dream

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What Dreams Are Made Of

I think I know what dreams are made of. 

There are many people who try to tell us what dreams are made of, but they just want to sell us something. There are countless companies who have exploited dreams to get people to spend money. 

Vacation destinations and travel agents are masters at promoting pictures and videos of beaches and sunsets, food and accommodations that draw you into the dream of being right there. 

And many people find their dream there. 

Then there’s the jewelry industry. They probably exploit the idea of a dream more than any other industry. 

They sell the dream of a relationship.

They show their products being given and worn, and do it in such a magical way. Then men try to recreate the dream as they reveal a diamond ring or a necklace to the one they love, or hope to marry. Women see the whole dream, beginning to end, as they first gaze at that piece of glassy stone. 

A lot of money has been made on dreams. 

But there are other dreams that don’t get us to spend money. They just scare us, or frustrate us or give us a warm feeling. Those are the dreams we have just before we wake up. 

Some say that they are made up of what we experienced the night before. If we saw a scary movie, we might dream about something that is frightening. If we’re in the middle of something that’s not finished, our dream may be about something frustrating, like not being able to catch someone. 

I don’t know about you, but I very rarely remember my dreams. By the time I wake up, I’ve forgotten what it was that was going through my mind. I’m only left with the feeling of frustration. 

My wife, Lily, however, often has dreams and they really bother her when she wakes up. She doesn’t like to talk about them because when she does that, it just sets them more in her mind. 

She usually blames me for watching something on TV the night before that put the stimulus in her head that freaked her out in the morning. But I’ve proved that to be wrong. 

The last time she had a scary dream, she had watched some romantic movie the night before that she had wanted to see. I took absolutely no responsibility for the movie choice or the dream that followed in the morning. 

But I know what dreams are really made of: dreams are a combination of thought and emotion. 

When you combine a thought with a strong emotion, you get a dream. That dream could be the kind that wakes you up, or the kind you have when you are awake that drives you to spend money, or give your life to.  

A dream starts with a thought, and as you ponder that thought, feelings become attached to it and become a passion. 

The result is a dream that will not leave you, but move you to pursue it. 

Here’s the thing: God places thoughts in our minds. The tiniest thoughts may be easy to dismiss, for fear that if we ponder them, they may stay with us. But if you will give that thought some time to get attached to emotion, it will develop into something you may want to pursue. It is true for those God is drawing into His family and for those God wants to serve Him in some capacity. So don’t dismiss that thought; ponder it. It may be that God is giving you a dream of the future. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What thought do you need to ponder a little more? Leave your comments below.

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Live the Dream or Live the Reality

When it comes to weekends, there is the dream and then there is the reality.

The dream we have for every weekend in the summer is to soak up the sunshine and warmth. You want to be outside in the garden, at the lake, or on the links. You want to feel the warmth of the sun on your skin; you want to be wearing shorts and T-shirts.  

On the weekends, you plan to get out camping, be out on the boat, enjoy dinner on the patio, or a walk by the lake. You want to BBQ with friends and sit outside until the mosquitos drive you insane. 

You want to live as much of the weekend outside as you possibly can. 

That’s the dream; that’s what you want every weekend. But the reality seems to be very different from that.

The reality is clouds, overcast, cool, and rain. I don’t know how it can possibly work out this way but it seems that that pattern is the standard weather for weekends.

You have great hope every week that the next weekend is going to be amazing, but by the time that weekend rolls around, you are looking out your front window changing your plans to doing something inside.

As I’m writing this blog post, the sun is shining as bold and bright as it can possibly be. I can’t see one cloud in the sky from where I’m sitting. 

The temperature is rising and it looks like an amazing weekend day … except for the fact that it’s Monday morning. 

The forecast for the rest of the week looks great as well. 

And by the way, last week we had great weather too, with lots of sun … except for the weekend – it didn’t have any. 

Saturday the cloud cover was about eight miles high. It was dark; it rained; it was cool – not a great day for a weekend. 

Then there was Sunday. It looked like it was going to rain at any moment; the sky was dark, and the clouds kept rolling through. 

It just happened to be the day of our church picnic.

It’s too bad the weather couldn’t have been like today or Friday. We would have had a great picnic outside in the sun and shade.

Instead, we had our church picnic inside. 

We tried to fix it up to look very picnic-like. We even moved some pews back to have some open space at the front of the sanctuary so people could sit on blankets and pretend they were attending the service on the grass. 

We had a few picnic tables in our gym that made it look a little different than a regular church lunch. We had a sun tent set up in our foyer and a couple of beach umbrellas to give an atmosphere of the outdoors.

But from start to finish the church picnic day was all inside. It was going to be all outside, but we didn’t get dream weekend weather. We got reality.

We did, however, create the dream inside the church, and no one went home disappointed.

Here’s the thing: You live out your reality, but God has a dream for you that is far greater than the reality that you are living. Tap into God’s dream for you by asking Him to open your eyes to His dream. Then seek to live it out and make it your reality.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What would you like to change about your reality? Leave your comments below.

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A Word On The Last Day Of The Year

The last day of the year is a perfect time to reflect on the past and dream about the future.

It’s like you have one foot still in the past and one foot ready to step forward. It’s like a freeze frame for a brief time.

… Kind of like those ultimate mannequin challenges that are all the craze right now.

They’re a moment in time that tells a story, or something … I’m not sure I really get them.

But they’re much like the last day of the year. It’s a moment in time that tells of what was and points to what might and could be.

I guess the caution is not to stay there too long or you end up getting stuck in time … caught listening to 70’s music over and over and sporting a mullet haircut.

It’s good to reflect back, but you don’t want to do it for too long. Just take the best from the past and continue it; take the worst and learn from it. The rest you won’t remember.

The older we get, the more life speeds up. There is a tendency to try to put the brakes on to stop your life from flying by. You end up staying in the past in some way.

When I was a child I remember that a year felt like a long time. Once Christmas was over, it felt like three years until the next one came around.

Now it feels like Christmas comes around every six months.

Don’t fight the speed of life. Embrace each moment but don’t hold on to it too long. There is more to experience just around the corner.

Look to the future and make plans for what you want it to be. If you make no plans then other people’s plans will become yours.

You can end up getting into a routine or rut that you feel trapped in with no way to escape it. In reality, it is only a lack of planning and future thought that keeps you from breaking out.

I remember as a teen sleeping in on Saturdays until 11 or 12, or even 1 o’clock. I would get up and feel tired because I had overslept. I would feel that the day was half gone which also made me feel frustrated that the day had been wasted.

But I couldn’t seem to do anything about it; every Saturday was the same.

That was until I decided I needed to have a purpose to get up. I set my alarm and had something I wanted to do. I ended up reclaiming hours of my precious day off.

It was my purpose and planning that helped me make that change.

The future is unknown and therefore it can feel scary. But put fear aside and look at the future as exciting, with new adventures that await.

On the last day of the year, you have a foot in both the past and future. Use it wisely.

Here’s the thing: No matter how you look at life, if you know Christ as your Saviour, this is what the Bible says about your life: Your past has been taken care of and, as for your future, He has a wonderful plan for you. Step into it.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What is one thing you are going to do in this next year because of this past year? Leave your comments below.