Do you remember when you dreamed? I ask in the past tense because if you are like me, then you stopped.
It probably didn’t happen suddenly, but one day you stopped and became, well, boring.
Have you ever hung out with a 4 year old? You should, I highly recommend it. 4 year olds know how to dream. And they didn’t have to be taught. They just know how. Ask a 4 year old what they want to do, with their life or the next 5 minutes, and you’ll see what I mean.
I want to be a princess! I’m going to be a pirate! I’m going to beat up the bad guys in my room right now!
Jesus said we should be like children to enter His Kingdom (Matthew 18:3). What if dreaming is part of that?
Recently I’ve been thinking about a book I read when I was in Elementary School. It’s called The Last Of The Really Great Whangdoodles and it is about the last of the Whangdoodles (duh), who were magical creatures of great (duh again) wisdom, kindness, and just extraordinariness. But because people stop believing in them, they begin to disappear until there was only one remaining. And so the last Whangdoodle created a wonderful, magical land for himself and some other extraordinary creatures to live in away from those who no longer believe.
And so the Whangdoodle passed from human knowledge. Mostly. There is one man, a professor, who enlists some children to help him to get to the land of the last really great Whangdoodle because the only way to get there is with your imagination and, as we all know, children imagine best. The book then, is the journey to find the land of the Whangdoodle and the adventures in the process.
As I think about that book, I can’t help but think maybe we have a flawed perspective of the Kingdom of God. We have placed God’s Kingdom into a box of words, accepted practices, and just general adultness. We have made it so serious and complicated.
But we are to be like children. And children are not like adults. So how do we be more like children? How do we regain that which we have lost?
Dream again. Wake up and dream once more!
Do you know what dreams require?
All dreams require faith like a child, a belief that anything that can be dreamed can be accomplished.
Paulo Cohello in one of my favorite books, The Alchemist, says these things about dreams:
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
“People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.”
There are things that keep us from our dreams, certainly. Or really, there is one thing: ourselves. What could we accomplish if we believed we could? Could we see the Kingdom of God around us?
So here is my challenge to you: Dream.
Write down 50 dreams that you have. And then ask yourself if you believe they can happen.
Dreaming is not a practice of reality but an exercise in faith.
Growing our faith should be a goal of enough worth to practice dreaming again but if it isn’t for you, then The Alchemist also has this to say:
“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”
And oh how interesting this life is. If you need some inspiration, here are 100 dreams I have. Please dream with me.
My 100 Dreams:
1. Hike Mt. Kilimanjaro
2. Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef
3. Learn photography
4. Never stop learning
5. Sleep under the stars
6. Write and record a worship album
7. Choose deep, authentic relationships
8. Get married
9. Have children
10. Write a book
11. Take a long exposure shot of the stars
12. Learn to paint on canvas
13. Be able to call God my best friend
14. Teach and train youth
15. Go to Wimbledon
16. Memorize Romans 8
17. Bike across a state (not Rhode Island)
18. Multi-day river trip
19. Play guitar in public places
20. Make people feel loved always
21. Make traditions with my friends
22. Lead worship for a huge conference – thousands of youth
23. Take my brothers on an international trip
24. Let leading worship support me financially
25. Never worry. About anything.
26. Have acoustic worship nights
27. Never settle for less than God has for me
28. Run a marathon
29. See the pyramids
30. Visit all 50 states
31. See a sunrise and sunset in all 50
32. Raise children who love well
33. Knock down my own emotional walls for good
34. Trust people
35. Fly a kite with people I love
36. See a hot air balloon festival
37. See something breathtaking and not take a photo
38. Have for life friendships that last a whole lifetime
39. Learn to choose joy in all things
40. Golf an even par
41. Have an adventure (at least 1) every year
42. Visit and hike Machu Pichu
43. See the sunrise from a 14er (Mountain with at least 14,000 ft. elevation)
44. Have a super fancy date in a place that’s not super fancy
45. Laugh often
46. Learn to play the cello
47. Learn to play the electric guitar better
48. Build a treehouse
49. Go to the Final Four
50. Exchange letters with people
51. Build the Millennium Falcon Lego set
52. Have a house with a yard
53. Learn to bake
54. Invent a new pie flavor
55. Get a really nice bike
56. Play worship at a WR training camp
57. Scuba dive a shipwreck
58. Own my own orchard
59. Spell words with fire that are visible to airplanes
60. Own a telecaster
61. Take a sailing trip
62. Learn woodworking
63. Road trip thru 15 states on 1 trip
64. Sleep overnight on a lake
65. Hike 14 14ers
66. Be a great fire starter
67. Win a tennis tournament
68. Play a song I wrote for an audience
69. Make up a board game
70. Watch one of my favorite teams win a championship
71. Lead a high school mission trip
72. Memorize 10 recipes to pull out anytime
73. Hang glide
74. Be in a Star Wars movie
75. Play with an otter
76. Go into outer space
77. Enjoy autumn in Maine
78. Invest financially in a startup company that makes it at least 5 years
79. Have a dish in a restaurant named after or inspired by me
80. Complete a Wipeout course
81. Publish a children’s book
82. Be the voice in a Disney movie
83. Learn to sketch faces
84. Worship on every continent
85. Attend a Comic-Con
86. Hike the Grand Canyon
87. See a baseball game in every major league park
88. Fly 1st class
89. See the northern lights
90. Attend the tree lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center
91. Be part of a floating lantern festival
92. Out imagine a 4 year old in a game of pretend
93. Stay in a secluded cabin by myself with no electricity for a week
94. Throw a frisbee off the top of something super tall. A mountain, a skyscraper. I’m not picky.
95. Take in a stranger overnight who is just passing through on their way to somewhere else
96. Make my own ice cream flavor
97. Die happy
98. Publish a freelance article
99. Teach my body how to only need 6 hours of sleep each night
100. Disciple disciples who disciple disciples who disciple disciples who, well, you get it.
