It's A Matter Of The Heart

Have you ever had a dream? A burning desire to do something or become something. Dreams can come in many different shapes and sizes. From the sixteen year old girl who dreams of the day she walks down the aisle to marry the man of her dreams. The young entrepreneur who dreams of starting a business that would one day grow into a Fortune 500 company. The grandmother who prays continually for the well being of her children and grandchildren. A little boy who sees the braveness of his firefighter daddy and dreams of the day he can follow in his footsteps. To the marginalized child who has the seemingly impossible dream of being a television talk show host.

We all have dreams of some kind and they are exciting to us. Some of us are so excited about our new ideas that we have the desire to tell everyone about them. In doing so, we come to realize that other people aren't as excited about our dream as we are. Over the course of telling people of our new found dream, their lack of excitement weighs on our excitement. After a while the dream we were once so ecstatic and thrilled about has become of source of disappointment, a goal that we could never achieve. This reminds me of the story of Ezekiel.

Dreams can form in a variety of ways: an idea, a desire for something to change, and/or simply a desire to be something. Ezekiels' dream came directly from a vision from God (Ezekiel 1-3). Historically, the people of Israel were the people of God. They are the people that were given the Ten Commandments. They were religious people who knew God and knew of the right ways to live. But they had become rebellious (disobedient) to God and His commandments. Ezekiel had a desire to tell these people to turn back to God. Before Ezekiel did this God spoke to him and told him this, "Son of man, let all my words sink deep into your own heart first. Listen to them carefully for yourself. Then go to your people in exile and say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says!' Do this whether they listen to you or not." (Ezekiel 3:10,11) It was as if God knew something that Ezekiel didn't. God knew how disheartening men can be and how fickle we can be. He knew Ezekiel first had to own and believe his own dream before he could live it. Ezekiel had to get it deep in his heart.

I've had a lot of things I have wanted to do throughout my 25 years of life. One personal goal of mine has always been to bulk up. I have worked out and made plans to work out but I have never stuck to this goal. There are many reasons as to why I never reached this goal. The lighthearted joking of friends that I was suppose to just brush off, the lies that told me I would never see my progress, and all the lies I tell myself have played a role. But the bottom-line is, I am in charge of my dreams and my goals. If I let them die, it's on me. I recently reignited this desire in myself and this time I am going to achieve it. Now I am not doing it for other people, but I'm doing it for me and my personal health. It's no longer a goal for other people to see me as strong and have a rocking body (I mean, who doesn't want that). I'm doing this for me. And I've let this goal grow deep enough within me that I don't care what anyone else has to say.

I want to end this blog with one last story. There was a six grade teacher who had a class full of elementary boys and girls. The teacher had the students write on a piece of paper what they wanted to be. She called up the students one by one and they read aloud to the class what they wanted to be. A little black boy came up to the front of the class and said, "I want to be on TV." The teacher looked at the boy and said, "Why did you write that on your paper?" The little boy replied, "Because that was the assignment and I want to be on TV." The teacher began to ask him if he knew anyone on TV, if anyone in this school had been on TV, or if anyone in his family was on TV. To which he replied, "No, ma'am." She told him to go write something that was reasonable like a police officer or fireman. The teacher told his parents he was being a smart alloc. His parents confronted their son about his behavior. The boys father, who only had a 3rd grade education, said, "How does she know whats reasonable?" He told his son to take what he wrote on the paper and read it when he got up in the morning and before he went to bed at night. That little boy became what he wrote on that piece of paper. The little boys name is Steve Harvey. Don't let anyone or anything stop you from what you want to do. Let your dreams sink deep into your hearts.