by Ann Ferguson
I remember the moment I realized that I had stopped dreaming. My fiancée was repairing my desk’s keyboard tray that kept falling off the tracks. We were about four months away from starting our new life together. He was really anxious to get me into a better situation than the one I was living in. He was under the desk, laying on his back, twisting a screwdriver. “Are you ready to start dreaming with me?”
It caught me off guard. I didn’t dream. I made the best of what was offered to me, and I was good at being happy with my lot in life. I felt panic rise up in me. It surprised me how strong the aversion to dreaming was. I told him, “I don’t dream. It scares me.” He came out from under the desk, smiled at me, and said, “Well, we are going to have to change that.”
He went back under the desk and continued working while he shared his vision of our future. “I can see me in the yard putzing, around while you are in the garden.” He talked about what kind of lawnmower he wanted, and how he would have to mow the grass at night after work or on weekends. As he spoke, I could see it, and I wanted it.
I found this quote several years ago. It has become one of my favorites. It perfectly describes the relationship between cause and effect, and what is my role and God’s.
God expects you to have enough faith and determination, and enough trust in Him to keep moving, keep living, keep rejoicing. In fact, He expects you to not simply face the future (that sounds pretty grim and stoic) He expects you to embrace and shape the future – to love it and rejoice in it and delight in your opportunities.
God is anxiously waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can’t if you don’t pray, He can’t if you don’t dream. In short, He can’t if you don’t believe.
(Jeffery R Holland, “Terror, Triumph, and Wedding Feast,” BYU Devotional, September 12, 2004).
I have learned that when I don’t dream, it has an impact on my future. It is stoic and stagnant. Dreaming, on the other hand, has become one of my favorite past times. I have found that when I imagine what I want, and offer those desires to God, he returns them to me sanctified and consecrated for my good. And that he is genuinely anxiously waiting for the chance to answer my prayers and fulfill my dreams.
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