I AM A DREAMER
Written August 17th, 2025 - Entry: Two
Category: Reflection
A while back, in green marker, I wrote on my wall,
“I AM A DREAMER.”
And this is what I journaled,
“I've been inspired to dream again. Solo adventurer, young choices, hopeless romantic. I always stumble across this girl again. Dying to do big things and, inspired to accomplish & just crazy enough to. I’ve learned grounding & the other necessity of a free spirit (learning how to not be selfish w/ my freedom of adventure.) But she’s taken the driver's seat a little too long. This part of me has always been here. Dying to see more, bored with the natural current… Maybe that’s the key. Putting your all into a spiritual tug… Choosing to take those childhood daydreams to the park to play, not just to the seat beneath you of the reality you stay. So, dreamer what’s left to say? Dream on. Those inspirations are there to imagine and create. Your reality is a dream. A God given taste of heaven. God’s sweetest and undeserved gift to you. You are a dreamer. & God is your supplier.”
It was after yet another revelation on how to live.
Months after, I was brought into THE decision of a lot,
What to do after college…
One decision, two opportunities.
The first I had dreamt of doing, and the other I was being chosen for.
Both would glorify God in some capacity,
but which breathed strategic and divine placement?
Days before the decision,
I prayed, talked to loved ones,
But I also thought about this idea of dreams.
I journaled,
“God doesn't have “dreams.” (not like when you sleep). Like the ones the U.S. Portrays in a movie, to pull yourself up by your bootstraps to climb your way up. You know why? To have a dream means you don't have 100% knowledge of if it's fully attainable. God is all knowing. For God to have a dream is to say God isn't sure of himself, to be fascinated w/ a desire the world has embedded. God’s “dreams” are more like truths waiting to have enough faith sprinkled on them by an imperfect but willing follower to accomplish what he already knows is possible. Any other man-made dreams from the heart are worthy of the unknown percentage. 50% it will work, 50% it won't, but 100% it will be glorifying of mans sin. God’s “dreams” are like final drafts, fully accomplishable designed by love and the only percentage of them not working is due to unbelief and lack of trying. Not His inability to pave the way. (His ways higher than our ways), but knowing the road is paved (not easily walkable). Even I know this sounds crazy. Like I'm doing what? I’m asking other people to pay me to talk to other people my age across the country for them to join an invisible movement? I dont even know how such a great God changed such a skeptical heart, but he did. All I know is I feel that its right. & that anything else would feel like a waste to how God is trying to use me in other people journeys. This story touched me so I know it can do the same for others. What am I ultimately promoting at the end of the he said she said. That God’s name would be known. Sounds wild & yet I am unbelievably passionate about it & wildly drawn to it. Why? Because deep down I know its true. & the world will be changed because of it. & love will be spread, & heaven will shout, & it will all come back to say holy holy holy is the Lord God almighty who was & is & is to come. It’s like I dont know but I do know exactly. (missing page?) but able to come to fruition if we try. The dream is already a reality with God, (were just not willing to want his dream) we just gotta go. This is the kind of Full Belief & Faith & Assurance in Christ Im talking about. He can do immeasurably more w/ our really small efforts. (Not earning his love but growing his kingdom out of the love he’s given me.)”
The night of the decision,
I read Jude verse 8...
“Yet in like manner, these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.”
And in that moment, I knew.
The first option was a dream I had.
One I knew I could always go back to.
One that may be earning for my own righteousness.
And the second option being one for God-
No longer forcing God to bless my own desires,
but following after His, molding my life around the faith I couldn’t unsee.
This verse in jude dates to long ago,
Back then there were false teachers,
those that defiled God and warped His truths.
People who claimed specials visions or teachings that would validate their actions.
Jude warns that they are self-deceived,
guided by their own earthly ambitions distracting from God’s will.
A man-made fantasy.
I don't believe God has dreams.
God envisions restoration,
hopes He longs to see fulfilled,
Intentions and plans more perfect than any human dream.
God does not have wishful maybes,
but an unstoppable and sovereign purpose to redeem creation to dwell with us forever.
So, I'm not sure where this next year will lead me exactly,
but I do know that God invited me to take a chance.
And that a dream is something that is mine,
made from me and the world around.
But God’s plan is the truth worth following,
greater than any of my wildest dreams.
“I’ve never quite figured out how to bring God glory. But I have learned to surrender my dreams to him. And he made the reality of living according to His plan even better than my greatest dreams.”
- Joanne Shetler
