“The Medicine Man says: ‘Hear your own drumbeat. Put your ear to your heart and listen.’” — Blackwolf
Does God have a dream for me now? Absolutely! Forever! Sounds strange that I say “forever,” but St. Therese said that she would spend her heaven doing good on earth. That’s a dynamic God-dream.
“Without the mountain, you cannot climb. Without the climb, there is no transcendence. Without the transcendence, there is no point in life,” says Blackwolf. He knew God-dreams.
What is a God-dream? It’s 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, life’s 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 can’t 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 He’ll accept: “I was too afraid. I wasn’t smart, talented enough to do it.” That’s what the prophet Jeremiah said to God. God’s reply was: “I know the plans I have for you … plans for good … to give you a future full of hope.”
How do we know what God’s dream is? When we were small, people would ask: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” We’d give various responses, but usually there was one we’d come back to, in spite of what others told us we “ought to do.” That’s the beginning of how to recognize God’s dream for us. He puts a desire in our spirit. Our youthful heart anticipated “growing up” in order to follow that dream. But, somewhere along the line, it got covered up by put-downs, fear, enticement of “more money if you’d do something else,” 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 one’s 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 there’s 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. That’s 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. That’s why he spent so many times alone in prayer.
Our God-dream: that “certain something” that gives real meaning to our life, can’t be killed, but can be suffocated through lack of attention. When we don’t strive to discover a newly sprouting God-dream, we’ll 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 Christ’s 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, Christ’s 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.
