Sep 28

Written by: glendajoy
9/28/2008 9:48 PM

We all have a tendency to want to be positioned in an ideal place. That is especially true, I think, as it relates to our dreams and things that are close to our hearts. In my own experience, one of the major obstacles that can trip me up is waiting for circumstances to change before I begin a project.

You have heard all the excuses. I will do _________, when ________ happens. I am coming to understand that this particular kind of thinking is a dream robber. A really extreme example is when people say, I am going to wait until I commit my life to God until I get myself cleaned up. That is a perpetually infinite delay! The truth is, we come to God a dirty, broken mess, and He transforms us into whole people with clean hearts. Right thinking suggests that even our best effort at cleaning ourselves up, is in reality an exercise in futility. If we could truly be clean and whole on our own, we wouldn’t need the grace and mercy of the LORD.

In many less extreme examples, think of all the places in your life that you have a dream or a desire to do something, but you are held back waiting on something to happen before you move on it. It can be paralyzing, and worse yet, it can delay the fulfillment of something you have always wanted to do. I am convinced everyone has the seeds of many unfulfilled dreams planted deep inside them. What is sad to me is the knowledge that apart from some type of action, those dreams stay dreams, and never become reality.  For that to happen, all you have to do is...nothing.

In the past few months, I have done some things that last year were only dreams. In reflecting on why that has happened, I discovered a big key that opened the way for me.

I had to decide to start from where I was. I know that sounds crazy. You have to start where you are, don't you?  The alternative to that is not to start from somewhere other than where you are, but not to start at all. Inaction is a dream killer. A wise person once said, if you can’t walk in the right direction, just fall forward. I can relate to that. I have done that recently.

When I was a little girl, I used to play a game called ‘Mother, May I?’. In that game, you could take baby steps or giant steps. In the game of life, even baby steps are better than no steps at all.

So, here is the deal. Even if everything is not lined up perfectly for you to begin,- or you need to learn more, or have more, or do more, or be trained better, or, yadda yadda yadda- take a baby step today! Begin right now. Go from dreaming to doing.

A dream fulfilled is not as much about the capabilities of the person, as it is about their willingness to risk failure. But this I know. If you try to do something that doesn’t turn out exactly like you would want it to, there is a deep satisfaction connected to walking (falling or crawling) in the direction of a dream God has given you. And, even if you have only taken a baby step in that general direction, you are that much closer to seeing a dream fulfilled.  If not you, who?  If not now, when?

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