I’ve been called a dreamer both as an insult and as a compliment. Regardless of the intent, I take being called a dreamer as confirmation that my life and actions are on a path that will lead to amazing outcomes.
Oh, that’s good. I’d love for you to tweet that!
#Dreamers pursue paths that lead to amazing outcomes. Share on XThis is the first post of June’s Year of Listening Up series, which focuses on dreaming boldly and foolishly. Truth be told, I wanted to do this topic first, so I have been super excited to focus in on it for a lot of reasons. However, there were also several reasons the others topics in the series needed to come first.
So let’s dive right in and talk about dreaming and dreamers.
A Dreamer Pursues Paths that Lead to Amazing Outcomes
As I present in Listen Up, Kids, I nearly died just before my senior year of high school began. Sometime after that, during a recovery process, I was stricken with an awareness that I probably should not have survived and that there were many people, most of whom I didn’t know then, nor do I know today, petitioning for my life to a God I did not genuinely know.
Along with that awareness, I came to believe that my life would have been a significant disappointment had it ended there. I had accomplished little and never really tried. So I decided to be a dreamer. I set my sights on a couple foolish dreams.
First, I would get a college degree. That doesn’t sound foolish at first. However, the fact that I came from a home where merely obtaining a filling meal was a challenge and that nobody from my family had ever achieve a four-year degree, that was a pretty foolish goal to pursue. But it happened. This dreamer’s dream foolish came true.
Next, I set my sights on my most desperate longing. A strongly knit, harmonious family. Again, not so foolish. Yet, when you grow up in an environment where your own family is splintered and the home environments of virtually every close friend you have are equally splintered, it’s fairly reasonable to think that what you are most exposed to while growing up will repeat itself as you yourself enter into that phase of life. I dreamt of being a generational change agent for myself and my would-be family. Foolish to some degree. But it happened. This dreamer’s foolish dream came true.
I’ve been called a dreamer both as an insult and as a compliment. That’s okay. Dreamers are the people who accomplish big things. They pursue ambitions that are bigger than themselves. When in alignment with God’s will, amazing and truly remarkable results are possible.
The third and final dream is one that is more foolish in the traditional sense of the word. Sitting in study hall during my senior year of high school, I put down the book I was reading and peered at the cover. I looked at the name of the author on the cover. I don’t remember what book it was for sure, but it was probably R.A. Salvatore because his books are what drew me into a passion for reading during that era of my life. Regardless of the author though, I looked at the name on the cover of the book and set a personal life goal of seeing my name on the cover of a published book on the shelf in a bookstore.
Given that the Internet and World Wide Web were barely even a thing at the time, there was no Amazon.com, nor were there ebooks, e-readers and self-publishing. This dream meant I would need to find a publisher and sign contracts in addition honing a craft and perhaps getting a big chance. I almost gave up on that foolish dream.
But it happened. This dreamer’s foolish dream came true.
The pursuit of and achievement of those three foolish dreams define my life in many ways. They also have given me direction in life, amazing experiences and blessings that I would never have considered possible in 1994 before I nearly lost my life.
A Dreamer Doesn’t Shy Away from Dreaming Big
As I have grown to understand God and my relationship with him, I have also come to understand the fact that he wants us to aim high. He wants us to be risk takers. He wants us to strive for that which is bigger than us so he may shine in his proper glory to our darkened and skeptical world.
Here is a post I wrote about taking risks a while back if you want to explore that a little more.
One great example of someone who was not afraid to take on dreams that the rest of the world might consider foolish is Paul. Paul dreamed of taking the Gospel to all parts of the world, sharing it with anyone who had yet to receive the Good News. He essentially pioneered a Gospel-centered movement! He was willing to risk failing in an effort to see his big ambition come to fruition.
My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else. I have been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures, where it says, “Those who have never been told about him will see, and those who have never heard of him will understand” – Romans 15:20-22 (NIV)
A Dreamer Doesn’t Stop Dreaming
I’ve said it many times; the only thing scarier than pursuing a foolish dream is actually achieving it. Having recognized that I had achieved the three “foolish” dreams of my quest – a college degree, a strong and loving family, and my name of the cover of a published book – I became lost. I’m not talking like lost in the coat rack at a department store lost.
Are you a lost dreamer without a quest to go after? Maybe it’s time you asked God about HIS dreams.
I am talking like lost at sea with zero hope lost. I no longer had a quest to pursue.
With no quest to pursue, I had no direction. With no quest to pursue, I had no dream to aim for and therefore nothing to guide me. Yes, I became willing to live day-by-day, but I also knew the folly of making no plans for going forward. Proverbs 21:5 became very real to me.
Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run;
hurry and scurry puts you further behind. – Proverbs 21:5 (MSG)
I feared being further behind. I dreaded being behind (that’s a whole other story for a whole different blog post). I was desperate and I begged God to give me a dream – a new quest. Any dream or quest as long as it was for the purpose of being valuable to others (that too is another story for another blog post).
I told God I had no dreams and that I needed to have dreams. “What about my dreams?” I asked. When he answered – and he did – I felt like a selfish, little child who suddenly experienced shame at his or her actions. He said to me:
“Chad, what about my dreams.”
1Glories was really born of this conversation and despite many false starts, doubts and a bit of regret – yes, regret – I have never once thought of calling it quits. God’s placed his dream for me to relentlessly pursue as a quest.
I intend to see it through.
Psst! I wrote about this a lot in Listen Up, Kids: Foolish Dreams, Syncing with God and Running to Win. You can buy it and learn more about this and much more at Amazon.com. Also, here’s a few posts from other bloggers that are related to this one and might interest you.