Are you responsible for your dreams?

Somewhere along the way, you have to let go of your childhood dreams to pursue a career that will actually support you. But is letting go the same as giving up?

But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. (Isaiah 43:18-19) 

Little kids love to talk about what they want to be when they grow up. It’s a normal conversation to have with a child. Kids are dreamers. It doesn’t matter whether they are capable of doing what they dream about doing; it’s their dream. Reality doesn’t really enter into it. Reality is for grown-ups.  

Kids want to be police officers or fire fighters or marine biologists or veterinarians. I mean, that’s what normal kids want. My parents tell me that I wanted to be a bowling ball when I was a kid. I think I meant a professional bowler? Maybe? But I was a weird kid, so wanting to be a bowling ball wouldn’t necessarily be out of the question. 

Nobody ever told me what a silly idea it was. But something happens when you leave childhood behind and have to choose a career path for yourself. The Bible points out the transition between being a child and being an adult as well (1 Corinthians 13:11).  

As an adult, you have to make responsible, sustainable choices. You have to choose a career path that will support you and your family (if you have a family). Following Jesus is all about personal responsibility, and if you need to be willing to work. You need to make wise choices. You need to be financially responsible, emotionally mature, and intellectually honest about your future.  

Adults don’t have space for childhood dreams, because childhood dreams are usually improbable (if not impossible). They are certainly impractical in many instances. So somewhere along the way, you have to let go of the dreams of your youth in order to pursue a career that will actually support you. 

Obviously, this looks different for everyone, and we all have different paths we’ve walked. But I think we can all agree that the life we are living as a grown-up looks nothing like the dream you had for yourself as a child. 

So, does God want you to give up on your dream?  

If you dreamed of being a firefighter or a movie star or a skydiver or a bowling ball, do you have to give that up in order to make God happy?  

Well, in my opinion, no. I truly believe God gives us the dreams in our hearts for a reason. Something that is so deeply wired in our souls doesn’t happen by accident. He made us to begin with. He shaped us, formed us, engineered us, and I believe He purposes each of us for something greater than ourselves.  

But that greater purpose isn’t something we can accomplish on our own. So somewhere along the way, we have to entrust that dream to God. You have to let it go and let Him do what He wants with it.  

To me, this is the true test of maturity: being willing to turn over the heart-dream you’ve had since you were a child to God. If you can do that, you’re not allowing your dream to define you; you’re defining yourself by what God says about you. And that’s the whole point. 

A dream is just a dream until God gets hold of it.  

God is always doing something new. Always. He doesn’t do old things. Life with Jesus is renewal, and all the old things that used to mean so much to us shrink the closer we grow to Him. When we get a glimpse of how He is working in the wider world around us, those little childhood dreams aren’t big enough. 

Do you love your dream enough to give it to God? Whatever that dream is, do you want it badly enough to let God transform it into something miraculous?  

Maybe your childish understanding of your God-dream led you to want to be a law enforcement officer, but what if in God’s plan He is asking you to minister to the lost? To protect the helpless?  

Maybe you started out wanting to be a veterinarian but God actually had something bigger in mind. Maybe He wanted you to learn to value animals and the natural world so that you could join the conservationist community and speak truth into the lives of people who have been taught to idolize creation rather than worship the Creator. 

Maybe your random kid brain translated your God-dream into being a bowling ball; maybe His dream for you was to be a cycle-breaker. 

Don’t give up on your dream. But also don’t be afraid to let it go. As long as you release it to God’s keeping, you will see it again, but the next time you encounter it, your dream will be so much more, so much better than you could have made it. 

Questions for Reflection 

• Why is it so easy to sink into depression or discouragement when our dreams don’t become reality?  

• Why is it easy to scoff at a child’s dream? 

• How is one way you can take a step toward letting go of your dream rather than giving up on it? 

Weekly Memory Verse

---