Dreams
theophilus February 10th, 2008
I bought a book the other day, The Dream Manager, by Matthew Kelly. I finished it last night. Now, I have to figure out what to do about what I read.
The premise of the book is that we all need to dream and have dreams that we are working to fulfill. These dreams might involve our relationships, our career, material stuff, trips. It doesn’t matter what the dreams are, the important thing is that we all should have things we want to do in life and we all should be helping others achieve the things that they should want to do in life.
The most important word in the previous paragraph is “should”. We should have things we want to do in life – we should be helping others achieve the things that they should want to do in life.
But how many of us have stopped dreaming? How many of us help others with their dreams? How many of us even know someone else’s dreams?
And I realized something important – I’ve stopped dreaming. In the day-to-day existence of trying to be a good father and husband, I have forgotten to dream. I really can’t tell you anything in particular that I am working towards. Part of this void is good because I am relatively content from a material perspective – I don’t want a bigger house or a nicer car, I’m happy with what I have.
But, what do I want in life? What is pushing me, other than a desire to not screw up the lives of those entrusted to me? A constant effort to run from my fear that I will appear before Christ and he will question me on why I wasted my time and didn’t accomplish what he wanted of me?
And worse yet, I don’t have a clue what my wife’s dreams are? When we got married, I knew her big dream was to be a mom – and she accomplished that dream and is a great one. But, I couldn’t tell you what other dreams she has? I’ve never asked her.
It didn’t use to be this way. I used to dream and I dreamt BIG! And I accomplished a number of these dreams – achieved more than what’s been expected of me. But a few years back, I accomplished what I consider to be my last big dream and then I pretty much stopped dreaming.
I understand that a large part of why I stopped dreaming is the result of the realization that my primary responsibility is to feed and clothe three other people – and I embrace that role. But it doesn’t mean I can’t accomplish dreams and fulfill that role at the same time.
And then I realized that there is another reason I’ve stopped dreaming. I let a job suck my ability to dream right out me. Without realizing it, I stopped dreaming professionally and that led me to stop dreaming personally. I’m in a different job now. While I’m enjoying it and doing good work, I’m still not really dreaming. And while I’ve done some cool things in the past few years, only three were the result of any sort of dreaming (and only one took any sort of effort to achieve) – I learned to cook, started this blog and ran a half-marathon. The rest kinda came to me.
And I guess I need to start dreaming again. We all need to dream. We need to work towards our dreams. We need to help others with their dreams. Dreaming is a wonderful gift that God has given to us. The great things in our world have come about through people fulfilling their dreams.
In The Dream Manager, Matthew Kelly suggests that we start dreaming again by writing down any dreams that come to us and accumulate 100 of them. I think that is a good exercise for this Lent – because it will allow God to speak to us on where he wants us to go.
I’ve started my list and I’m going to ask my wife to start her list. And then we are going to start going after them.
This Lent, let’s learn to dream again. Dreaming will renew and refresh us – and open us to the great things that God wants for us. Dreaming will ensure we do not go through life aimlessly, giving in to every temptation and desire that befalls us. It will ensure we are living our lives according to God’s plan for us.
May our dreams come true.



