One of my favorite sitcoms is Disney Channel's Liv and Maddie. It’s clean, funny and heartwarming. And every so often, there’ll be something thought-provoking amidst the humorous stories. In the final episode of the entire series, Liv tells her youngest brother, Parker, “If your dreams aren’t scaring you, then you are not dreaming big enough.”
I would like to contend that it’s not just a matter of how “big” your dreams are, but what effect they have on you and your relationship with God. Too often, it becomes easy to treat dreams for the future as if they are plans set in stone. When you take that attitude, you start to think more and more about how you can achieve your dream, through your own planning and power.
That’s where things can get a little dangerous. You set yourself up for disappointment if you put too much store in your perfect dreams, and forget about the sovereignty of God. Alternately, if things do go according to plan, perhaps you will start to pat yourself on the back for everything you accomplished. Either way, it’s not right.
It might be helpful to take a step back and ask yourself why you want to achieve this or that. As a human, you were created for the ultimate purpose of glorifying God. If your dreams are bringing you to focus more and more on yourself, you need to reorient yourself. I’m not saying to change your dream, though you may find that happening. The important thing is your motivation. Are you striving for personal glory, or God’s glory?
In my own experience, I’ve found that my perspective on future dreams has changed significantly in the past few years. Ever since I was very young, I wanted to be a veterinarian and have my own family. I thought I had it all figured out, but just my freshman year of college has taught me not to put so much store in one particular plan. Becoming a veterinarian would mean that I’ll still have seven more years of school, and after graduation, it would be a demanding job to balance with being a wife and mother. My dream is absolutely overwhelming, I have no idea how it’ll work out—if it even works out the way I expect it to.
My eyes have been opened to a wealth of other things I can do with my life, based on my dearest interests and talents. Although I would still like to become a vet above all other careers, I’ve realized that it’s not the only thing I could do. I know that I want to use my future vocation to serve God in some way, and I can do that through my interest in animals, or my love of language. I could run an ecotourism business, guiding people on birding trips in foreign countries, and reaching both my colleagues in those countries, as well as the folks in my tour groups. Or I could become a novelist, reaching out to a variety of audiences through my stories.
Since that realization, my dreams have altered slightly. I don’t cling so hard to the idea of being a vet, but instead to the desire to be able to glorify God and make an impact on others through those things which I have a passion for—namely, animals and writing.
God is sovereign. He has a way in which he plans to use you for his glory, and you have to be open to that. I’m not telling you to never have specific dreams. Far from it! Dream big, dream of those things which are nearest to your heart, and how that can be used in God’s plan. It’ll be different for everybody, but it’s always good to have something to strive toward, as long as you don’t lose sight of what’s really important.
Proverbs 27:1 and James 4:13-16 both warn against boasting about the future as if it’s a certainty. In one sense, the future is certain, because of God’s sovereignty. However, since you are not privy to God’s plans, your future earthly life is totally uncertain, and it would behoove you to remember that. The only thing we can be certain of is that God is in control, and of the peace that brings. It’s not on us to put the future in motion. We act in the present to the best of our abilities. We hope and dream for the future. But we don’t have to stress about it.
So, dream big. Dream a dream that confronts you with your lack of control over the future. Be scared by your dreams, such that you are driven to trust to God completely with your life.
