It was all a dream…

How often do you find yourself staring off into space dreaming about where you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? What you’ll be doing? Who you’ll be serving? Whose son you’ll be married to?

Me too, sis.

But then you snap back. You’re back to reality. You’re back to the sobering fact that you are not where you want to be, though you know God has so much more. You’re so close, yet so far away.

Can I be honest with ya’ll for a second? Sometimes dreaming seems safer. Dreaming allows me to keep all of my desires and wants free of uncertainty, tainting, and disappointment. I can think about my future career, husband, children, and ministry and immediately start smiling and be filled with joy. That’s the way I want to keep it.

See, going after your dreams requires an immense amount of bravery and obedience. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I worry (even obsess) over whether or not “I’m doing it right” or if I am headed in the direction God has set for me. It gets so overwhelming. I question everything from business ideas to my ability to forgive to my healing progress. ALL. THE. TIME. It’s actually quite draining. To question almost everything about your very being can result in fear so immense that you cannot move. Stagnation. Complacency.

Can I let you in on another secret? The constant going back and forth just MAY be indicative of us trying to figure it out on our own…trying to operate from our own wisdom or strength.  The harsh reality I have come to is that this obsession surrounding whether or not “I’m doing it right” is a reflection of my relationship with God. Do I really trust Him? Not that intellectual trust. Do I TRUST Him? Do I trust, that as I continue to seek Him, He will give me the desires of my heart (according to His will, of course)?

We often say with our mouths that we trust Him, but what do our actions say? What do our thoughts reflect? What about our words?

I know that it’s easier to JUST dream. It’s easier to just avoid the pruning, the molding, the inevitable disappointment. But what happens when you wake up and you’re sitting in the very place that you dream to “escape” from in the first place? Whew chile…I know. I encourage you (and myself) to not try to skip around the process. The learning. The unlearning. The pain. The progress. Avoidance does nothing but result in us forfeiting the opportunity to gain experience, endurance, and stamina that we will, indeed, need as we are called higher and higher. Let’s be clear: There are levels to this.

So, I hope I didn’t lose you. God literally gave me this blog post as I was watching “The Help” on Netflix. Yeah…I don’t get it either. But I love how God will start downloading when we least expect it.

The bottom line is: Don’t dream to avoid Him. Dream WITH Him.