Meant To Dream

By Rose Kelley

While listening to the Abiding Together podcast from Ascension Press, Heather mentions, “When you are just surviving, you can’t dream” which resounded deeply within me. My sweet Jesus wants my heart to be overflowing with joy – not barely making it through each day. That made me think back “When was the last time I allowed myself to dream happily about the future?”

I know that I was not fashioned by the hands of God to barely survive, He designed all of His children for greatness, to become saints and move mountains, and to share joy and love with the world.  This sounds idealistic but it is the truth – do not settle.  Let yourself believe the words of Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Maybe a relationship you are in doesn’t make you the best version of yourself but it is easier and more reliable than being alone – but consider this: is peace abiding in your heart?  It is easy to follow a well-worn path, but as Van Gogh proclaimed, “It is a comfortable [path] to walk on, but no flowers grow.”  God’s plans for you don’t involve your heart feeling like a battleground day in and day out.  One of my favorite songs provides reassurance of this: “There’s a peace far beyond all understanding, may it ever set my heart at ease, dare anxiety come, I’ll remember that peace is a promise you keep.”

To dream is a beautiful cooperation with God. Place your trust in those loving hands once again, the ones that shaped the stars, roses, and seas. When we take our future into our own hands we do not have the grand view which God does. There’s that often thrown around quote, “If you want to make God laugh, make plans.” It is important to continue taking the next right step, but for example, if you’ve only been dating a month don’t be planning your wedding – it’s all in God’s timing.  As Father Mike Schmitz said, “If you’ve been dating a month, then act like it, but if you’ve been dating a year, act like it.”

Gaze into His eyes, the eyes of love and know that this is all that you could ever want. Rest, recover, and realize that you were meant to dream.