Rekindling Your Dreams

Continuing on the subject of our personal dreams for our life, what stops us in following our dreams? Why do our lives get turned upside down and lose sight of the path we were on in our life journey? Why do people of faith have feelings that God has disappeared from involvement in their lives?

Dreams become squelched by the stuff of life overwhelming us. Instead of using wise active choices to control what we can, we passively move about on autopilot and let life situations and dull drudgery control us. Day to day distractions grow and grow until we give up on living more than ok and settle for mundane existence. Then our dreams fade away.

It is sometimes hard to imagine how this can happen. For example, a person who goes off to college with high hopes of a college degree does not plan on not finishing. Yet he may stop out for a year to save up a little more money with the intention to go back soon. Ten years later he never goes back as more and more bills pile up. Another person who wants to start a photography hobby, or learn a musical instrument, she then lets work, housing chores, and other activities take over -- never gets around to it. People actually then say “I will get around to it some day”. Some day never comes then regrets take over with all the entailing negativity.

The title track of Phil Keaggy’s Dream Again CD came to my mind as I was thinking over this topic of rekindling dreams. You can listen to a sample of the track at http://www.rhapsody.com/phil-keaggy/dream-again As you listen to the song reflect over what Phil is saying about dreaming again in his lyrics I have listed here.

Dream Again by Phil Keaggy
Ready with a pen in hand, I’m wondering why I haven’t slept, well I’ve had a lot on my mind.
And it shows it shows. I must let go of all these distractions. Leave them far behind and dream again

And when I wake up smiling the world’s a different place.
Only when I choose. Only when I use my eyes to see your beautiful face.

If ever I’m upside down Whenever I’m turned around I will pray.
If ever I lose my step, If ever I should forget I will , I will pray.

Ready with these open hands I’m turning them upside down, cause
I must let go of all these reactions. Leave them far behind and dream again.

And when I wake up smiling The world’s a different place
Only when I choose Only when I use my eyes to see your beautiful face.

If ever I’m upside down Whenever I’m turned around I will pray
If ever I lose my step, If ever I should forget I will , I will pray

Help me to let go all these distractions. Leave them far behind and dream again.
I must let go of all these. If ever I’m upside down, Whenever I’m turned around I will, I will pray.

I can relate to his thoughts of feeling upside down. When we have lost track of our dreams we do feel out of sorts. As I mentioned at the beginning, it is all the distractions of life that hinder us with our dreams and our wrong reactions lead to giving up on our dreams. We wind up giving up on God and give up on ourselves. I appreciate the picture of him being ready with open hands turned upside down. He is not tensed up clenching wildly on to his distractions. He is ready to move on with dreams for his life and letting go of his distractions so they can fall away. The phrasing reminds me of a single mom named Lucy, who attended a church in Chicago where I worshipped years ago. Her favorite phrase was “Let go and let God.” We can’t rekindle lost dreams or create new dreams, if we keep hanging on to life’s past difficulties and hurts.

Here is one, More Than OK, idea for you to consider and try. In Phil’s song he repeats “I will pray”. If you are in a period of feeling dreamless and desire to rekindle the fire of personal dreams in your life, get away for a day by yourself. Go to the beach, rent a cabin in the woods, or visit a mountainside retreat. Some place you find relaxing. Make it a spiritual dream retreat day. Pray and meditate over your life. Let go of the reactions of the past and distractions of the present. Brainstorm ideas for dreams -- new ones and old ones you had forgotten about. Hopefully if you have done the dream list exercise from the last post bring it with you. During your day do two writing exercises. Write for about 20 minutes on where do you see yourself 5 years from now if you follow some of your dream ideas? Repeat the exercise later expanding the timeline up to 10 years in the future. We are not placed on this earth to live tensely distracted but to live joyfully and abundantly.