Have we forgotten how to dream?

"The difference between a dream and a goal is a plan."
Dave Ramsey.



The butterfly did not start out as a butterfly; it emerged only after a beautiful plan of nature.



Birthdays are a good time to reflect and to dream. Annual inventory time is here with the chance to make a mid-course correction. A slight degree change now will result in a different trajectory further along the journey. Are we heading where we want to go? Are we reaching desired goals? Do we have a dream still inside? We cannot control our lives, but there is so much we can change; if not our circumstances, we choose our attitude towards our circumstances.

And so I choose to dream big. Not grandiose wishes about a brush with celebrity or wealth, but to be stretched mentally and emotionally. To see a bigger picture. To learn something new.

Wake up a weathered dream that time has beaten down. Is it inside somewhere, buried deep beneath the hurt and wounds of life? Is there a glimmer of light - an ember that can use a fresh wind to fan it into a desire of your heart? Allow God's fresh wind/fresh fire (as Jim Cymbala writes in the book by the same name) to refresh your spirit and give a dream for this season - for this day. Not someone else's dream for you, but your own.

So maybe you didn't live into another person's wish for you. Let it go.

Maybe you didn't live into your own dream for you. Show grace to yourself. There is today. The dawn of this day is a new beginning.

Then, ask God to give you a plan. "Watch and pray" as the scripture says. Let it linger in your mind or heart. Do not dismiss it casually. You may have a burst of inspiration in an instant, but more likely, you and I will wait. All growing things take time: crops, children and friendships all need time to develop and mature. Allow yourself to mature into that plan.

Now, take a step towards it. One step. We don't have to execute the plan in a day. Just begin somewhere. That's why they call it faith. We cannot see the end at our beginning. But we take one step anyway.

Dream big today.

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14