ENGAGING THOUGHT
Wouldn't it be convenient if people had a temperament indicator on their foreheads? Some sort of dial or flashy-lights that let everyone around them know what type of personality traits they predominantly operate under: optimists get a sunshine-yellow blinker (it probably should just be a smiley-face); pessimists can have their drizzly-grey, nasty bulb that barely lights up; and the realists, they could have...what would they have? What would a realist think is an appropriate (dare I say, realistic) indicator of their viewpoint on life?
Self-titled realists believe they have the most balanced approach to life - taking into account changes around them and accommodating, as necessary, to weather those changes. They can teach all of us a thing or two about flexibility. Flexibility is an interesting trait: in our physical bodies it helps prevent injury and allows greater freedom of movement (there are several metaphors in that one if you care to spend some time contemplating it); in our emotional selves, flexibility allows us to respond to unexpected setbacks or changes without losing too much momentum. When it comes to the pursuit of God's DREAM for our lives, flexibility is absolutely vital to our successful pursuit and fulfillment.
As long as we're imaging things: imagine if we could see with the same perspective that God sees. What might our lives, and the path of our DREAM-pursuit look like from His vantage-point? My guess, honestly, is that we'd be completely overwhelmed by the information overload were we to suddenly know what He does. I believe that, along with the necessity of proving our faith, is one of the reasons He only reveals small portions of His plan for us at a time. I doubt we'd be able to truly grasp His full DREAM for our lives - and even if we could, we'd be so paralyzed by the enormity of it all that we'd probably just shut down and hide in a corner. God, in His love for us, gives us just what we need to inspire and motivate us forward in the pursuit; enough to keep us in a place of informed dependency upon Him.
As a result of all this, we will find ourselves from time-to-time coming to a new understanding of His DREAM for our lives - a more informed version, if you will. It might be a somewhat larger version of what we had defined before, or perhaps it is a minor variation that only makes sense to us now as we have changed along the way, possibly it's a significant alteration. Remember that discussion of flexibility several sentences ago? This is when that comes into play in a major way!
This is also the moment that those realists have been waiting for - when they can lick their finger and hold it up to check which way the wind is blowing. They get it. They understand that the person who started off on this DREAM path has changed somewhat along the journey - in fact, the changes may have been significant enough that the perspective of that original "person" is now suspect, and maybe we should just take a look at that DREAM again to see if it needs to change as well.
Think of it in light of this illustration: a young couple in love gets married. On their ten-year anniversary they take out the wedding album, look at the smiles on their young (thin) faces, and know that even though they were in love on that day, they had no clue what love really meant, as they do now. After ten years of life together, they understand love much more. Repeat that same thing at their 20 year anniversary. This time they'll look back and laugh at their "puppy-love" - but hold on, weren't they truly in love when they got married? Or on their ten year anniversary? Absolutely - but they've grown and matured - and so has their love for one another. That understanding doesn't diminish the truth of their love, at all - no matter which moment in their history you analyze. Love is just one of those things that changes.
So do DREAMS.
Self-titled realists believe they have the most balanced approach to life - taking into account changes around them and accommodating, as necessary, to weather those changes. They can teach all of us a thing or two about flexibility. Flexibility is an interesting trait: in our physical bodies it helps prevent injury and allows greater freedom of movement (there are several metaphors in that one if you care to spend some time contemplating it); in our emotional selves, flexibility allows us to respond to unexpected setbacks or changes without losing too much momentum. When it comes to the pursuit of God's DREAM for our lives, flexibility is absolutely vital to our successful pursuit and fulfillment.
As long as we're imaging things: imagine if we could see with the same perspective that God sees. What might our lives, and the path of our DREAM-pursuit look like from His vantage-point? My guess, honestly, is that we'd be completely overwhelmed by the information overload were we to suddenly know what He does. I believe that, along with the necessity of proving our faith, is one of the reasons He only reveals small portions of His plan for us at a time. I doubt we'd be able to truly grasp His full DREAM for our lives - and even if we could, we'd be so paralyzed by the enormity of it all that we'd probably just shut down and hide in a corner. God, in His love for us, gives us just what we need to inspire and motivate us forward in the pursuit; enough to keep us in a place of informed dependency upon Him.
As a result of all this, we will find ourselves from time-to-time coming to a new understanding of His DREAM for our lives - a more informed version, if you will. It might be a somewhat larger version of what we had defined before, or perhaps it is a minor variation that only makes sense to us now as we have changed along the way, possibly it's a significant alteration. Remember that discussion of flexibility several sentences ago? This is when that comes into play in a major way!
This is also the moment that those realists have been waiting for - when they can lick their finger and hold it up to check which way the wind is blowing. They get it. They understand that the person who started off on this DREAM path has changed somewhat along the journey - in fact, the changes may have been significant enough that the perspective of that original "person" is now suspect, and maybe we should just take a look at that DREAM again to see if it needs to change as well.
Think of it in light of this illustration: a young couple in love gets married. On their ten-year anniversary they take out the wedding album, look at the smiles on their young (thin) faces, and know that even though they were in love on that day, they had no clue what love really meant, as they do now. After ten years of life together, they understand love much more. Repeat that same thing at their 20 year anniversary. This time they'll look back and laugh at their "puppy-love" - but hold on, weren't they truly in love when they got married? Or on their ten year anniversary? Absolutely - but they've grown and matured - and so has their love for one another. That understanding doesn't diminish the truth of their love, at all - no matter which moment in their history you analyze. Love is just one of those things that changes.
So do DREAMS.
ACTION STEP
Take some time and decide if there are portions of the written plan for your DREAM that you feel need to be changed at this point. BY now you should be getting an idea of what moving forward is going to look like and you might be sensing that some changes need to happen - maybe you've been carrying a piece of the DREAM along with you, but you know it doesn't really belong. Now's the time to cut it loose.
Rewrite the modified DREAM and adjust the Timeline as needed.
Rewrite the modified DREAM and adjust the Timeline as needed.
Tomorrow we'll act like word-geeks a bit and decide which words we absolutely must include in the DREAM.
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