Dream On! Dream Until Your Dreams Come True!

There seems to be a lack of consensus on dreaming.  

Yeah! Dreams are awesome! You should never stop dreaming/ give up on your dreams!  

Others are all:
Nooooo! Dreams just set you up for failure and disappointment! You should set realistic expectations that you can reach!

Welllll, at the risk of sounding like something right off of pinterest (where all we do is dream of how our house could look, the cute crafts or food masterpieces we could create, or the places we could go), I'm going to lean toward the first statement.  Not in the extreme unicorns and castles kind of dreaming way. So don't get worried; I'm not going to tell you to wish upon a star or a stray eyelash (although, go for it if you like).  The world doesn't operate like Disney; although, who doesn't wish it did sometimes?

I think, however, that as beings instilled with imaginations and the constant hope for something more and greater, we are wired for dreaming and are motivated by those dreams, constantly pushing ourselves to do more and create good change.  While we can have ridiculously unhealthy dreams (where's my Prince Charming?), I don't think society would have gone very far without those people who were called crazy dreamers, but ultimately put those crazy dreams to work and brought about amazing, world changing things.  For example: the Wright Brothers, without whom, it would have taken us a LOT longer to get to Romania.

Furthermore, I think one of our greatest (and sometimes most dangerous) God-given gifts is the ability to dream.  This ability truly becomes something beautiful when we allow God control over those dreams.  This month in Romania, while working on the Unsung Heroes campaign, we met many amazing people whose dreams were truly used by God to start organizations and ministries that have far-reaching and transformative impact on their communities, and which are truly exuding the love of Christ on all that they come in contact with.  I've been blown away seeing how God used people like you and me with big God-given dreams who never gave up trying and never gave up faith in the God who called them to do some huge things and leave amazing legacies.  

We met the Clarks, whom I talked about in my last blog, who uprooted and are currently full-time missionaries pouring out God's love and the message of the Gospel on Bucharest, we worked with an organization called Children to Love which was started by an American missionary couple in response to the orphan crisis in 1993, and now has a thriving ministry striving to meet all kinds of physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of orphaned, abandoned, or neglected children in Romania, we met Becky Walsh, a woman with an amazing story who has done everything from being a Bible smuggler when the country was under communism, to starting and running an orphanage, to taking the gospel to those hungry for hope in remote villages, and we were also privileged to work with a ministry called Veritas started by another amazing woman named Dorothy in the beautiful city of Sighisoara which is run by beautiful God-filled people who lead a ton of different programs that work with everybody from children to special needs to the elderly.  These ministries were truly birthed out of beautiful dreams. 

Us with the awesome Children to Love staff and cool kiddies

So, with that said, I want to challenge you, and myself to have great, wild, grandiose, beautiful dreams.  And to let these dreams truly change how we live our lives.  Maybe it's cliche, but deal with it.  I'm going to quote some Cinderella up in here, because it's good stuff, and I know I said life isn't a Disney movie, but that doesn't mean that there aren't good life lessons in Disney movies.  Here's some lyrics for you: