A Dream That Lasts

What kind of dream that will last for a lifetime?When I think about this question, it occurs to me that actually  I do not remember what my childhood dream was. I just consent on how to study well and get good grades. When I was a teenager I thought I want to be a doctor because I like to help people. However when I did not get accepted into the medical major at the state university, I just easily swayed to study other major. I did not give too much thinking about what I will study there, what knowledge I can use after I graduated, what kind of career I want to achieve using the result of my 4.5 years study. Maybe I was too flexible or I haven't given serious thought about what I want my future would be.

Now I was already in my thirties. I have a job that could support me, live in a house with my two friends, involved in ministry at church, keep contact with my friend occasionally ...and now something inside me asked what else you want to achieve. Can I still dream at my current age while I am still not quite sure what my passion is?

Joseph was given dream when he was seventeen that his family would bow down before him. It took 13 years of being  thrown into a pit, sold as a slave, wrongly accused, jailed and forgotten until his dream finally become reality. Abraham had dream at 75 years of age, when God told him that He will make Abram a great nation It took him 25 years of waiting, asking questions, looking for his own solution before he finally got the promised son.

Paul was in his thirties when he pursued his dream of capturing and torturing Jesus's followers. However at the midst of his passionate journey, God intervened and from that day his life was changed to a totally different direction. He walked in God's dream all the way until the end of his life.

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by Him (Philippians 3:8 - The Message)

Those were what Paul wrote in one of his many letters to the early churches. Measured with human standards of success, it is very difficult for Paul to get into the list of successful people. He was stoned, being ridiculed,  beaten, abandoned, chained and jailed till the end of his life. He had to support his ministry by his own work. One of Paul's big dream was to testify before Caesar in Rome. Although not as he had planned, God fulfilled his dream. Paul was taken to Rome as prisoner who appealed to Caesar instead of as a free missionary.

A dream that lasts is a God's given dream. 
It propped out from the deep of our heart now and then....in the midst of our routine, during our rest time, in the middle of our conservation with our friends...when we lie alone in our bed. 
It will keep bothering us until we give enough attention and effort to start working on it.

On second thought, I think I may have one or two dreams that will last for a lifetime..