โThe Medicine Man says: โHear your own drumbeat. Put your ear to your heart and listen.โโ โ Blackwolf
Does God have a dream for me now? Absolutely! Forever! Sounds strange that I say โforever,โ but St. Therese said that she would spend her heaven doing good on earth. Thatโs a dynamic God-dream.
โWithout the mountain, you cannot climb. Without the climb, there is no transcendence. Without the transcendence, there is no point in life,โ says Blackwolf. He knew God-dreams.
What is a God-dream? Itโs a vision of what we want our life to be so that the world is a better place for our having lived. It takes many forms, but exerts a strong pull within us to search for and follow the Divine energy within us, and to express it in some way for good. Like magnetic energy, Divine energy is only visible by the power it radiates.
God created a dream for each of us. All we have to do is to discover it. God made everything in us and about us just right for this dream to be realized: our personality, talents, lifeโs circumstances, experiences, family, parish, etc. God knew what we needed long before we did in order to help this dream become a reality. All we have to do is to find and live it. Only about 5 or 10 percent of people even try to discover the God-dream, placed within our soul at conception. We canโt be one of those statistics. The world will be more poor and sad because we did not discover our dream. God gave it to no one else.
Remember the parable of the talents? We may not bury a God-dream. When we stand before God, I doubt that Heโll accept: โI was too afraid. I wasnโt smart, talented enough to do it.โ Thatโs what the prophet Jeremiah said to God. Godโs reply was: โI know the plans I have for you โฆ plans for good โฆ to give you a future full of hope.โ
How do we know what Godโs dream is? When we were small, people would ask: โWhat do you want to be when you grow up?โ Weโd give various responses, but usually there was one weโd come back to, in spite of what others told us we โought to do.โ Thatโs the beginning of how to recognize Godโs dream for us. He puts a desire in our spirit. Our youthful heart anticipated โgrowing upโ in order to follow that dream. But, somewhere along the line, it got covered up by put-downs, fear, enticement of โmore money if youโd do something else,โ lack of encouragement, which is really lack of affirmation for our vision; self-doubts and obstacles took over. Sometimes, a unique God-dream gets covered up for a lifetime from lack of courage, and the world suffers.
Many people think that oneโs vocation or job is the only God-dream. This is only part of it. Our vocation is one way to live our God-dream, but thereโs more. God has a dream for each time of life that builds on the previous one. One dream does not negate the next; the new one builds on and expands the first. Some people tell themselves that a dream is too big for them. Thatโs true. Most of the prophets thought this. Even Christ asked his Father to remove the cup, but was quick to add that he wanted what his Father wanted: fulfillment of the dream his Father had given him. He could have said no, but kept discovering it at each new time of life. Thatโs why he spent so many times alone in prayer.
Our God-dream: that โcertain somethingโ that gives real meaning to our life, canโt be killed, but can be suffocated through lack of attention. When we donโt strive to discover a newly sprouting God-dream, weโll lose heart; when we take the first step, we come alive. At our first step, increase will happen. Discovering a newly-developing application of our God-dream rests with Christโs example. He went out to pray. He talked to his Father about obstacles and possibilities. He did what Chief Blackhawk advised, He put his ear to his heart and listened.
Too old for a fresh God-dream? Think again: Caleb was 80; Abraham, in his 90s; Sarah, 100; Moses, 120. When we rely on the Father, at the touch of the Spirit, Christโs arm is always around our shoulder. He will help us break out of our comfort zone. Then, and only then, will our God-dream for this time of life become magnetic.