January 28, 1986. I remember it very well. I was six and I was so excited. I was sitting in the living room with my Dad waiting for the countdown for lift off. I was staying home from school that day to watch the Challenger space shuttle launch. The space shuttle was the end all be all of my dreams as a child. I had a model shuttle, I had read countless books on space travel and the shuttles. My sister Sharyl had even got me a book with a pull out cockpit control panel with all the details, dials and gauges that were in the real shuttle. It was my biggest dream and ambition. Someday, I was going to space in that shuttle. All that changed at 11:38am on January 28, 1986; when the Challenger exploded and broke apart during the launch process.
As a six year old boy who dreamed of flying off into space one day this was a huge shock and was nearly impossible for me to wrap my head (and heart) around. It never dawned on me that anything like this could ever happen.
Looking back now, it seems like such a silly dream. Hurtling into space at a break neck speed, floating around weightless, eating astronaut ice cream, gliding back to earth and waving to all those excited people! Those were the threads of my dream.
Now I am 31 years old, married and in all regards live a good and satisfying life. But what about dreams? Do we continue to dream even after the visions of our future we had as children fade and fall to the way side? I say we do, and as Christ followers, I see our dreams are bigger and vastly outreach even the imagination of our younger days.
But now our dreams are so much more. They are not born of our own childish need for adventures and glory. But they are born out of the want and need to bring God glory. God has planted in each of us a seed. That seed is the dream we have for our lives. Call it what you will, a calling, a profession, a career, a family. These are all dreams that we have and share. God knows each and every step He has ordered in our lives (Jeremiah 10:23).
I may be pushing 32, I may not feel like I am a young man anymore, but my dreams still burn with a passion and strength. It’s not to late to realize your dreams. Seek them, bathe them in prayer, shelter them in God’s word. But most of all walk with it in your heart daily. It’s never to late to dream, and it is never to late for God to give you one (Genesis 21:5).
PS
Whats your dream? Does it closely resemble the dreams of your youth? Leave a comment below!
Resonant Love 