We Are Called To Dream

I am that friend that is obsessed with Disney.

Everyone knows it, and I'm not ashamed to say it. As soon as someone even remotely refers to Disney, my senses are on high alert and every head in the room spins to look at me.

Some people love Disney for the characters and the timeless stories of magic and fairytale. Most people would say Disney played an integral part of their childhood memories. Others love this company because of the excellence with which they operate. If you love theme parks and creativity and history and business and world domination, it would be hard not to be a fan of Disney in some way, shape, or form.

I love this company for all these reasons and more, but the thing that I admire the most is their commitment to dreaming.

I love that the tagline for Disney's Parks and Resorts is "Where dreams come true." They have created an atmosphere of magic and fantasy, transforming kids into real life princes and princesses, pirates, and storybook characters. A little girl's biggest dream could be to meet Cinderella; and here there's a place to meet her, see her castle, and even transform into Cinderella herself.

And if Disney can make a kid believe that even their wildest, most fantastic dreams of whimsy can come true, how much easier is it to convince them that their smaller, yet still big real-life dreams can too?

Yet somewhere along the way of growing up, we stop believing in our dreams. We stop believing in ourselves. A dream may seem too big to conquer or too small to matter. We are handed dreams of our parents or friends or society and told that we must take them as our own. We grow up and experience life in all its joys and failures, and somehow it has become easier to be Cinderella than it is to live our dreams. 

The world is trying to intimidate us into small dreams. It is presenting us with a cookie-cutter life and convincing us that this is all there is. If you ever look at your life and wonder if there is more, this is a good indication that there are dreams yet to be realized.

I think we serve a God who calls us to dream.

Often times He is the One who places certain dreams in our hearts. In realizing our dreams, we realize more of ourselves, which can lead us to realizing more of God. He creates us with specific gifts and passions and things that we like and dislike and challenges us to do something with them. In doing so, we are showing off the handiwork of our Creator.

We are shouting "Look at my God! Look at how creative He is! I will not waste what He's given me, and I trust Him to take my dreams and make them into something beautiful."

He is a God that spares no expense. His love is extravagant, and His promises are unmatched. He never settles and gives His very best. In dreaming with God, how could we expect anything less?

I want to remember what it was like as a child to dream without limits and believe that those dreams don't just have to stay dreams. I will be brave and bold in asking God to dream with me, and I will be brave and bold in putting in the work to get there. You don't get to be Cinderella without the time, money, planning, and people.

Maybe you're thinking, wow I really don't have any dreams or I don't even know how to dream... that's okay. Dreams don't have to include running the world or your name in lights. Look at what you're good at. What do you fill your free time with? What gets you the most excited or sets your soul on fire? Just because we serve a big God who makes big dreams happen doesn't mean the small, simple dreams don't matter.

We may be a month in already, but let 2018 be a year of dreams... a year of creating them and fighting for them. And maybe while you're at it, make your way down to WDW to become a kid again and do as dreamers do.