CHAPTER 1
Problems in a Pit!
All of us have dreams. We want to maximize our life potential. The goal is to see our dreams become a reality. Our dreams light a fire in our spirits and souls, and we begin to take the necessary steps to make our dreams come true. Our dreams are written across the hard drive of our memories. We eat, sleep, and envision the dream day in and day out. There is an undeniable excitement to see the dream through to completion. Inevitably, we become driven by our dreams and become very passionate in the dream process.
We have different dreams ranging from the simple to the complex. Some dreams will be limited to a personal impact, and then there are dreams that will have a global impact. Dreamers like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs fall in the latter of the two.
Regardless of the length, breadth, and height of our dreams, there is one common thread that runs through all of them, and that is, they do not come true with the wave of a magical wand. Dreams require work. Dreams require sweat equity. Dreams require drive and determination.
The bigger the dream, the more work that is required to bring the dream to fruition. This is certainly the case when God gives a person a dream. God's dreams come with a lot of challenges and complications in part because God withholds a lot of information when He gives the dream to the dreamer.
When God gives us a dream, very rarely does He tell us up front that the dream road will be filled with brutal bumps along the way. When God dream-drafts us, very rarely does He tell us that the dream journey will be filled with devastating detours and delays. When dreams are relayed from God to us, He is very unlikely to share with us up front that the road to our destiny will be filled with dangers seen and unseen.
While we may be primed and pumped to find the pot of gold at the end of our dream rainbow, the dream giver often leaves out the fact that our journey will have many jolts along the way. Along the way, we run into walls. We envision a bright future, but often, we are not prepared for the plethora of punishing propositions that are waiting for us.
This would seem to be contradictory of God to dream-draft us to impact the world but leave out the hurdles that we will have to overcome on the way to realizing our dream. A great parallel to this is Dorothy in the land of Oz. She was informed that the wizard of Oz could help her get back to Kansas, but no one bothers to tell her that she would have to overcome a wicked witch, winged monkeys, and a poppy filed along the way.
What unseen challenges had you had to overcome along the way to your dream realization? What roadblocks did you encounter? What booby traps did you have to navigate on your journey? Did you get mad at God for not giving you advance warning as you worked your way toward the dream that you held in your heart?
The greater the dream that we have been given, the greater the challenges to make that dream come true that we encounter. The bigger the dream the bigger the barriers that we will have to break to cross the dream finish line.
Turbulence and testing are very much a real part of the race to make our dreams come true. Both of these twin titans can discourage us and throw us off our dream track. Yet if we process them correctly, they can aid us along the way. Pilots do not stop flying an airplane when they hit turbulence. They simply either fly through or fly above the turbulence. Also, their destination does not change because they are run into turbulence. For example, if a plane leaves Los Angeles and its destination is New York City and it runs into turbulence over Texas, it does not turn around and return to Los Angeles because the destination is still New York City. The pilot keeps flying. When your dream hits turbulence, you must keep on flying.
We should not expect to have a painless dream journey. Dream-drafting can be hazardous and dangerous. Dreaming can put us in the direct line of fire from critics and crags who do not want to see our dreams come true. We must avoid the "Alice in Wonderland" syndrome leading us to believe that there will be scores of cheerleaders with bright pom-poms cheering us on.
Another fact about dreaming is that there are rarely any shortcuts and there is no yellow-brick road. The road to dream fulfillment weaves and works its way through terrible twists and turns that often taunt us. One of the saddest twists lies in the acts of sabotage by those closest to us.
Such was the case of seventeen-year-old Hebrew boy by the name of Joseph, who has been dream-drafted by God to rise to a position of prominence, thus saving his race. God gives him two great and grand dreams with him being elevated over his brothers and even his father, Israel.
This does not set well with Joseph's brothers, who already hold him in disdain because he is the favorite son and his father had given him a multicolored coat that he paraded around town in. Boy, does Joseph's dream get him into a huge mess? "When his brothers saw that their father love him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him" (Gen. 37:4—NIV).
Sometimes on your dream journey, you will have to process sibling rivalries. More often than not, we have to overcome the jealousy and roadblocks set by family members as we share our dreams and take the necessary steps to make them come true. For some reason, there are times when those closest to us have minimum expectations of us, and this can be very discouraging if we lack sibling management skills.
While Joseph was giddy and glowing about his dream because God gave it to him, he did not have a clue about what was about to happen to him. When God dream-drafted Joseph, He failed to tell him that his dream would be a maddening mixture of promise and pain. Joseph had zero clue that his dream would be a strange mixture of hallelujah and heartbreak. Poor Joseph thought that his dream would be embraced; instead, it was rejected.
Joseph was not the last dreamer who had to deal with intrafamily squabbling. Have you had sibling rivalries? How did you deal with them? Who disappointed you the most in your family? Did they make you feel like giving up on your dream? How did you adjust to their discouraging acts?
Prior to being dream-drafted by God, Joseph's life is sweet and simple. However, after the dream, Joseph's life turns into a mess. He has mess on his left. He has mess on his right. He has mess in front of him, and he has mess behind him. God never said a word to Joseph about the mess that would be attached to his dream.
If you are like me, you have had to work your way through mess as you walked into your destiny. You might not have always seen it coming, but when it arrived, you recognized it for the maddening mess that it was. Dream living is not exempt from mess.
When mess pops up in our dreams, we have to trust God will work us...
