Less About Dreams and More About Obedience

I listened to a very interesting interview today with the creator of VeggieTales, Phil Vischer. Maybe I'm way out of the loop, but I did not realize that Big Idea Productions was sued and went bankrupt. Thus, VeggieTales is now owned by another entity, and Phil Vischer lost everything he had ever worked for and created with VeggieTales. If you want to read more specifics, you can go here (disclaimer: I haven't personally read this entire article -written by Mr. Vischer - but from skimming it, I assume it lines up closely with the interview I heard).

The first thing that struck me about the interview was the humility Mr. Vischer displayed in talking frankly about the mistakes he made and the condition of his heart in regard to success. He admitted to having an attitude of saying to God: "Here is my big plan, I just need You to show up and bless it." This is something I do so much, and I'm sure many of us do. We desire things, we pursue things, we make plans and set goals....and we really want that to be what God does for us. Or we just want to do it and have God bless it. When talking about making plans, Mr. Vischer said "As a Christian, where I am in 20 years is none of my business. If I've given Christ lordship of my life, where I am in 5 years is none of my business. My business is: what has God given me to do today and am I doing it?!"

He really focused on making life less dreams and more about obedience. He said "dreams" are very American things. You need to achieve and succeed to matter. You need to be reaching for the very, very best or you aren't trying hard enough. Dreams give you energy, purpose, ......life. And that is what is so wrong - because Christ is Life! What gives us energy and purpose should be obedience to Him.

I think this interview struck me because a) I am a person who sets goals b) I have "dreams" for my life c) my life is not currently what my "dream" was at this age and d) Christ is my life. And that's what it keeps coming back to: Christ is my life. I don't think it's bad to make plans and set goals and have dreams, as long as they don't become an idol and they don't take precedent over Christ in my life. Even though my life isn't what I would have planned, I know that Christ has taught me things and blessed me in ways that were only possible to do with the way He has directed my life. So I cling to Him for life, and I'm thankful that where I am in life continues to direct me back to Him.

I'm pretty sure that's the point, after all.