5 Things I’ve Learned About Pursuing a Dream

I believe each of us is made for a purpose, and if we would only allow ourselves to dream, we might discover a path that we didn’t even know existed right at our finger tips.

My husband and I have always talked about traveling, but until now, we’ve never really done it. We’ve always had one hundred and one reasons why it wasn’t a good idea right now.

• We don’t have enough money.
• We don’t have enough time off work.
• We have too many obligations at home.
• Our kids are too young.

And on and on the excuses went.

But one day, we decided enough is enough. No more excuses. We asked ourselves: What is it going to take to make our dream a reality?

We started by living the Gospel at home. We stopped running the rat race of the American dream. Then, we made a list of what needed to happen to get our family on the road and living our dream.

I’m currently writing from a town buried in the Deep South of the USA. I’m snug as a bug can be in 97% humidity, two babies sucking their thumbs beside me, and a husband working right outside the door in his camp chair.

I haven’t been home in 27 days, and I’ve no idea when I will be home.

We’re living our dream!

Oh, but the road has not been easy. We’ve met many obstacles from bad weather to sickness to abnormal teething that landed us in Urgent Care to delays to down right calling it quits.

Yesterday, we were heading home. We were done with the trials. We were done fighting for our dream. We got 20 miles down the road headed back toward the Rockies only to pull over to have a family meeting.

What are we doing? Why are we heading home? Is this really where the road ends? Or will we lick our wounds here and now and choose to trust God for another adventure? Will we play it safe? Or will we trust Him to provide our daily bread?

The vote was unanimous. The whole family decided to turn the car around and drive South and continue the trip. We’ll make revisions here and there to our original plan, but we’re not going home. God has more to teach us. We have more people to share our story with – the story of “once we were lost, but now we are found.” The story of lives changed by a glorious God who is worthy of all our praise!

On my journey, I’ve learned five things so far  about pursuing a dream.

5 Things I’ve Learned About Pursuing a Dream

Pursuing a dream changes your attitude toward tomorrow

When it comes to pursuing dreams, tomorrow isn’t good enough. We must pursue our God-given calling today.

There will never be enough money, enough time, or enough perfect scenarios to pursue our dreams. It always come down to whether we’re willing to say, “Yes, God.”

Tomorrow may not come, and we know we’ll never regret taking the chance; however, we’ll always regret and ponder the “what ifs” if we keep holding back.

Pursuing a dream is hard

Dream road isn’t an easy road. I don’t think it’s supposed to be, or else it wouldn’t be God’s dream for our life. He wants us to lean into Him.

Pursuing a dream is hard, and sometimes it’s scary, and often you won’t always know the next step, but this forces us to turn to Jesus. We lean into Him and we listen to His words. He always directs our steps.

Pursuing a dream is uncomfortable

A dream rarely comes without sacrifice. You have to decide if your comfort and ease is worth giving up to follow your dream.

For us, we’d rather have to cut the grocery bill, get creative with frugal family fun, sell a car, and maybe figure out how to repair a bike tire instead of replace it altogether rather than go back to living someone else’s dream.

Pursuing a dream brings fresh perspective

When my husband quit his job, and we began the journey of pursuing our dreams, it brought fresh perspective.

We evaluated everything under the lens of whether we were moving closer or further away from our end goal. We became much more intentional in our everyday lives. It was as though the pursuit of a dream was just the thing we needed to stay accountable to living each moment on purpose.

Pursuing a dream is worth it

No matter the cost, no matter the sacrifice, no matter how hard the days of pursuing a dream can be, it is worth it.

We’re not done with our road trip, but I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that I wouldn’t take back a single moment of our trip.

Even as we sat in Urgent Care worried our youngest might have a serious medical condition, I knew I was right where I was supposed to be. I knew this trip, this journey was worth it.

As I watched my oldest make geometric shapes with rocks on the sidewalk while we waited our turn for a shower tonight, I knew turning around was worth it.

Pursuing our God-given dreams is always worth it.

What have you learned lately about pursuing a dream?

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