Dreams must be Loved

I've been hearing a lot about following dreams lately. A friend of mine was sharing how she'd come up with a brand new dream that really excited and motivated her. The interesting part was that it was the first time she'd ever felt that way. She realised that all the ideas she'd called dreams in the past turned out to be nothing more than thinking a particular action might be a good idea. I knew just where she was coming from. I realised that I've often experienced the phenomenon of wanting to want do something that sounds good. And you can just about convince yourself that it really is your dream, but deep down you know the truth.

About the same time I was reading a biography of Albert Einstein that I borrowed from the library. I thought I'd stretch my horizons and give my brain a work-out. It was too much for me. A lot of the quantum physics and theory of relativity material might as well have been written in Ancient Greek or Double Dutch as far as I was concerned. I'd expected that, but I wanted to get something out of the book anyway. And I did! It all tied in with this business about having dreams that you can love.

When Einstein was 13 years old, a friend of the family who went to university used to lend him university text books. And young Albert used to devour them. He looked forward to going to bed so he could read more of such stuff as "The Critique of Pure Reason" by Immanuel Kant, as if it was a novel! And he looked forward to the visits of his Uni friend so that he could get his hands on more! Heavy, detailed Maths text books were some of his very favourites. To quote the book, "It brought him intense pleasure and made him happy."

I thought of my own son who is about the same age. Although he can handle Year 8 & 9 Maths, he'd far rather not! And I was exactly the same. We understand that we must plough through it, to meet possible future exam requirements but it is certainly not exciting and stimulating. No way could we stimulate a passion for Mathematics in our hearts, and I'm sure it's because God didn't plant it there. He has other plans for people like us.

God has promised that when we delight ourselves in Him and commit our ways to Him, He will grant us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37: 4-5). It's great to think that this is because when we delight ourselves in Him, we can't avoid finding out what our passions are, because He has planted them there. We didn't ask for them. We were born with them. But God must have got them right because we wouldn't change them if we had the chance, no matter how hard they get to follow. That's why he promises to give us the desires of our heart when we follow Him, because He wants to make life easy for us by letting us like the path He has planned for us.

To sum up, I saw a movie last week in which the hero, who was a talented guitarist, put it aside to concentrate on earning money in his business, which didn't inspire him at all. At one part, his eccentric uncle said, "Have you considered the reason why so many things you touch turn bad is because you're touching the wrong things?"