If I die today, I die knowing that I have accomplished much with my life. How about you? If you have not accomplished much, could it be that you have not dared to dream? Many of my friends and acquaintances think I am arrogant. They are mistaken. I dare to dream big dreams and I am confident that with God’s help that I can achieve them, (providing of course they are within His will for my life). It is not arrogance to dream big dreams and have confidence in yourself that with God’s help you can achieve them.
I have always had detractors. I “fondly” refer to them as AAB’s, (anti-aircraft buddies). No matter the idea, they will try to shoot it down with reason after reason that it will not work. Just like anti-aircraft guns, rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat, they shoot down good idea after good idea. If I had listened to them, I would never have undertaken anything. I’m sure some are well meaning, others may be afraid that I might rise above them and accomplish something that they have not and thereby evoke jealousy.
Few and far between have been those souls who have believed in me and encouraged me to go for it. My wife’s mother was just such a person; in fact she was the “only” person, (aside from me), that was solidly behind my decision to start my very first business so many years ago. I vividly remember her staunchly defending me and telling other family members that were solidly against this decision, “If Bob goes into business for himself, he will succeed, and that is all there is to it!”
Much of my life I had been told that I would never amount to anything and would never succeed at anything by various authority figures and I cannot tell you how much it meant to me for her to stand up for me. When I am convinced that I am right, in all honesty I am stubborn, hard headed, obstinate, and not easily dissuaded by those around me. I would have gone into business for myself even if “everyone” that I knew thought I was crazy, but words cannot adequately describe the love and gratitude I still feel towards Mother Jenny for her unwavering support of me at this critical juncture in my life where I was giving up a well paying job and venturing into the unknown and immersing myself and my young family into risk and debt. Eleven successful businesses later I hope she is looking down from heaven smiling with a knowing smile that she was not wrong to believe in me.
AAB’s are not the only detractors in life who want to dissuade us from achieving our dreams. There have been plenty of figures in the Bible who eventually accomplished big things for the Lord who initially balked due to internal and satanic influences. Perhaps the most famous was Moses. He argued with the Lord telling Him he was not a good speaker, and on and on, virtually begging the Lord to choose someone else to stand up to pharaoh and insist that the Jews be allowed to leave Egypt. The Lord was not deterred in His choice and insisted that Moses was the right man for the job. Later he indeed stood before pharaoh and spoke eloquently as he defied him and successfully led his people out of Egypt. Satan tried his very best to prevent that from happening to be sure.
Dare to dream your dreams and make them reality. Every person no matter their position in life puts their pants on just like you do every morning, “one leg at a time”. Perhaps the only difference in those who have accomplished big things and you is that they dared to dream their dreams and were willing to work hard to make them reality. (Oh yes, dreams will not come true unless accompanied by plenty of that four letter word, “work”; you can trust me on that!)
Most importantly is the determination that God is for your dream. If God is for it and you will work hard , well you can just take that one to the bank.
Romans 8:31
What then shall we say to these
things? If God is for us, who can
be against us?