The Power of the Dream
Yesterday, we at Wyoming Avenue Church of Christ were blessed to hear a sermon from Terrance McClain entitled The Power of the Dream. The gist of the sermon seemed to be that if you can still breathe, then you are alive, and there still something for you to do. He talked about people who had dreams, and he talked about how acting on those dreams changed the world.
After listening to this sermon, I thought about my own dreams and goals and one question came to mind: When did I stop dreaming?
I knew from a very early age what I wanted to be in life. I wanted to be a teacher. Just about as early, I looked around and realized that I did not under any circumstances want to teach children in a classroom. As a result of that realization, I knew that I had to stay in school long enough so that I could teach adults. So, I did that. Within a year of graduating from graduate school, I secured a college teaching position and I have been teaching at the same college ever since. Dream achieved. So, now what?
On the other hand, there are “dreams” that I have had that I have never achieved. I am not even sure that I would call them dreams because I am not sure if I really ever thought that they would be realized anyway.
For instance, for just about as long as I have wanted to be a teacher, I have wanted to write a book. It did not have to be the great American Novel or anywhere close to it. It did not even have to be fiction. I just wanted to write a book. I have made many attempts, but instead of a finished book, I have stacks of unfinished books, notebooks and notebooks of book ideas, book outlines, book treatments, etc. The disturbing part is that I do not feel bad at all that I have not finished a book. Maybe one day I will finish a book. Maybe I will not. I am fine with it either way. Is that even really a dream then?
I have a friend who is in his late forties. He is a musician. He clearly dreams. He still believes that one day his music will get picked up, be featured in a movie or two, and maybe even win a grammy. I think that this is beautiful. I do not think that I have ever set my dreams that high. If I even finished a book and got it published, I figured that I would never be able to quit my day job if anybody besides family read it in the first place. Let us be realistic. Most days, I cannot get my family to read this blog, not to mention a book that I wrote.
Speaking of being realistic, maybe that is my problem. I am a very practical and realistic person. With that mindset, I think about my “failed dreams” and compare them to my friend’s dreams, and I have to wonder if I have ever really dreamed at all.
Yes, I have had goals and have achieved many of them, but a dream, that seems different. It would seem that dreams should come first and then achieving those dreams involves making and achieving related goals. Still, my goals seem center around things that are not really unique to me. A lot of them are things that all people do at some point–like buy a house, or take a trip, or something like that. I just have not gotten around to all of them yet.
I do not like feeling as if I have no dreams, so I think that I will take a look at my goals and do some backtracking. I plan to think back to why these goals originated, in an effort to remember what my dreams were. Then I plan to reformulate said goals to get closer to achieving my dreams. We shall see how it goes, I guess.
The point is to not stop dreaming. If you have no dreams, then what is the point of being here anyway?
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