dreams, they’re too small anyways…surrender even your dreams, desires, and passions to Him who will do abundantly more than we could ever ask or image…and then sit back and watch the fireworks!