From Dream To Reality

As recently as five years ago, I couldn’t actually imagine this. Here I am, living the early stages of the dream I had for my life. Planning (part of) a house; supervising employees; recording a cd; writing a novel (when I have time to spare); not needing to look at the check register prior to a trip to the grocery store. These are all good things, but my perspective on them has changed, to the point that it took a little while for me to realize that my dream had become reality.

What changed is that during the years when I was shedding tears more mornings and evenings than not, I had half believed that some of these things had the power to make me happy. I wanted these things so badly, at times. But I’ve learned that it is neither having nor not having the stuff that makes me happy: it’s believing.

I’ll use the well-worn example of the husband that isn’t. About 99% of the time, I am happy being single. Most of you who are married would probably advise me to remain single, then, because your experience leads you to believe that I won’t be happy 99% of the time, being married. But let me tell you why I’m happy being single: I’m happy because I believe that the Lord has created a soul-mate just for me. If I let myself slip into even contemplating being single for the remainder of my life, I get depressed in a great big hurry.

Mind you, I know that marriage won’t make me happy. It wasn’t designed to do so. Joy, according to Romans, is found in believing. Doubters aren’t happy. The fearful aren’t happy. The believers—the ones who actually believe—are happy.

Unfortunately, it seems that we tend to fall into one of two extremes. We chase after the stuff, convinced that the stuff will make us happy. The mate, the kid(s), the house, the car, the career, the bank account, the retirement account, the vacation … take your pick. But it doesn’t make us happy, because it can’t.

When we discover that the stuff can’t make us happy, sometimes we slip over into the other extreme. At that point we may shun the stuff. "It can’t make me happy, anyway. I’ll just curl up in a hole with Jesus, because he is all I need." But can you really claim that you are "tight" with Jesus if you aren’t busy believing what God promises you?

Let’s not get too caught up in this thing about loving God "for who He is, and not for what He does" for us. In people, "who" and "do" can be distinguished; in God they cannot. If you love Him because He’s faithful, then you’d better be believing that He will do what He said He’d do.

I learned to be happy with believing the dream was from God. Now it’s reality, and I’m even happier—because I’m believing Him even more.

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