Don’t Let Your Dream Die

WOMAN DREAM OF SOMETHING
© Alexey Fursov | Dreamstime.com

For years, people tried to talk me out of becoming a writer. There was a particular instance in middle school that I will never forget. My teacher had given me an assignment to pick the career I wanted and to present a Powerpoint presentation in front the of class. As she was walking around the classroom, she said, “What did you choose, Madison?” I distinctly remember telling her “Journalism.” My Powerpoint had a very colorful cover slide with a picture of a quill.

“Oh, you will want to pick something else,” she said. Hurt, I continued to listen because she was my teacher, someone who I trusted to lead and guide me. “You won’t ever make any money being a writer,” she said and walked off. She never knew how much those words impacted me. Subtly, my mind shifted to other careers. “Let me look up the salary for a nurse,” I said to myself, knowing the healthcare field was always promising. Seeing the numbers on the screen settled it. I would be a nurse, even if every fiber in my thirteen-year-old body went against it!

I continued on in high school taking health occupations classes and even doing clinicals. My heart wasn’t in it, though. Away from prying eyes and judgmental attitudes, I would write at home. English was my favorite class. I would spend hours writing stories. I had tasted the joy of creating something of my very own, and no one could take that away from me. My mom knew my heart. She didn’t pressure me to do anything, but I know that she prayed for me and she listened. I’m so thankful I had someone to believe in me and my dream!

Countless friends and teachers in high school said I needed to be a teacher, because I am good at explaining things to people. I smiled and said, “That’s not the career for me.”  I said this to each person who suggested it. I got tired of hearing it, to be honest with you. Inside I screamed, “Can anyone see that I want to be a writer?” I didn’t know it at the time, but I was taking a stand for what I believed in and not letting other voices talk me out of what God called me to do.

In the midst of my battle with my heart and my head, my mom told my brother and me, “Do whatever you love to do. Don’t let anyone pressure you to do otherwise.”

When it came time to register for college classes, I was automatically drawn to the communication major because of the writing aspect. Somewhere along the way, I decided that my mom was right. Even if I never made an enormous salary from writing, I was going to do it because I LOVED it. Seriously, I have a page full of ideas on my computer of things to write about. I have dreams about characters and stories. No amount of money can compare to true fulfillment!

And now? I’m entering my senior year in college, working on many projects for Gateway publications and writing about current events for my internship with Athena Magazine for Girls. What if I had listened to my middle school teacher? I would be miserable! I want to encourage each of you to not let your dream die!

~Madison Sanders

Wake Up!!

 

How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest–and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man. – Proverbs 6:9-11 (NIV)

ANKKKKK!!! ANKKKKK!!! ANKKKKK!!! Slowly you roll over, fumbling for the alarm, trying to smack the snooze button for the fourth time in the past hour. You really had great intentions of getting up early this morning, but now… sigh. Just ten more minutes of sleep!

About then, your wife’s elbow finds you… “get up!” Groggily, you try to untangle yourself from the mass of covers you are wrapped in. Must have been cold last night the way you are tangled and wrapped in those sheets. Finally free from the bedding, you stumble towards the bathroom to start your day.

For some of you, this sounds like this morning; others have learned to discipline themselves so this is only their Saturday morning! But I think at some point in our life we can all identify with this feeling.

Something is calling at the back of our spirits. It’s been so distant feeling, so far away. For a long time we were able to ignore it; at other times, a swat in the right direction kept it at bay for another ten minutes. However, I believe that something is beginning to arise and stir within us. It’s time for us to WAKE UP!

It’s as if many of us have been in a slumber. A place of quiet restful tranquility. Our motor functions shut down, recharging for the next day. A place of wonderful dreams and the occasional scary nightmare, but little realization of either one. When the sounds of awakening begin to resonate they seem so far away. They seem as if they are from another world. Sometimes they even begin to incorporate themselves into our dreams… One day won’t that be great… or wow I don’t know if this is real or not.

I believe that the spirit is shouting WAKE UP! In sleep, our body moves into a mode of maintenance. It’s needful for us to sleep sometimes: to dream, to allow ourselves to restore the systems inside, to maintain balance, to build up strength.

But how many of you have ever lain in bed all day? You end up feeling worse than if you had just gotten up as usual. We must WAKE UP! God is calling us out of dream land and into the promise that He has given us! Shake yourself! I believe God is calling us to live and to walk out the very things that we’ve been dreaming about for so long. But you can’t do that in your sleep!

For some people there is a fear that comes with waking up. When you wake up, you don’t look as beautiful as you did in the dream. Things don’t flow as smoothly as they did in the dream, and you definitely don’t feel as “ALIVE” as you did in the dream. Instead, you feel entangled in the messy reality of waking up. Your matted eyes are crusty from little use (how they sting and ache as you rub them clear to once again test your VISION!). You stumble awkwardly as you climb out of bed towards the bathroom or the coffee pot. It’s in this half awake state that we often stump our toe or trip over something we left lying by the bed! The trappings of yesterday can trip us up as we start a brand new day in our semi-alert state.

Then we stumble into the bathroom to find a worse mess when we look in the mirror. Hair disheveled, a beard that needs to be shaved, or even the marks of the sheet wrinkles left all over our face. It’s a sobering fact to see just how ugly you can be when you first wake up! And need we say that when you first get up there is always some kind of waste you need to get rid of in your life?!

Waking up can be so much less glamorous than our dreams, making it is easy for us to want to retreat back to our dreams instead of face the reality of where we are. But nevertheless, God is calling us to WAKE UP!

In the Song of Songs, Solomon writes prophetically to the church, saying, “Arise my love, and come away with me!” In other words he’s saying, WAKE UP! COME SPEND TIME WITH ME! I’VE GOT PLACES FOR US TO GO AND THINGS FOR US TO DO! But we can’t get there by continuing to lie in bed.

So grab yourself a strong cup of coffee or a Pepsi Max and WAKE UP PEOPLE! Press through the ugliness of your present condition and move forward towards making your dreams your reality!

Q: What dream are you working toward making a reality TODAY??