Transforming Our Dreams in Beautiful Realities

By Oscar Ramos

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect" -Romans 12:2 (NRSV)

Dreams, dreams, we all have dreams. Even though most of the people don’t believe they can transform their dreams into beautiful realities, generally talking, we all have dreams. All kind of dreams, small, big, personal, communal, logical, illogical, but all of them are projections of our mind and soul, of our own personality. These dreams are mental pictures of a future that is different to our present. There is nothing wrong when we dream, on the contrary, our dreams are an expression of our mental health and at the same time are healthy for our mind and soul. For these reasons it is very important to understand the universal laws to transform into reality our most incredible dreams.

FIRST LAW: We need to believe in our own dreams.

There is nothing more useless, fruitless and vain that dreaming without the clear conviction that we can reach out our dreams. Without faith it is impossible to transform into reality our dreams. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews (11:1) gave us an incredible definition of faith (the act to believe) “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” The first law is unquestionable: You need to believe in your own dreams.

SECOND LAW: We need to focus on our dreams.

Some people call it the Concentration of Power or our capacity to use all our resources on mastering a single dream at the time. Most of the people don’t reach out their dreams because they don’t direct their focus to make that area better, they don’t concentrate their power. The word decision means literally to separate something from the rest, an intentional act to focus on a specific task. It is impossible to transform our dreams into reality if we don’t follow the second law: We need to focus on our dreams.

THIRD LAW: We need to pay the price for our dreams.

I always say that life is like a shopping mall, there are many beautiful things there, but everything has a price. The currency is not always the same, sometimes you need to pay with time, other times with constancy and some other times with love, attention, solidarity, kindness, etc. Jesus Christ paid the price for the dream of our salvation. For our Lord Jesus, the only way to transform that dream into the most beautiful reality that we enjoy today was to pay with his own life. There is no way to transform our dreams into beautiful realities if we are not willing to pay the price.

FOURTH LAW: We need to have passion for our dreams.

Nobody in the history of human kind has accomplished a dream without passion. Can you imagine our Lord Jesus Christ doing his ministry without passion? Our dreams require from us all we have and all we are. It is not possible to fulfill our dreams if we are not committed to them. Our dreams are like our own children, a normal love is not enough; we need to love them with passion.

FIFTH LAW: We need to share our dreams.

You are not alone; there are many people just like you, who are walking in the same road and in the same direction. They have similar expectations in life and are dreaming dreams that we can easily relate to. We can work together, learn from each other and find the support and motivation we need to overcome our barriers and fulfill our dreams.

SIXTH LAW: We need to develop a strategy to reach our dreams.

Once we have our dreams clear in our mind and soul and are part of other dreams the way to reach them start appearing. The “How to” is the product of the dream, information and experience. Learn how other people and groups have accomplished their dreams and adapt these experiences into our own strategy. Be open enough to learn from our mistakes and flexible enough to change our strategy if is necessary. In the beginning of the 60s President Kennedy gave to this country a dream and the NASA people the strategy (modified in several occasions) to fulfill a collective dream.

SEVENTH LAW: Just do it.

Sounds like a promotional logo for a brand of tennis shoes but this is our last law. Until here, all the laws are useless and fruitless unless we put them into practice. Even the Bible is a dead book unless we live its teachings. How can we enjoy a growing relationship with God if we don’t pray, read, study and meditate the Bible? How can we see Jesus face if we don’t serve the people in need? How can we see God’s glory if we don’t do His will? We need to land our airplane of dreams into the landing strip of actions. Jesus Christ started winning the battle in Gethsemane when he decided to go to the cross and completed His task hanging on the cross crucified. But now the joy is eternal and the glory is forever. He did it! We need to just do it.

 

We, as the people of the North Indiana Conference have a lot of dreams we need to share to and a command from God to develop our collective dreams. Acts 3 and Revelation 7:9-10 are part of the vision of an inclusive and mature church and the last verses in Matthew 28 give us the strategy to transform this dream into the most beautiful reality. Let’s dream together, work together and enjoy together the whole journey to the fulfillment of our dreams.