Monday Masterpiece: Follow Your Dreams

Welcome the the "Monday Masterpiece." This will be a picture-prompted blog entry. Today's blog begins with the image of a single tree, taken through a screen. When I see a solitary tree, I often think of strength, life, or growth of some kind. This tree makes me think of dreams. You can tell it's a tree-it's visible, yet it's somewhat distorted--not as clear as it could be--seen only through the "filter" of the screen.

Our dreams are often like that. They are in our hearts--they are very real--but they are seen through our filters of disappointment, rejection, and the like. We see them through our perceived deficiencies and failures. Like the tree through the screen, we begin to see them as beautiful illusions, not really possible or attainable.

In 2008, I wrote a poem entitled “Dreamer to Dreamer.” It’s a conversation with the Lord about the fear to dream. At the time, our family had just been through a difficult financial transition. It felt like we were “starting over” in many ways, thus the first line of the poem, “Lord, how can I dream when I’m indebted to many, When others have much and I barely have any?” I felt that we had gone “so low” that it was hard to see that anything prosperous or adventurous could ever happen. 

Being “indebted,” for me, had taken on a new meaning—it now meant “there will always be another debt, another burden to bear—that will steal your focus and rob you of any dreams you might have had—before they can ever come to fruition.” My circumstances in the natural realm—literal poverty, if you will—became my identity in the spiritual. I did not see that anything good could ever come from where I was now. I could not see a light at the end of the tunnel—a path by which my dreams could come true.

Dreamer to Dreamer

Lord, how can I dream when I’m indebted to many,

When others have much and I barely have any?

How can I venture to think in new ways

When the only ‘real’ I’ve ever known is this haze?

Sometimes my belief dares to rise, then it falls,

For how can my dreams reach beyond these four walls?

You reply—

My Child, it’s your nature to dream. Don’t you see?

For I am a dreamer you’re made like me.

I dreamed the vast heavens, the deep teeming sea.

I even dreamed what kind of person you’d be.

The universe was just a blueprint in my mind

Along with each creature, its species and kind.

My power caused all that you see now to be,

But first it began as a dream within me.

You must, in your mind’s eye, behold your dreams done

For any to unfold, for even just one.

I inquire—

But how can I do it—how can these dreams be

For one who is small and unsure, such as me?

You reply—

Let my mind be in you, let my thoughts take root,

For afterall, I am the vine—you’re the shoot.

If I say it’s possible, surely it’s true.

Was I not the one who placed those dreams in you?

Agree with me, plan with me. Seek first my face.

I hold possibility and fullness of grace.

I’m here, ever near you, to guide and to fill,

But partnering means it’s by your own free will.

My love for you, Child, is so deep you can’t see

Just how much fulfilling your dreams means to me.

I see all your future, each step you must take,

And now is the time for your dreams to awake.

I respond—

I trust you, Lord. You are my Father and Friend.

How can I sit idly and let my dreams end?

For they’re not just my own—they’re your heart’s desire for me,

You’ve made me for such things, and in you I’m free!

Be my closest companion, Lord. Show me the way.

Let it be as you’ve spoken, beginning today.

© 2008 Teresa L. Kephart

Throughout this conversation that I was literally having with the Lord, He was speaking that He was the Giver of my dreams, that they were part of His plan, that He would be my partner and guide--that it was time to awaken my dreams.

The poem ends with a prayer for God to show me the way and to let the dream-fulfillment begin. I've always dreamed of writing and publishing books. I've loved words and their patterns ever since I was first exposed to them. But the Lord saw that I was allowing that dream to die--I was looking at life like a tree through a screen. The "tree," all that could grow and develop, was being held captive--the screen, my vision of the future--was obscuring the dream so that it was in danger of dying.

I left that conversation with the Father with only a glimmer--no, a particle--of hope that the dreams of writing, of being the Lord's Master Scribe, would ever come to pass. But it only takes "faith as a mustard seed" to move mountains. The biggest mountain in my way was my own unbelief.

Last year teaching Language Arts to students in grades one through five, my third year being the pull-out teacher for that subject, I began to feel the tug. God was moving on my heart, tugging me in the direction of my passion for the written word. I couldn't deny it. I couldn't ignore it. The hunger was growing, and it needed to be satisfied. I made the difficult decision to leave teaching behind for however long of a season was necessary and embrace the writer in me.

I received a note on the last day of school from a precious, then third-grade student named Hope. In it she expressed that though she would miss me, she supported the calling I was about to pursue. She wrote:

"Dear Mrs. Kephart, I know you're leaving and I am very sad about that (everyone is), but I suggest you follow your dreams in writing." Follow your dreams. The words still seemed a bit nebulous, but I began to recite them in my mind--it was as if God used those words Hope had so sweetly written to speak directly to my heart, to let me know that He was directing my steps.

There have been some small steps taken. My blog has been launched, I'm writing a book, and I've done some networking. I will publish, and the words I've so longed to share with the world will eventually be read. Do you have a dream that you've shelved--that you've set behind a screen so you can no longer see it for what it was designed to be? Perhaps it's time for your dream to awaken. 

If God has placed a desire in your heart, and no matter what you do it's in the back of your mind and will not go away--if you find yourself wishing, hoping, arguing with yourself about it--if you keep going back to it in the desperate hope that something may come of it, you probably need to remove the screen and allow God to show you the full picture of His plan for that dream. There is a reason it won't go away. Your destiny doesn't belong behind a veil; it's designed to shine in full glory--why else would God have taken the time and care to birth it in your heart?

“Do not be afraid; only believe” (Mark 5:36b). And in the words of a wise little girl, I suggest you follow your dreams.