Consult not your fears but your hopes and dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what is still possible for you to do. ~Pope John XXIII
It's almost comical. It really, really is.
So many times, we hear of someone doing something great, following their heart, pursuing their dreams, and we say "I wish I could do something like that" or “That’s crazy”, or better yet “Well here’s what you should do…”
It’s funny because when I read those words of John XXIII, I realize how often people respond to dream sharing, and why they extinguish them. Jealousy. Here’s the Rosetta Stone version for understanding what I mean.
“I wish I could do something like that” - I’m too safe where I’m at to take that step into unknown, even if it means following God. I only have assurances in this place.
“That’s Crazy” – That’s so cool I wish I thought of that first.
“Well here’s what you should do…” - Hopefully I can say something that will give me some sort of ownership to your idea.
A lot of this comes from personal experience, on both ends of the spectrum. Many times I’ve had my dreams crushed by a sarcastic comment, or negative reaction. Many times I’ve been the extinguisher, putting out the flames of my friends dream, and saving them from a mistake that could possibly rival the King’s 1 hour “Decision” special this past summer.
You know, if I wrote Jeremiah it’d probably go something like “For I, and only I, know well the plans I have for you, plans to prosper us and not to harm me, plans to give me hope and a future, but only if I come out on top, and you give me some percentage of credit for assisting you in this idea. I mean, you wouldn’t have been able to do it without me right? I was your inspiration, your sole consolation and provider of creativity throughout it all. Remember?”
In my own life I’ve recently just come to a realization that the people around you can be conduits of God’s affirmation to your call, but they can also be detriments. I don’t need to tell everyone God’s plan for my life, but I do need to tell people who can be authentic and true with their responsibility in helping me pursue God’s heart.
Many times I don’t think there are many possibilities for me, and I limit God to having already done all He can do. “I’m a lost cause”. Most of that comes from brokenness and having been dejected so many times that I lose sight of really seeing the hidden potential that God has for us all. Not just in big things, but in small.
As Pope John Paul II said “Do not let that hope die! Stake your lives on it! We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.”
It’s time to stop saying “I wish I could follow my heart”, and start saying “I am following my heart”.
It’s time to not let that hope and call die on your heart, but to risk our very lives on fulfilling the call of the Lord and reflect in a radical way the immense love of the Father, with all that He has placed within us.
So what are your dreams and how are you going to follow the call God has placed on your heart?
