I love to sing a particular chorus all the time, like when I thought I was all by myself as I entered the elevator of a condo we stayed in for a week at the beach.  I was feeling relaxed after spending time outside under an umbrella reading. So as I made my way to our room, I started singing the chorus to the song “To Fly” from one of my favorite female singer/songwriters, Cindy Morgan.  “Oh, don’t you ever just want to fly somewhere high, somewhere you feel bound to go but you don’t know how you’ll earn your wings to fly.”

We all have dreams and sadly, they come to fruition when we sleep. Some of us actually see them unfold. But in the here and now, what do you do when you have a dream that just stays in your head despite your attempts to make it happen?  I have wanted to fly away…many times from reality when my dreams did not come true. Whether from loneliness, or financial debts or family dysfunction or from a going nowhere career after mega years priming myself for a promotion that did not happen.  

Have you ever felt like a jet on a runway that cannot take off.  It approaches the runway all gassed up, then accelerates…but it does not ascend.  What do you do? I do three things. First, I offer myself to the One who made me. When I go to the beach it is a worship service. How can you look at the ocean and not be moved? It is vast. It is wide. It is deep. When I look at the ocean I think of the love of God.  Not just any nebulous god. Creator god. The person Jesus. The indwelling Holy Spirit. That is who God is. No, I do not worship the ocean.  I worship the Creator. I get my mind off of myself when I worship.

Secondly, I give God my dreams through the act of prayer.  I tell Him how I feel and what I desire. Doesn’t David say in one of his Psalms (37:4): “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires”.  The key here is to draw your contentment from God alone. Then your requests will be from pure motives. Thirdly, I ask God to show me what His vision is for me. In other words, I ask that His dreams for me will be fulfilled.  “God give me a vision of what you want with my life”.

It is a balancing act. Sometimes I fall off into the sand of self-pity. Sometimes I fall because I am exhausted. Let Isaiah 40: 30-31 encourage you: “Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion.  But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint”. (NLT)

pictures courtesy of “Nelson & his Nikon”