Living the Dream or Dreaming to Live

When my wife and I were on a trip to Wellington in our old camper bus we stopped for a break in a small mid-north Island town. A man about 40ish’ remarked in passing “living the dream eh?” as he saw us leaving the camper. We all laughed but for different reasons.

Truth is we have always been ‘living the dream’ because when life is compared to eternity, it’s the old song: “row, row, row your boat gently down the stream, merrily, merrily... life is but a dream”.

Many of us have been affected by eternity since connecting with God. Ever since that event we become aware of a reality far greater, so everything compared to that is “but a dream.” Our goals now are reaching far beyond what many people see as their dream. People often achieve (pay for) their ‘dreams’ but futility sets in when they cannot see beyond the material and temporary benefits. For a short time they enjoy the experience but hardships of life conspire to rob them of the sometimes indefinable quality of deeper satisfaction.

If we are reaching for things we have not invested and prepared our life to do and be, all we have is dreams, but we are not living! Many people are wasting their lives following dreams they’ll probably never achieve.

Hollywood, the self-help industry, the self-esteem movement and well intentioned advisors have led us down a romantic path of painful disappointment.  We’ve been taught that all it takes is a dream, and you can accomplish whatever your heart desires. This is simply de-bunked by life! Those who watch TV auditions for shows like “American Idol” have seen the long lines of singers who can’t even sing in tune let alone demonstrate the qualities of a performer. They were following some dream but what were they thinking? Honest self-appraisal is needed. 

To really live a dream consistently is expensive. We have been lying to the younger generation when we let them think they can do everything. Surely by now most can see that the world has changed and the seeming vast range of opportunity that lay before previous generations has proven mythical. We need Heavens help to identify our life’s purpose because it is quite evident that without single–minded focus, we drift off into fantasy and uselessness. God is quite willing to answer any genuine enquiries, His door is never closed.

The only things we can really excel at are those things we have invested our lives in preparation for. Most people who are good at anything will tell you that it took at least 10,000 hours (or 5 years) of training to get started, then constant passionate focus to improve and maintain that skill thereafter. This is what it takes to really live a dream. Are you still there?