Dare to Dream??

I started dreaming again today.

I was sitting with a buddy of mine at breakfast, an impromptu one at that, and I started to talk about dreams I had. Now these aren't the kind of dreams where I find myself on stage without a clue what my lines are, or even the one where I win the $50 million Powerball jackpot. This was the kind of dream where I get stoked because it "scratches that itch," if you will. Where it connects with something deep down that only God could have planted there. Something that hits at the core of who God has called me to be, and what He could be calling me to do.

In the middle of that dream, however, other thoughts began to creep in. I'm a dad. I have a wife and two young kids that have very real needs, needs that don't get fed by dreams. As much as I wish I could take my dreams to the store and hand them to the kid at the end of the checkout belt, I don't think he'd be too apt to want to give me my groceries in exchange for dreams. The young lady at Gap Kids is really nice, but dreams aren't exactly an acceptable form of currency for her.

So for now I'm living in the tension. God has called me to be a father and a husband, and I believe, at this point in our lives, anyway, a provider for my family. Now, I don't think that this means that I have to put those dreams on the back burner, but this obviously looks differently now than it would have when I was single, or even without kids. To completely leave my wife and kids in the dust while I go out and do something, as cool as I think it is, is irresponsible, and not really honoring to the Lord. So therein lies the tension.

This isn't the end of this, however. I do believe that the Lord will bring this about somehow, in some way, in His own time. My role for now is to be faithful to what He has given me, while continuing to pursue what I believe He wants to give me.


I'd love to hear from some of you that have experienced or are experiencing that tension. How did you navigate it? What should I look out for?