YOURS FAITHFULLY

Bellamy

“IWAS told not to apply for a university course in medicine by my principal at high school. He used to ask me why I was wasting money. Why I don’t apply for a course that’s more attainable and realistic.”

But Fezile from South Africa kept her dream alive, in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

She recently shared with Cross Rhythms: “The things I used to do to keep the dream alive seemed a bit strange. I started hanging around medical students and took in their life like it was mine... I went into the university of my choice and walked the passages and imagined myself there.

“Finally, the letter came: ‘We are pleased to inform you of your acceptance into our university.’ Imagine, the first person in my family and first person in my school. I made it in.”

Someone whose actions have been helping guide me recently, as I labour to bring through one of my dreams, is Elizabeth in the Bible.

She was a relative of Mary (Jesus’ mum), and one of the people in the Christmas story of Jesus’s birth.

She and her husband were very old and were childless, but God did a miracle, and they conceived a son, who we know as John the Baptist. When she became pregnant she didn’t leave her house for five months.

While normally it’s not healthy to be cut off from people, there are times you need to deliberately seclude yourself, to protect the dream you are bringing forth.

Sometimes you only have the strength to keep your own belief alive; you don’t have the extra resource to deal with others’ opinions too.

While Fezile might not have been able to avoid contact with her school principal, there are other relationships in life we don’t have to receive from. We can walk away from what they speak into us.

Dreams are precious. They are the seed of our future. But the preparation for them to become reality and to come to birth is fragile. We need to look after and defend our dreams.

For Kayleigh, working towards her dream of becoming a teacher meant learning to allow her failures to fuel her to keep going forward.

She chose not to allow the anxiety of ‘it might not work out’ to stop her.

During the process of taking an exam three times before passing it, she gained this great insight: “Failure helps us to increase our perspective, knowing that we often have to work hard for the things we desire, and in doing so we increase our confidence and hope.”

And it doesn’t matter how weak we feel, we can all dream, and we all have the potential to see those dreams fulfilled.

Jess discovered her dream while in a residential centre overcoming an eating disorder. From the ashes of her lost dream to become

‘ Whatever your dream is, don’t give up. Get around people who will encourage you

’ and help you

a mental health nurse, s he realised she could still help people by expressing her story and life-experiences through music. Something she has been doing ever since.

Father God is the biggest dreamer of us all though! And He’s the best person to be inspired by. Because as we celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus, His Son, we celebrate the start of His dream coming true. Of finally being able to be Immanuel, ‘God with us’ and through Jesus, to get us, His sons and daughters back.

So whatever your dream is, don’t give up. Get around people who will encourage you and help you. When you fail don’t let it stop you; try again or re-create your dream like Jess did. Because there is hope for us all.