Awaken Your Dreams!

Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me. – Joseph (the Prime Minister of Ancient Egypt)

There is a part I love in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, and it is the point Alice tells of how she believes in six impossible things. "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast,” she says. I like that statement because it summarizes the life of a dreamer.
The dreamer believes. He or she believes in some ideal that is non-existent at the moment – that is what makes it a dream! But what makes it interesting is the fact that many dreams dreamers believe in appear impossible.
Impossibility - this is what ensures that many sermons are not preached and many songs remain in song book and countless inventions remain in the mind and many ideas remain unheard of. It is the thought of impossibility that introduces fear in us and shuts our capacity to believe the dream-words we once boldly proclaimed. It is the attitude of impossibility that has left our multi-blessed continent centuries behind leading world economies.
The thought of impossibility must be killed! We must be like Martin Luther King (Jnr) who proclaimed in the face of grave impossibility that, “I have a dream…” Or like Eleanor Roosevelt who said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams,” Or reason like Walt Disney when he said, “No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dreams that you wish will come true,” Or be like old Jacob and reawaken the dying dreams that once burned in our hearts, with the question, “What is this dream you had?”
Dreamers move the world. They are the Noah, who dreamed of a holy world, and the Abraham, who dreamed of a land that milk and honey flows, and the Moses, who dreamed of liberating a whole nation out of bondage of the most powerful authority of his time, and the Joseph, who dreamed of becoming a great man, and the Jesus, who dreamed of saving us all.
We cannot live without dreamers. Are you one? I conclude with an excerpt from Alice in Wonderland:

Door: Why it's simply impassible!

Alice: Why, don't you mean impossible?

Door: No, I do mean impassible. (chuckles) Nothing's impossible! 

Identifying God's Help in Your Success Jouney

Be strong. Take courage. Don't be intimidated. don't give... [it] a second thought, because GOD, your GOD, is striding ahead of you. He is right there with you. He won't let you down; he won't leave you. - Moses (The Prophet)

I read a story of an old man who lived by a river. In the rainy season the rains were heavy, and the river rose. The Police Chief came by in his jeep, and said to the old man, “The river is going to flood, and I want to evacuate you.”

The old man folded his arm confidently, “I have faith in God. God will take care of me.”

The Police Chief shook his head and drove off.

The river continued to rise. It lapped about the old man’s house, rising up to the entrance. The Police Chief came by in a canoe, and said, “The river is continuing to rise. I really need to evacuate you.”

The old man looked at the river which covered his steps and lapped across the entrance. He folded his arms. “I have faith in God. God will take care of me.”

The Police Chief shook his head and rowed away.

And the river inched higher. At last the old man was clinging to his roof. The Police Chief came by in a helicopter and hovered above the man. “I really must evacuate you. You’ll drown if I don’t.”

But the old man repeated, “I have faith in God. God will take care of me.”

Frustrated, the Police Chief left.

And the river rose even higher. And the old man drowned.

In heaven, he was very upset. He went to God and said, “Why did you do this to me? Why did you let me drown? I kept telling the Police Chief that I had faith in you, and that you will take care of me.”

God said, “You ninny! I sent you a jeep, and a canoe, and a helicopter!”

When we ask God for help, we can’t insist that help come in the way that we have decided. Some things to note about God’s help are:

1. They will come through people. Do not look far when seeking God’s help. He will lead people to you to help you accomplish your worthy goals. Do not isolate yourself from people because they are an extension of God’s hands.

2. They will not contradict the Bible. The help that will come to you will not stand against God’s word for ethical living. People that will offer immoral or unethical help are not an extension of God’s hands.

The Feeble Syndrome

Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say; "I am strong." - Joel (A Prophet)

He had no semblance of strength. There was nothing to fear in him. He was often in the chaos of school fights – not as the bully but rather the bullied. He was accustomed to the unspoken tag of “Coward” as he walked the streets. His adult life was not any different - he never went to war or dare challenge the idol worship of his family. By every standard in the books he was the feeblest in his self-acclaimed feeble family.

So you can understand Gideon’s unbelief when he was addressed as: “…you mighty man of valor!” Valor? Brave? Courageous? Fearless? Hero? “No!”, Gideon must have thought, “I am not the hero spoken of and never would be.” But that was the very thing his scout was looking for. Because deep within that outward coward was the strength needed to save a nation from decades of oppression.

