Dreams

It is 12:24am, early Thursday morning. I should be dreaming right now, but instead I am taking a break from stuffing envelopes for work (long story). The combination of my recent upgrade to a brighter, yet somehow more environmentally friendly, coiled light bulb and the stark whiteness of the sheets of paper I was folding caused my mind to drift and wander; all the way back to this afternoon.

The teacher, Marnie, of the classroom in which I work asked one of our students, Claude, about his dreams and aspirations. He mentioned wanting to move on to TAFE (a program that seems to fall somewhere on the spectrum between American community colleges and universities) and playing wheelchair basketball in the Paralympics. Marnie quickly threw in that she wanted desperately to head back to the US for a vacation, namely to New York. I said that I wanted to cover college football for Sports Illustrated and instantly I realized that I was not following this dream with any degree of passion.

In reflecting on that little conversation, I took pause to look back over my personal history of dreams.

2nd Grade:
Jordan the Weatherman.

5th- 10th Grade, with a brief flirtation at the beginning of college:
Jordan Davis, Attorney at Law.

10th- 12th Grade:
Jordan “Ice/ WRbooyah” Davis, Collegiate Football Star Extraordinaire.

Freshman-Junior Year at CU:
?

Senior Year at CU:
Jordan P. Davis, freelancing, blogging (how is “blogging” still a spelling error in Microsoft word? Get with the times…), journalist.


And here we are, May 2009. What are my dreams now? I know my goals, hopes, and aspirations, but have I let my dreams die? I definitely put writing aside because I was unable to find gainful employment in said field, but trust, if for some reason Sports Illustrated, or even ESPN came a callin, I’d come a runnin.

Maybe I’m not dreaming because I’m living THE dream. I could not have even foreseen the life path that I’m headed down before I left, heck, I still don’t even know the exact path I’m traveling. But I’m here on the other side of the world with my beautiful fiancée at my side and I can’t complain about anything in my life. I have stable housing, employment, entertainment, sporting pursuits, and friends… I live in Australia! Just 15 minutes from the beach; I’m getting married in about 7.5 months! Why am I yelling?

This is exciting.

My life is exciting and challenging; maybe for the first time in my life, my dreams are not about some career I want to pursue, but they are about settling down with Cate in a community and becoming part of its fabric; changing lives and cultures; showing/spreading the love of Christ everywhere we go and in everything we do.

I guess that’s a pretty good dream afterall?

I should probably stop messing around and get back to stuffing envelopes, but to paraphrase a great man, Larry Kindbom,


Keep dreaming of championships, in whatever you do.


Or maybe a far greater man, Paul, would be a more appropriate approximation,

If we live, then it is to the lord. If we die, then it is to the lord. So, whether we live or we die, we belong to the lord.



Yeah.