Is the dream worth the work involved?

 

“Mommy, I’m going to write a book.”

His older brothers are learning keyboarding. Like many little brothers, he wants to do what they do. So he takes his place at the computer, a blank screen illuminating his face. His fingers search and peck with slow precision.

“Mommy, how do you spell ‘attitude’?”

“A…t…t…i…t…u…d…e”

The slow peck finds its pace again. A sigh. Backspace. Backspace. Backspace. “This is harder than I thought it would be.”

“Mommy, how do you make the letters capital?”

I leave my position at the stove and make my way into the mudroom where he sits working diligently. I show him how to capitalize. How to space. How to return. He finds his place again.

“Mommy, I don’t think any kids will really want to read this book. So I guess I’m writing it for the parents because they are the ones who will buy it.”

I smile at him with a knowing look. “You are exactly right.”

Peck. Peck. Peck.

“Mommy, I don’t know what to write next. Can you help me?”

“That is the thing about writing. It takes work. Sometimes the words flow and sometimes they trickle. Keep thinking. The words will come.”

“It’s way harder than I thought.”

Peck. Peck. Peck.

“Mommy, I am going to write a booklet instead of a book. I think the kids will like that better.”

I smile again as I ponder my own rationalizations of taking the easier road.

An hour later he asks me to print.

How often do we feel an urge to move on something. To design, create, build, form. To make something new, do something bold, something big, something small. The idea ignites a desire that grows inside us. But then.

The work. The work it takes isn’t quite as exciting as the dream of the work.

The questions begin. Is it worth the effort? Will it matter? Am I wasting my time? Will this impact anyone? Will I fail? Am I cut out for this?

It’s safe to hold a dream in our heart. Do we believe it’s safe when we let the dream escape our heart and place it in God’s hands? When we keep it inside, it’s our little secret. We can dream and ponder. When we begin the work, now there is a level of accountability. Others know our dream. Our fears and failures might be discovered.

When God has placed the dream in our heart, only He determines what success and failure look like. Our tendency is to analyze from a human standpoint.

God began to teach me this when He placed a dream in my heart and an idea in my mind to write Seeking Christmas. Success to the world looks like a book on a bestseller list, an author becoming known, writing more books, and so on. Success to God looks like someone who can hold that dream in their heart, move as He directs with one vision- following God no matter what the outcome may be. For Seeking Christmas, God’s dream wasn’t for me to become a well-known, best-selling author. It was to enter a season of growing in Him. Learning to trust Him with open hands.

What dreams has God placed in your heart that you are keeping in your heart? Is there something God wants you to give to Him with open hands, but fear is causing you to clench tightly?

Dreams come in so many sizes. Some are so small you might feel silly calling them a dream at all. Some are so enormous you feel silly even thinking of them. Some dreams are romanticized in our minds until we begin allowing them to find their way of escape. Then the realities of the work hit, and we begin to reshape that dream, turning a book into a booklet.

The greatest dreams in our hearts should be to glorify God. We glorify Him when we walk in the gifts He’s placed in us, releasing all of our fears of failures and disappointments to a God who has never failed His people. When we begin to walk in our gifts, the gifts grow. They get practice being used. They shine brighter. Our hearts our filled with a joy from the Father, the body of Christ is built up, and we encourage our brothers and sisters to walk in their own gifts.

Satan loves to whisper fear in our hearts that tell us it’s not worth the effort. When God is placing the dream in the heart, it’s worth the effort. No matter what the outcome is to the world. Remember God looks not at what man looks at. God looks at the heart. Let God begin to refine that heart today by taking one step towards a dream you know He’s given you. Give that dream back to God, hold your hands open to Him. Release it all to Him and ask that you be His vessel of blessing through a dream He designed.