Overnight successes usually aren’t. There are months and years of work that often go unnoticed and unrecognized. In today’s world with 24 hour news, instant updates via every social media outlet imaginable, fast food, pizza delivery, and cellphones there seems little reason to wait for anything.
Photos and videos go ‘viral’ and the people associated are household names in hours or days. But that’s not how life works for most of us. We have kids to raise, jobs to go to, and extended family and friends to take care of.
We give up on our dreams because there are other, more important things that need our attention. But what would happen if you took just ONE step in the direction of your dreams? What if you explored just one open door?
What if the reason we aren’t going after our dreams isn’t because we have too many things pulling at us, but the fact that we are more afraid of success than we are failure?
We put aside following our passions because we are more afraid of what we might lose than we are excited about what we could gain.
The book of Haggai encourages us to dream – and to dream big! It also cautions us not to get ahead of ourselves.
The Haggai wrote to imagined a gorgeous temple, full of beauty and details that would showcase the awesomeness of the God of the universe to the best of human ability. They knew it could be done, because they remembered the previous temple built by Solomon. They had heard how pleased God was with the early temple, so they KNEW it was possible.
So they got started, and laid the foundation and probably set up a few interior walls. But it was purely functional, and not very pretty. There were no ornaments of gold or silver, no copper bowls or glittering candle sticks. It was all bare stone and dirt floors.
And it was hard work that resulted in nothing more than a foundation that looked like any other building. So, they gave up.
I can hear all the excuses – It’s too much work. It’s not turning out right. It’s not what we expected. It’s taking too long.
I don’t believe they stopped wanting the temple. They gave up on the temple because they forgot that the mundane work they were doing in the present was setting them up for the presence of glory they dreamed of for the future.
God admonished them to “Give careful thought” to their ways no less than 5 times in this small book. Why? Because He wanted them to think about how what they were doing in the present would build the future they wanted.
What dream haunts you? What passion eats at you when you allow yourself a moment to think about it? Is there something you started that you know you should see through to the very end?
Take one step today. Dream BIG and think of ways to craft your present into the future you’ve always wanted.