The Flexibility of Pursuing a New Dream

Anonymous asked a question:

Do you think that it’s okay for me to latch onto my dream of becoming an artist and do everything in my power to reach my goal? I’m worried that that’s not God’s plan for me, but it’s what I love and I really really don’t know what it is that God wants from me. honestly, I’m just a keyboard slamming gremlin that somehow managed to grab hold of a pencil. (also I really love your blog and it’s helped me so much for the past year! thank you for your hard work!)

Hey dear friend, yes (and thank you for your kind words!). I do believe that’s an incredibly wonderful thing, to have a dream and to do all you can to get there.

Here’s the other thing. Sometimes a dream will not look the way you expected it to when you start to get there. Sometimes dreams will change. You may go in a particular direction, but another door opens that’s the perfect fit for you, if only you’d try. Do you have that flexibility? Because when a dream becomes an idol, it creates all kinds of unnecessary pain when we cannot see bigger than an imprisoning “vision” of success.

I have a friend who wanted to be a clothing designer for men’s wear. He got a great degree, got a perfect internship at a globally known company, and worked there for a while until budget cuts forced him out. He kept trying to get into other clothing companies, but no one was hiring. Finally he did a favor for a friend: he made clothes for cosplay. And it was a huge hit at the local anime conference. My friend never wanted to make cosplay stuff, but soon he found a niche of people asking him for more costumes, and now he runs a profitable business selling them.

It’s not what he imagined, and some days he still feels “weird” about it, and of course he’d probably go back to making men’s wear if he could — but he’s making a ton of people very happy and satisfied in this season of his life. He was flexible enough to see beyond his initial dream.

God is constantly opening doors (and windows and attics and hatches) that we refuse to see. We must not be so stubborn to that little side hallway where God has something really great for us. And yes, you must do the hard work in-between. Overnight success is super-rare. There are no shortcuts for this sort of thing.

You might be in a place where you have to earn credibility by filing paperwork, running errands for your boss, or doing cheesy ads and other things you hate, to build trust and reliability. Unless it compromises your integrity or infringes on your boundaries, just do the stuff. Go to the meetings. Hone your craft and ask questions from the experts. Show up early, leave late. Never stop learning.

As you said, do everything, and if it doesn’t work out, that’s okay too. Ask God for another door, another hallway.

— J.S.

– Choices, Decisions, Passion, Life

– The Scary Uncertainty of Following God’s Will: A Mega-Post on “The Calling” For Your Life

– Four Thoughts About Finding God’s Will