Dreams or Destiny

It's hard to figure out whether your dreams are your destiny. Or if your heart longs for things because of the right reasons. Or if your heart is aligned with God's heart, or if God's telling you yes, though you think its a no, or vice versa.

It's never an easy task to move on from a comfortable state of living. Whether a new school, a new relationship, a new job or even a new type of food, it seems that there are always too many questions and too little answers.

Too often I find myself living in a fluffy cloud of my dreams, swirling in my own head dreaming of 'what I could do', 'what I want to do', 'what I should do', and 'what I will do.' It's a progression from my imagination to reality, often influenced by my peers and family. What I 'could' and 'want' to do are encouraged by my friends, but my family tells me what I 'should' and 'will' do, because inevitably I take the road well traveled, the most secure, all the while hoping that some drastic event will happen that will change the course I'm set on.

The question is whether imagination or reality is really God's plan.

This past Sunday Pastor Jim (I love the fact that he calls the congregation "beloved") talked about Paul and how God changed his trip to Rome, to a trip to an island called Malta. There was no forewarning, no direct signs of where God wanted Paul, except for a massive storm that blew them off course, or rather on course with God. After being shipwrecked on an island God uses Paul to preach the Gospel, heal the villagers, bond convicts and Roman guards, and fulfill a purpose he never was aware of. And then God evens sends them on their merry way with all the supplies necessarily to make it to Rome.

I'd like to know if my reality is in Rome, or my dreams are in Malta, but the truth is it could be both. Or it could be neither. And even though there are no clear signs, it doesn't mean that the path is not set out before me. It is, I just can't tell at the moment.

For Paul it wasn't about knowing, it was simply about floating. Floating to whatever remote island God took him to. But when he got there he took every opportunity, wasted nothing, and loved on everything.

Perhaps its not dreams or destiny, but simply living. And living actively and purposefully in every situation.