This isn't always a bad thing. I certainly believe that God puts dreams in our hearts for a reason. I am excited when I catch a glimpse, a hint of a bigger dream and a bigger purpose. I could extol the virtues of these moments, and it would probably make me feel pretty good. I'm sure the owner of the cart above felt pretty good about his packing job as he was hitching it to this unfortunate steed.
We put the cart before the horse. We expect that, conservatively, we can expect about 500 people in our church after six months. We dream that, given the proper amount of time (usually about a year), we will be starting a revolution and seeing people run forward weeping and begging for salvation, and that the thousands lifting their hands will make a special Jesus goosebump moment happen.
Or heck, maybe we just dream of the day when we'll be able to quit our day job.
Either way, when we live as though our dreams were a spiritual mandate from the very mouth of God, we tend to become disappointed and bitter pretty quickly. Sunday morning we close our eyes and see thousands of passionate worshippers, and we open them to see 30 people singing with all of the excitement of a dental visit. We go to sleep on Sunday knowing that another week of tedious work awaits us in the morning. Just before our eyes close, we hear of another pointless argument from those people that just can't seem to be supportive of anything (I mean seriously, if you thanked God for puppies and sunshine, they'd complain about dog poo and skin cancer).
We get frustrated, and we question where we are and what we are doing. We think that the dream is dead.
Only, the dream isn't dead. In fact, it is still in it's infancy. Dreams need to mature, to become visions that can shape the actions of those we have developed around us, those who are willing to strive with us for the long haul. Giving up on them early is like giving up on a baby for not being able to read or write yet, and for not accomplishing anything after six whole months!
Does this look like a failure to you?
Of course not. It is a cute baby. In fact, it is what came up when I googled "cute baby" and clicked on the cutest baby I saw.
So don't give up on your ridiculously big dreams. Feed them, and "teach" them by learning as much as you can about how they might some day become a vision. Feed that vision, until it grows up and becomes something amazing. Give it time.
Let the baby grow up.
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