Destination: To Be Announced
You are not lost; God is your navigator.
Let’s discuss what it means to “chase your dreams”. Its connotation (personal interpretation) usually means “You can do this!” and/or “Go for it!” and is generally received with enthusiasm as a form of encouragement to keep fighting the good fight.
Merriam Webster says that “chase” means...
1. To follow rapidly or pursue
2. To follow regularly or persistently with the intention of attracting or alluring
3. To seek out
Sometimes, it can feel like you are literally chasing, sometimes even searching for, your dreams.
Recently, I had an important conversation with one of my homeschool students about college. She is a junior in high school and had just taken her first dual-credit college exam. She began asking me thought-provoking questions. Many of them reminded me of my junior year in high school, when I was beginning to think of what my life might look like after graduation. One question she asked caught me off guard: did you ever think you would be a homeschool teacher? To put it plainly, I told her that I didn’t.
While pursuing a degree at a college in Arkansas, I was a personal trainer at a local gym less than one mile from home and school. That was a great way for me to apply what I was learning in my kinesiology courses while completing my Bachelor’s Degree in Allied Health Pre-Physical Therapy. I would not have done it any other way. After graduation, I moved back to Austin, Texas. I applied to graduate school, and I was so excited when I got called for my first interview. I was ready for the next phase of my life. What I was not ready for was to not be called back for the second interview for that program. Instead of accepting that failure and applying to other graduate programs, I interpreted that failure as a closed door to my future. I stopped chasing that dream. I set my pride aside and encouraged my husband to pursue his career, which required him to go to vocational school to become a Firefighter/EMT.
While he was in school, I obtained many occupational titles to help us survive. It wasn’t possible for him to work while in school, so I pulled two (sometimes three) jobs to make ends meet. During that time, I was all over the place. I worked as a membership representative at a gym; I worked as the parts and service manager at a motorcycle shop; I worked as a front desk coordinator at a physical therapy office; I worked as an after-school tutor; I worked as a homeschool teacher. No matter what role I filled, my life always brought me back to a position that involved a facet of education.
In that same conversation with my homeschool student, she mentioned a concern she had about changing majors in college. She told me she wanted to take some time before college to decide what she wanted to do with her life, at seventeen years old. I giggled. She was nearly baffled. I explained to her that it is possible to decide what she wants to do now, but God always has the final say. He will always direct you where He needs you to be.
I am still a homeschool teacher, which is something I never imagined doing. In that season of life, I went into survival mode. My parents were avidly taught me how to be resilient and do what needed to be done for the well-being of family. Doing what’s necessary isn’t always glamorous, or even desireable, but it must be done. I handed my dreams over to God; I had been in white-knuckle control of my future for decades, excelling in school at a young age with ambition to succeed. It was the perfect time to make the sacrifice to allow my husband to follow the dreams God placed in his heart. God would show me the way.
Flash to the present. My husband is a Firefighter/EMT, and he frequently tells me that he finally feels that he is doing his life’s work. I didn’t give up on my own dreams; I recognized that God was ready to work on my husband’s dream and He needed my help. As for me, I absolutely love what I do now. I am blessed to work with students who are intelligent, creative, and compassionate. They want to be warriors of Christ and contribute to society in their own way.
James 1:4-6 encourages us to have patience, knowing that we lack nothing when our dreams are in His hands. Trust in Him, and don’t doubt His guidance. Though you may not know the destination, Lamentations 3:21-26 instructs us to have hope. We are to not be consumed, but rather filled while we wait for Him to show to us what His master scheme has been all along.
Reflection
1. Did you ever think you’d be where you are today with your vocation? If so, why? If not, are you okay with where you are?
2. When you were in school, what did you want to be when you grew up? Are you still battling to answer this question? (My dad is a successful entrepreneur and still says he doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up.)
3. Identify three life events that you are grateful for that put you where you are now.
Goals
Write one goal you can accomplish today (at home, at work, with family, etc.) that will allow you to live out your purpose in regard to Dreams:
Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
(Lamentations 3:21-26 NIV)
But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
(James 1:4-5 NKJV)