Traveling is a dream adventure for many people. With their anti-reality filter firmly in place, they imagine how beautiful and wonderful every moment will be as they frolic along in a new place with excitement and zeal. Many of our dreams are approached in this fashion. We get an idea in our head of what could be, we fantasize about it, we imagine how much fun it will be or how much better our lives would be if this dream came true. Fueled by the stories of fairytales such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, we let ourselves believe that a dream fulfilled is all unicorns and rainbows: all positive and happy with not a single negative byproduct in sight.
Dreams are fun: they often are the fuel that feeds our goals and life ambitions. From a young age, we are programmed to have a dream car, a dream house, dream career, and dream family. We spend time daydreaming about how lovely it will be when we finally get to live our dreams. What we don’t take into account, is the journey to get there.
As a leader, I have dreams for my organization. I dream of wild and exciting things. For example, I dream of how I can guide my company into a financial position that lets me pay my staff more than any other company in my field. I dream of implementing a program for providing and requiring further education, such as a one-year certificate for my teachers. I dream of adding programs to our organization that will benefit our clients and staff, ways to reach into their lives and make a difference. I dream of having a whole section at my church filled with my people who are loving and serving the Lord together. And I dream of greater spiritual influence with my staff, clients, and community – boldly sharing Bible principles, inviting people to church, encouraging each other to obey the Lord, and being a part of leading people to salvation by sharing the gospel with them.
Our dreams are wonderful and healthy. After all, a leader should have a vision for their organization. My question is this, what can we anticipate the journey will look like as we pursue our dreams? Does the Bible promise us an uneventful journey? Is the path going to look like a hopscotch pattern? One step forward, a jump to the side, and then three steps back?
What do we do when the journey doesn’t unfold as we expected? When instead of being met with smooth sailing, the sail is made up of red flags stitched together and taking us on our way… not what we expected!
Have you ever asked a person how they were doing and received the response, “I’m living the dream.” Have you ever actually believed them? The individuals I have encountered who provide this response typically look like they are on the struggle bus and have been there a while. Sometimes the response is delivered with tired sarcasm, and sometimes it sounds like they are trying to convince themselves. Living the dream doesn’t mean life is without difficulty, or the reward isn’t all we envisioned and hoped.
Pursuing our dreams takes patience and perseverance, and sometimes it requires a pivot or two. Sometimes the journey to our dreams has unexpected complications and trials. We get to choose how we will respond to them. Will we recognize that they are part of the journey, adding a little seasoning to the experience, and focus on the beauty of the journey as a whole? Or will we get hung up on the agitation of the moment and let it cast a shadow on the entire venture?
When I am struggling with my response to the bumps along the way, to the feeling of taking one step forward only to then take three steps backwards, I think of Proverbs 16:3: “Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.”
When the journey to fulfilling our dreams doesn’t go as expected, we get to choose how we are going to respond. We can let ourselves be upset, taking our frustration out on those around us, making sure everyone knows just how inconvenient the setback is to us. Or we can refocus on our Lord and keep moving forward with a pleasant attitude.
Things go wrong. That’s part of life. Things go wrong when we pursue big dreams. Things go wrong when we try to grow and improve. Things go wrong when we are simply trying to make it through another day. How will we handle it? Will we let the inconvenience, or maybe even trial, take over the entire experience?
Paul exhorted Christians to exercise patience in the journey while focusing on our Savior:
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2
Today, when we find ourselves wanting to get frustrated at the journey that we call life, when we find ourselves wanting to think obsessively about what is going wrong, let’s embrace Proverbs 16:3 and Paul’s instruction: committing our works unto the Lord and running our life’s race with patience, keeping our focus on Christ.
