I recently finished The Alchemist and it has turned my world upside down.
Here are some quotes that impacted me and my thoughts on them:
Dreams are the language of God
God speaks to us in innumerable ways, but dreams are those of beauty. They give us a picture of the heart of God and they translate the plans laid out for our future. The Lord has blessed me with a handful of dreams or visions throughout my life. Each time it brings me both clarity and felicity.
There is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, its because that desire originated in the Soul of the Universe. It’s your mission on earth.
I firmly believe that people are called to certain achievements here on this earth. We are given a mission to complete. Many people either forget, ignore, or never recognize their mission. My mission in life is to bring healing, help, and hope to the broken by feeding them physically and spiritually. This desire came from God.
He had to choose between something he had become accustomed to and something he wanted to have.
Often we are faced with this decision in life. Do we want comfortably and security, or do we want to fulfill our mission? Make the choice!
There was nothing to hold him back except himself
This is perhaps the most frustrating thing to me. How can we so consistently sabotage the things we know God calls us to do?!?!
He realized that he had to choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of a theif and as an adventurer in quest of his treasure.
When bad things happen, how will we look at it? We will see the “bad” as an opportunity for an exciting bump in the road that will lead to good?
“Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him,” his heart said. “ We, peoples hearts, seldom say much about those treasures, because people no longer want to go in search of them.”
Every blessing ignored becomes a curse
I see this in so many adults. They seek stability and financial security and in doing so, they brush their dreams under the rug. When we are blessed with a dream from God, will we ignore it and let it haunt us for the rest of our lives or will we take this blessing and run as fast as we can towards God with it?
If I have to fight, it will be just as good a day to die as any other.
To die tomorrow was no worse than dying on any other day.
In his heart, he felt a strange sense of joy: he was about to die in pursuit of his personal legend.
Then you’ll die in the midst of trying to realize your Personal Legend. That’s a lot better than dying like millions of other people, who never even knew what their personal legends were.
I want my life to matter! I want to live such a passionate and meaningful life that I’d be content to die while in the process of fulfilling my dreams. I think it would be so cool to die in pursuit of my purpose! I know that my life is exciting, but often I feel as if I am coasting. I want to do something dangerous! Not reckless, just… dangerous. I want a passion! I want to be willing to die!!!
Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living right now.
Literally just be present in the moment you are living and find joy in every circumstance. The total of our life will be made up of a bunch of “now” moments. Live those moments for the Lord.
The closer he got to the realization of his dream, the more difficult things became.
Satan gets scared when you are successful in the things of the Lord and tries to stop you. But with Jesus, the difficulties will be overcome.
If he pushed forward impulsively, he would fail to see the signs and omens left by God along his path.
If you just live life on a whim, without being aware of what is going on with God and the World around you, you will desperately miss out. You will not see the little miracles or hear the still small voice bring clarity to your path. Be spontaneous, but spontaneous in the Lord.
In addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream.
Everything you need to know you have learned in your journey.
When you have a dream from the Lord, there is an end goal. But we must not forget to take in the lessons God teaches us as we grow. Those can sometimes be just as important as the final destination.
People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them.
God put the dream in your heart. You deserve it. You have the ability to pursue and eventually achieve it, or die trying!
There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.
The fear of suffering is worse that the suffering itself.
Don’t live in fear! We will count the sufferings of this world as blessings when we get to heaven. Chase a lifestyle that risks your comfort zone, includes suffering for a cause, or opens up opportunities for failure. This is how we live fully. This is how we grow.
Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.
This is one of the great lessons I have learned on the Race. The world is not as scary as we are trained to think it is. I guess people want to teach us to be cautious and safe, but while doing this, they teach us, especially girls, to fear the world. I have come face to face with evils I didn’t realize were actually real while on this trip, but I have also found a kindness in strangers and a joy in getting lost. Honestly, if a fear of what could go wrong is holding you back from your dream, let that go! Because if you always have that mindset, thing will end up being as bad as you imagined.
Be aware of the place where you are brought to tears. That’s where I am, and that’s where you’re treasure is.
I have three kinds of tears: sad tears, happy/movie tears, and Jesus tears. Emotions are indicators of our most intimate desires. I find myself weeping far more often in worship or in prayer than in any other circumstance. The Lord is where I am brought to tears. He is my treasure. Where are you brought to tears?
These are a bunch of random quotes that I just can’t get out of my mind and the thought and questions I’ve attached to them. If you have comments, questions, or advice regarding any of these, I’d love to read them.
All I know is I want to clearly identify the dreams the Lord had bestowed upon me and to never let them go. Even when the world and those around me tell me to settle, I’ll never give up. I want to live a life I’d be willing to die for. May God have mercy and patience on me as I pursue and follow Him.
