Hope In the Middle

I love to dream, as you know. There’s a feeling of excitement when I begin a new adventure or endeavor. A rush of adrenaline comes, my mind is racing with possibilities and dreams of what I want to accomplish. Then I start making my plans, mapping it all out, filled with anticipation to see it come true. Fast forward to the end of that process, when all the hard work is done, all the small wins along the way have been celebrated and the losses have been dealt with. Victory is mine and I can enjoy the fruit of my labor. Some of these big dreams are fulfilled in a matter of months while others take years. But no matter the timeframe, it is an amazing feeling to see it come to fruition.

The struggle for me is the middle. Stepping out into the unknown is thrilling. Watching the dream come to life is thrilling. But the middle..not so much.

It’s in the middle that you lose sight of why you even wanted this dream to come true in the first place. It’s in this time that you start to doubt that you can even see this through. Thoughts of failure and giving up happen in the middle. But it’s during that time that your resolve needs to be the strongest.

For me, the dreams and desires that have been the most challenging to me are the ones that affect my family. There are family members that I’ve been praying and believing to come to know the love of God in a personal way for close to 40 years. When I first came to trust God with my life, I was so excited because it was life changing. I was in high school and I wanted to make posters that had my name and phone number on them. I wanted to make myself available to the other hurting teens I knew, offering my help when needed. My parents squashed that idea very quickly. That was way before the days of cell phones so it was their land line I would be putting on those posters!

But I was so sure that every single person in my family and Bud’s, as well as all my friends, would see the difference God made in our lives and love Him like we did. I’ve learned that God has a lot of patience and loving kindness and will continue to pursue us all in our own ways, no matter how long it takes.

I know one day I will rejoice when I see that happen but here in the middle, it is so hard to wait.

What journey are you in the middle of right now? What dreams have you been waiting to see happen that you were initially very excited about but have abandoned because its been such a long wait? The question to ask yourself is this. Is that dream still worth waiting for? I believe for most of you, the answer is yes! So go back to the beginning. Write down the dream and not just the short version. Write out the dream and include the answers to these questions.

1.     Why is this dream important to you?

2.     What will it look like when the dream is fulfilled?

3.     Who will it benefit?

4.     What will you do once it is fulfilled?

5.     What needs to happen now that you have reimagined it? What have you put off that is vital to its completion?

Answer these questions and I promise, it will cause a spark to ignite and fuel that initial desire. Sometimes all you need is to dust off those dreams and find a way to put them back on your radar!

For some of you, those dreams may have taken a different turn or you may have come to realize that they were never really what you wanted in the first place. This is the perfect time to revamp them and start over.

I heard a podcast recently from one of the top influencers that had a great idea. She said that she writes down her dreams as if they have already come to pass and more importantly, she does this daily. That is such an ambitious but great idea! My initial thought was, who has the time to do that daily? But she explained that it’s because she’s a mother, wife and entrepreneur that she does this daily, as it keeps her dreams top of mind.

So start today! Whether it’s going back to school to finish that degree so you can pursue that dream job, or put a plan together to get healthy once and for all or simply get back on your knees in prayer for your children or family members that have lost their way. Imagine the possibilities. Dream again, dear reader! The world will be a better place because of it!