Big Dreams

My junior year in high school I attended the last of a long series of annual events at Winona Lake, Indiana. Youth for Christ had been putting on conferences there every summer for decades and the era was ending. The huge Billy Sunday Tabernacle, a dilapidating sawdust floor fire hazard, was torn down not long after.

The next summer a conference was held at Anderson College, Anderson, Indiana. A woman spoke that week who I had never heard of before and haven't since. Her name was Hansi if I remember correctly. She was German and had been involved with the Nazi party as a young person during WWII and later became a follower of Jesus. She gave a compelling challenge to dream big dreams for God; to strive to accomplish great things. I thought long and hard that week about things I thought God might be leading me to. I thought of some things I thought I might be well fitted out for and found a lot of added determination to travel the course I saw in front of me.

In the last week I worked the launch events of two new Christian ministries. One is an internet outfit called iQuestions that came on-line at the NRB convention. The other is a training ministry for corporate executives called Lifework Leadership. Both of these ventures are being undertaken by talented, capable people with great passion for what they are doing. The ideas are very creative and they are well networked with other people and ideas and ventures that make them synergistic with what others have already implemented.

Seeing and hearing the folks involved with these new ventures share their vision and plans and excitement made me think of some of the things I intended to accomplish in my life. Actually, I have been able to do much of what I set out to do. But other big designs have seemed to move further and further from me to the point I really don't expect to ever be involved with them at all. I am encouraged by the fact that others are pursuing similar ideas and that other younger people are coming along behind me with great energy, more ability, and newer, better tools to work with.

I remember sharing some of my ideas and goals with a close friend quite a few years ago. I was passionate and enthusiastic. I had plans that I thought were unique or at least a new take based on theretofore non-extent technologies. My friend said something I really didn't want to hear. I was a bit taken aback when he asked if I had ever considered that perhaps I wasn't going to be the one to accomplish these things. That perhaps someone after me would. That maybe I was just going to be about some preliminary groundwork. Or less. After some days of consideration I recognized that he might be right. After some months I even embraced the idea which had a lot to do with my eventual decision to teach at the college.

Now that season is past, I see others pursuing big dreams with great gusto, and I wonder about some of my own big ideas that seem laughable at this point as far as my involvement. I was reminded today about David's zeal to build the Temple. Because he was a man of the sword, a killer, God didn't let him bring his dream to fruition. But as the King of Israel he certainly was involved with setting the stage. And his son got the job done.

So I'm okay with the way things are and the way they are going. I'm glad I don't have to get everything done myself. I'm very happy to be an anonymous cog in the middle of the mechanism somewhere and not at the business end. But I did get a bit wistful today about big dreams. But I suppose its better to have a dream that never happens than never have a dream at all. Maybe just telling one person about it will send it into the future and eventually to the point where someone will be able to make it happen.