Back in 2001, I was at the beach with one of my best friends, having a rare girl trip. (I need another girl beach trip, come to think of it!) We had been joking around and cutting up most of the week, and one of the inside jokes we had had for years had to do with being rock stars. We were in a shop, and I happened across a bumper sticker that said, “Rock Star.” So I bought two. One went directly on the back of my car. The other has hung on my office bulletin board ever since. Yep, right next to Calvin and a quote by Jon Acuff. (Whom you should read, by the way. He manages to make you laugh while he steps all over your toes.)
At that time, I wasn’t writing. At least not for real. I wrote all of the time, mostly for myself and my friends. It was my outlet, and I loved it. But, you see, I had never considered writing as a career. I mean, publishing a real book? Really? I might as well say, “I want to be a rock star.” The odds of it happening, were, uhm… zero?
Of course, God had other timing and other plans. That’s another story. But His plans led to this…
Honestly, I never saw that coming. Really. When He told me it was time to start writing “for real,” it took me months to truly listen and believe. It took me even longer to tell anyone else. Honestly, saying it made me feel like I was saying to people, “I want to be a rock star.” I could just see people patting me on the head, all the while thinking I was slightly imbalanced.
God had bigger plans than I ever dreamed, and if we ever sat down and talked about how He made them all come true, you simply wouldn’t believe me. I think He had to pull out the big guns to get me to believe. The take-away? This is what I tell my kids. Don’t be afraid to dream. Don’t be afraid to dream BIG dreams. God’s a big God, and if it’s His will, even the biggest of big dreams can come true. It might take a day, a year, a decade… But if he’s given you the dream, then He means for you to pursue it to His end, whatever that might be. I always think of Cec Murphy and something he once said, “Sometimes you write for an audience of millions. And sometimes you write for an audience of one. Yourself.” Both can be part of God’s perfect will in your life.
Oh, I have other dreams. Like I’d like to someday see my name on the NYT Bestseller List. Wilder than that? A house at the beach. Odds of that happening? In me? Zero. In God, who knows? But I’m not afraid to dream.
Like Langston Hughes wrote:
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
What is your “I’m a Rock Star” dream?
-JB
tinamhunt says
Thanks for giving me opportunity to sit a dream a bit…and dream about dreams…now I have to figure out how to make my comfortability with just dreaming less than my feeling of can’t-not. Blessings.
Jodie says
That’s the tough one. God took me through a season of facing up to all of my can’t and not just before he told me to write. It was hard. There were a lot of tears. And those thoughts just don’t vanish. But God is so much bigger than me and my “can’t”!
Jen says
This is such a hard thing for me. Leaving the classroom meant abandoning my plans, but also handing over the control I had in making a life-long dream a reality. And now, the desire is still very much there, but my circumstances say “No way.” For some reason, that dream is the one thing I have a hard time trusting Him with. Why do you think that is, huh?
Jodie says
I think it’s hard to trust with what we can’t see yet. It’s that whole faith thing. For me, it’s harder to trust with things I see as “extras.” I trust He will feed and clothe me and take care of me, but I have such a hard time with the other blessings sometimes. I have to remember, with God, ALL blessings are above and beyond what I deserve… even my next breath.