Fearful Dreaming

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” Walt Disney

We all have dreams of varying degrees. Maybe it’s a dream house, a dream job, or a goal of some other kind, we as humans are designed to dream. We aren’t meant to stay in one mindset; we’re hardwired to look beyond, to push boundaries and to seek to improve and enrich our lives. Yes, we all have dreams, but how many of us take actionable steps towards achieving them?

I have one dream in particular that has sat very close to my heart for years now, but I’ve never taken any steps towards achieving it…not even one. My dream is to one day open an equine therapy facility where people of different backgrounds and abilities can come and grow, learn, and gain confidence by working with and riding horses. I’ll talk about it with anyone who wants to know, but I’ll never talk about it with myself. It’s almost as if I’m scared of dreaming about it at all because I don’t want to disappoint myself or others; so I put my dream in a neat little box that’s only big enough to be talked about but not big enough to expand into action. Which was why when I was asked by my mentor to build a business plan for my equine therapy dream it took me a week of procrastination to put pen to paper and plan it out.

What has always stopped me in the past from pursuing my passions is fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of letting others down, fear of everything; and I mask this fear behind excuses about why things will never work out or why I’ve never tried before. I can talk about my dreams all I want, in fact, I’m really good at talking about them, but when it comes to taking steps towards achieving them, I stumble. Actually, I fully turn around and avoid walking towards them, because I’m so afraid that I’ll fail; because nothing would be worse than telling everyone what I would love to do with my life only to publicly crash and burn when I try to bring my dream to life. I know I’m not alone in feeling like this, so I want to ask you a question, do you believe that God has placed that dream inside of you?

I firmly believe that God has given us dreams, and he’s told us to dream big. Not only that, but he’s told us that his hopes for us are bigger than anything we can imagine. Now I don’t know about you, but I can imagine quite a lot, so the fact that God’s plans are greater than anything I can come up with is pretty amazing. So if I believe that the dream inside my heart is from God, then why am I so afraid all of the time to build into it? It all comes down to one simple question: Do I trust God with my dreams? I can say that I do all I want, but when push comes to shove do I really believe that he’ll work everything out? If I believe that God has given me this dream to help bring healing to others through horses, then why can’t I trust that he’ll work the finances and certifications and everything else out? Is my God small enough to fit inside my box alongside my dreams, or is he big enough to work out the details that I’m trusting him with?

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4

When our dreams align with the will of God why do we doubt that he would fulfill his promises to us? After all, he planted this dream and desire within us, so he’s not going to be some tight-fisted cosmic deity who refuses to make good on his promises to us. That’s not in his nature, because his nature is love (1 John 4:8) and he wants to take care of us. He wants to see us succeed and grow closer to him while advancing his kingdom. He wants us to trust him with the big things and the little things, with our dreams and our worries. So while I’m dreaming, I have to remember to take my fears and lay them down before the Lord, because I have more important things to hold onto with my hands. If God has given you a dream, he will be faithful and just to fulfill that desire within you. Stepping out in faith can seem like the hardest thing to do, but it’s the only thing that we need to do, God will do the rest.

 Xoxo,

Katherina