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When I was in late elementary school/junior high I knew that I wanted to work with high school aged youth to show them the love of God and help them discover their calling. I started to explore what I needed to do to prepare. I tried to talk to adults about my dream. Too often I was told to worry about that when I got a little older. That the time would come, but that I should just focus on where I was. These conversations disheartened me, and eventually I let that dream go.
Fast forward about eight years and I was introduced to my pastor. I had been away from God, away from a church family, and away from having any type of dream for my life. We sat down, chatted, and out of nowhere he said that he thought I should go into youth ministry. I was floored. That old dream? That was laid to rest years before. But I started serving and had many wonderful years investing in future generations.
You see, God had placed a dream in my heart. It aligned perfectly with the calling He has for each of us, to bring the lost to Him, but it was specially tailored for me. Other people couldn’t see it, but He knew what He was doing.
For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11
I’m sharing this because my dream wasn’t mad, I wasn’t too young to start, and I shouldn’t have been told not to run after it. How many years could I have been focusing on developing and growing into my dream if I hadn’t let myself be discouraged? What if someone older has taken me under their wing and mentored me instead of patting me on the head and sending me on my way?
We don’t just do this with children...we do it to other adults and unfortunately we do it to ourselves. But the truth is that dreams are never as crazy as they sound. They are possible because we have God on our side. And if our dreams don’t seem at least a little far fetched are we truly believing Him for everything He’s capable of? Shouldn’t our dreams force us to step out onto uncertain ground expecting Him to move? This is what the people of the Bible did...they were willing to believe that God could make things outside of their capabilities become reality. Their faith taught them to expect from Him what they couldn’t accomplish on their own.
Today let’s be people who encourage others and ourselves to go after that absolutely mad dream. Because isn’t a world full of dreamers and doers a beautiful place to live?
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