It is easy to look at ourselves and consider that we do not have the ability or capacity to accomplish much in life. It is the FEEBLE SYNDROME: a common condition in people, all too present in young folks, to look down and belittle what lies within them. It is the “stammering” Moses, and the “crook” Jacob, and the “child” Jeremiah. It is Adam behind a tree and Jonah in the wrong ship

You can live above the feeble syndrome if you consider that there may be strength within you sufficient to overcome every challenge that comes your way. Do not think too easily that you are a failure. Consider rather that you have all it takes to stand and overcome and you very well may.

Also, you should consider the task before you and clearly outline the things you need to succeed. State the exact areas you really think you do not have the capacity to succeed. Do you need more education, or more experience, or more friends? Outline them and get about making sure you get them.

There are people that can be considered like-minds to you in every venture. Bring them on board, share your dream with them and give them enough room for operation and support for fulfillment. Make sure you share your spirit with them – and the plunder too!

This way your weakness becomes strength and your inability ability.

The Question of Purpose

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how. - Friedrich Nietzsche

For every worthy venture there come questions that challenge its efficacy. These questions come through various means. They primarily will flood your mind, debating every decision and plan you have. They will also come through people – loved ones and the like – would challenge every phase of every venture. Finally through the project itself – debates of whether you are achieving as you planned. These questions are of several forms and getting an answer for them, rather than running away from them, would go a long way in ensuring that the venture is a success.

The first question is that of PURPOSE. You will be asked to what purpose you are pursuing your dream. This question and its answer, or answers as the case may be, is of utmost importance. Why are you doing what you are doing? Why are you trying to achieve what you are trying to achieve? Why are you not doing something else with your time? Why have you chosen this time and this location to pursue this venture?

Many young folks don’t bother to consider the various “whys” of their pursuits and so falter and fail seemingly without reason. Myles Munroe famously stated that, “If the purpose of a thing is not known abuse is inevitable.” This is true in every venture of life. When you consider the “whys” you will get deep in thought and expand your idea beyond its possible shallow stand.

In addition, the answers to the questions you ask will unlock many angles of what you really need to do. For example, if a student asks himself why he is in school, he may come up with the answer, “To get a good paying job.” Further questioning of why he may want a good paying job may get the answer, “To help my parents with finances.” At this point he is discerning a purpose for his studies. From this point he may switch questioning to. “How then can I get good grades?”

The question of purpose should not make you give up. It should not make you abandon ship. Though unnerving, it should make you succeed in your venture. Every young folk should adopt the question of purpose in approaching every project.

Share It: the smaller the better

It is easy to tell the toiler how best he can carry his pack. But no one can rate a burden’s weight until it has been on his back. ­– Ella Wheeler Wilcox

So you have a vision and you have all the desire you may need to fulfill it. Your heart is burning with the passion that the work entails and you are sure that you will bring it to pass. The moment you take the first step you suddenly realize that your dream is bigger, much bigger than you thought. Painfully, though it is difficult for you to admit, you dream is bigger than you. For the first time, since the initial thought flashed through your mind, failure seems real and you now contemplate abandoning ship.

This trend is very real in the lives of most achievers. At one time or the other they have considered themselves incapable of achieving the very things they ended up achieving. If it is then reality that success driven people encounter such obstacle how then do you overcome it?

It begins with the way you consider your dream. Most big dreams are bigger than the person that dreams them – that is why they are called big in the first place. What you need to do is to make it smaller. Every dream can be broken down into smaller parts that will be easier to achieve at the time being. Once you have been able to break your big dream into achievable bits, pick them one at a time and accomplish. This way, it becomes easier to achieve and fun too.

Another simple way is to share your burden with like minds. When you carry the load alone it eventually becomes too heavy but when you look for like minds to share it with, they will encourage you when you are weary and tired. Accept the proverb that notes, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another,” and share your dream-burden with people that can energize it and help bring it to life. You need people that will not let you sleep on it, folks that will own your dream as though it were theirs.

To insist that your dream must come to pass as a whole part and without the help of other people is to assign the seal of death to it.