Beautiful Dreamer…

“But what if I don’t have a dream?” people ask me.

I think you do. And I think it’s beautiful.

I know some of us go around telling anyone and everyone who will listen all about what we’re dreaming up. We stare off into the distance, or draw fancy images on napkins in restaurants, or pin dreamy ideas onto Pinterest. Someone mentions “dreaming” and we take out our pom-poms and start doing cartwheels. When people tell us they don’t have a dream, or they’re not so sure about the whole dream thing, we look at them as if they’re speaking Greek or Latin or both.

I apologize. I know we can seem a bit pushy. Unrealistic, even. But, may I let you in on a secret I’ve learned from the dreamers I’ve met along the way? Sometimes, we don’t believe the hype, either. No, not for ourselves. We believe it for you. Oh, yes we do! And if anyone were to challenge us about it, we would stand and defend your right to dream until our very last breath. We have SO much confidence in you and your dream that when you begin to doubt or to tremble and you think you might throw in the towel, we rush to your side. We send you balloon bouquets and funny emails and we text you haikus of encouragement. Our belief in you and your hard-fought dream is unwavering.

But our dreams?

When it comes to our own dreams, we lie awake at night and we stare at the ceiling and we throw off the covers in a cold sweat because what if this dreaming thing is foolishness after all? What if we’ve missed something? What if we’ve miscalculated, and what we thought was God inviting us to join in a dance to rival the very best of DWTS was actually the result of a late-night interlude with a slice of pepperoni pizza? So we toss and turn and then we stumble through the day in a fog, confident we’ve missed the mark and we are about to be humiliated in front of the entire world.

And then?

Well, then, we read something you write, or we catch a glimpse of the sun rising over the hill, or we hear a line from a long-forgotten song as it slips in through the window. And that’s all it takes for us to shrug off the doubts of the night before and the morning panic of throwing our legs over the side of the bed and taking that first step into a brand new day.

The only way to know for sure is to keep on dreaming. Keep asking God which way is best. Keep leaning on your friends when it feels like you’ve been chasing the most ridiculous path. In the end, it will work or it won’t. But I’m not sure it’s only about the end result. Sometimes I think the entire, crazy, twisted roller-coaster ride is the most beautiful part of the dream.

Which one are you? The cartwheeling, pom-pom wielding dreamer? The terrified dreamer? Or are you still waiting to discover your dream? Maybe you’d like to join us at JumpingTandem: The Retreat, where we’ll spend a weekend unwrapping, uncovering, and embracing our dreams. We’ve still got a few Day Passes left. Maybe one has your name on it? For more information, click here.

Note: I’ve been loading some of my photos from Germany over on Tumblr. If you’re interested in seeing Germany through our eyes, feel free to hop over and take a peek.

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