Another pic from Dave's and my Vermont trip. Wish my sister-in-law, Tammy, or my niece Anna had been there (well, not for our anniversary celebration :), but to take the picture. They would have been able to capture far better than I could the light coming through the bridge.)
If you haven’t read yesterday’s post, please do so. I really would like to hear your thoughts. One of my friends from childhood, Anne, gave her very wise perspective in a comment. I would highly recommend reading it.
Last night Emily, my eleven-year-old, shared a story that made me think of this subject of unfulfilled dreams. In her quest for an “interesting to a sixth grader” current event, she came across the story of pythons moving into the Florida Everglades. Formerly pets during the exotic-animals craze, these pythons were released by their owners when they got too big. Somehow quite a few made their way to the Florida Everglads and began eating what is usually food for the alligators. In an attempt to restore balance, people have been catching and killing these pythons who have grown to ginormous sizes. One was discovered with a young deer–not a fawn–in its gut (guess that would hamper its getaway!).
Here’s the part of the story that relates to unfulfilled dreams: they found another that had tried to swallow an alligator and had split itself open in the attempt.
Ew! Gross! Who would ever do that?
Well, maybe we would! Could it be that we often try to grasp things that will end up splitting us wide open? Perhaps some unfulfilled dreams (even good ones) are thwarted or postponed because God is helping us to avoid this end.
I look forward to reading your thoughts.
Thanks,
Jen
Jen Underwood 
Jen,
I feel as though our passions play a very integral part of God’s plan for our lives. Our passions, the things we feel strongly about, the paths we follow for that passion can mean the difference between following God or stepping out of His path. When you are young you have this ideal for how your life will be (how wrong we often are!). You dream about it and that “passion” or drive is usually the central picture of those dreams. And when you are young you just don’t know yourself or God, really. So yea, when you are young it makes since to follow the path where your passion may lead. But then reality hits and you start to see just how much you need God. That is where you can decide to follow you passions or God. Sometimes they line up, but I do think that other times God uses these passions as a way to learn about yourself, Him, and your relationship with him. If you continue to follow a passion that is not leading to a “success”, whatever that means to a person, then you have to start questioning what it is that God wants from you. He may want you to continue on that path. The way you can start to stray from His plan or path is to continue to tell yourself, this has to be what He wants for me because… it’s my passion!! How we can fool ourselves on this one. Sometimes your passions can be the jumping off point for God. If you keep yourself stuck in the ideal image of your passion then you may never reach the potential of the true gifts God wants you to use in this life. I know for me that God has revealed himself to me in big ways of what I am to do career wise and if I would have stayed within my small self I never would have seen this or know it even existed! We have such a small view of God and his plans. We are not infinite like him so for us it is easy to say that He has given me this passion within my heart and so I must continue but when we let go and let him lead us he is amazing. He can show us so many amazing things about ourselves that have nothing to do with our ideals and dreams. Also we can waste so much time chasing a dream or passion which I am sure makes God very sad. Andy and I just came out of that. But wonderful God uses that too! When you have moved beyond a path that is not in line with His intentions you perspective can bring it all together. We are so thankful God finally woke us up and shoved it in our face (because we are ignorant and slow to learn) and showed us that sometimes passion has nothing to do with His plan. The ‘passion” we were following was in part keeping us from God. I am thankful we are not bound to these self dreams and passions that we create. God is so big! Sometimes God is very clear to people and he gives you a yearning that He wants you to follow. But he is very complex and so our passions must morph and gain in complexity so that we can serve Him in the most fulfilling way.
These are just my thoughts in relation to my own experience thus far. And yes I am sure I used the word passion atleast 50 times!!
Holli
Holli! Thank you so much for your comment! So awesome, so wise! So clear that you have lived this out and God has given you wisdom in and through this journey. “But he is very complex–so our passions must morph and gain in complexity so that we can serve Him in the most fulfilling way.”!!! Thanks! I look back at my own journey and I see how self-serving some of my passions and dreams were, even though they didn’t feel that way at the time. Now I can see what a disaster that would have been for my growth and my character if certain dreams of mine had been realized. So a “crushed” dream actually becomes a greater understanding of the wisdom of God.
Would you mind if I used some quotes from your comment for a post?