Much is made of dreams, and there is good reason for that. The longer we live, the more we understand the relationship between our dreams/goals/hopes for the future and the success we achieve. As a Christian, my ultimate hope lies in my relationship with the Lord, but growing out of that is also the realization that we must dream and aspire in order to achieve whatever it is we have been placed on this earth to accomplish.
Eleanor Roosevelt said it best: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
Without the dreams we cultivate and pursue, we are very often resigned to living in the past or in a present that is hampered by frustration and, God forbid, boredom!
Lanston Hughes wrote: “Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.”
Truly, dreams DO give us the ability to ‘fly’ above the crowds and the ordinary routine of our lives. We can be looking forward to what our dreams give rise to! What an exciting prospect.
Finally, Henry D. Thoreau wrote: “You cannot dream yourself into a character: you must hammer and forge yourself into one.”
Dreams do not just ‘appear’ on the horizon….dreams are nurtured and the business of achieving a dream propels us into persevering through the obstacles and challenges that would thwart us. In the book, LETTING GO, the author Calvin Miller relates the story of a friend of his who aspired to become a great pianist. She was a teenager at the time and fell ill with polio. Not wanting to give up on her dream, she prayed that God would spare her hands and at least her one leg (so that she could use the sustain pedal on her piano). He answered her prayer and she went on to perform, with her bad leg in a brace. Her faith in God and her faith in the dream He’d provided her propelled her forward. She did not give up her dream because of her affliction.
What a testimony to the power of a dream and a hope! That we would all pursue such lofty and life-changing dreams!
