Don’t give up on your dreams!

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. (Colossians 3:2)

We all have an expectation of the future. I’d like to break that down into three. Dreams, Plans and Hope.

Right now we cannot give up, on our hope – which is our faith that God is in control and that our lives, are eternally in his care. Hope is what sets us apart. Our Hope is in Jesus Christ.

Right now it is very difficult to make plans, as I was told yesterday in a Webinar I attended with Craig Groeschel  (amazing what opportunities have opened up) we need to “think long term but make short term decisions.”

Our plans are built on our Hope in Christ, our obedience to His will and our dreams must be accepted as our God given desires, ( the principle of Colossians 3 is key here). Both should inform our decisions. I’d like to share a few thoughts on that with you.

A few weeks back a colleague said – Two weeks is a long time in a Covid 19 world. A new reality is emerging each day as the world is reordered, and is made new.

  As we move from level 5 to level 4, the big shift is, of course, a paradigm shift from “don’t make plans until this is over”, to ‘this is a new reality and you need to make some plans, to adjust to a new normal.’

But, how do you plan in such a fluid environment and with so much change around you?

I’d like to make a few suggestions.

Don’t give up on your dreams. Subconsciously we all dream, we have an idea of what we want in the future. We generalise these dreams, into statements like, I want success, I want progress, I want overcoming. I want more than the previous generation, I want better (whatever those look like to you).

The last five weeks has dashed those dreams. We are now uncertain of what that dream would look like, and the reality of this set-back drags our dreams down. But these dreams, ideals, objectives were always uncertain and somewhere deep down you knew that they would have to endure much to become reality. Also, you knew that these dreams were not just going to fall into your lap, because otherwise they would be your reality and not just dreams.  Your dreams are not your plans, they are not what you have got all worked out, they are just the hope, that you have expressed in your personal life.  Dreams don’t need a detailed plan of execution, dreams don’t need evidence,  you don’t need specific circumstances for dreams – they supersede all reality, challenges, obstructions, doubts fears, dreams have no limitations imposed by reality. And dreams keep you alive because they remind you that you are bigger than your circumstances, you are more courageous than your fears make you think you are. Dreams keep hope alive. Dreams remind you that you can overcome.

If you are not working towards your dreams then they are futile. If you are not experiencing, in the present, albeit ever so small, a fulfilling of those dreams, then you are being delusional. Dreams are not delusions, they are deep seated desires. Dreams come from the heart, not from the head.

When we set our hearts and minds on our plans then we dictate how they will unfold, when we hold onto our dreams we recognise them unfolding even in ways we never thought possible. It is your plans that have been crushed by the recent events of the world crisis caused by the pandemic. My brother said this morning, once we find a cure (a vaccine) the effects of the disease from a medical point of view will end quickly, but the economic and social effects will take a long time to overcome. And the only way that we can overcome them, is to hold onto what we wanted life to be about, in the first place, and not about how we were going about getting that which we desired. Our plans have been so wrong, not our dreams. Our desires for a healthy and happy life, were not the problem, how we went about getting them were.

So do not give up on your dreams, hold onto them and seek God’s way of fulfilling them. It was St Ignatius who said, the choice is not between good and bad, but between good and Godly.

As you seek God so your dreams your desires will be in sync with God.

And so do not have worldly dreams, as Joel prophesied (Joel 2:28), God’s people will have visions and dream dreams. Dream big my friends, dream deep, dream of all that God has instilled in the depths of your hearts.   

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. (Colossians 3:2).

May your dreams be of a Kingdom on earth as it is in hearven.

Your fellow Pilgrim

Fr Andrew