What’s Your Excuse?
Let’s look at some of the excuses we offer for not going after the dream God has given us. (1) ‘Dreams don’t come true for ordinary people like me.’ The Wright brothers wanted to fly. Winston Churchill had a vision of a free Europe. Dr Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of racial equality. But you don’t have to be an important world figure to have a dream. No, the pursuit of a dream is what makes the difference between ordinary and extraordinary people. Ordinary people live extraordinary lives when they follow their dream. Why do we say that? Because a God-given dream will motivate you to make important changes in your life. You won’t just change who you are in order to live out your dream; you pursue your dream, and the process changes who you are and what you can accomplish. In other words, your dream is both your goal and your change–agent. (2) ‘If the dream isn’t big it’s not worth pursuing.’ Size doesn’t determine significance. Your dream doesn’t have to be big; it just has to be bigger than you. Mother Teresa said, ‘We can’t all do great things, but we can all do small things with great love.’ (3) ‘Now is not the right time to pursue my dream.’ Permission to pursue your dream comes from two sources: God and yourself. Writer George Eliot said, ‘It’s never too late to become what you might have been.’ The timing will never be perfect for you to pursue your dream so you might as well start now. If you don’t, next year you’ll be one year older and not a step closer to it.