A Different View on Dreams and Visions

This is a discussion board post for a leadership class I just started this week for credits toward my master's degree.  I have been thinking a lot about dreams and how they change and why they change.  Later this month, I am planning to receive training to work in prison ministries - a dream I have had for many years.  Perhaps that and other things were on my mind as I wrote this post:

Goals must be accompanied by action if dreams are to be realized.   It is fine for goals to be inspirational; but inspiration alone is not enough.  Action makes the goal seem clearer and more real.  Action brings the goals to life. [1] 

Dreams and visions must reflect the beliefs and values of the dreamer.[2]  Perhaps Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech [3] most reflects this idea.  The dreamer must know why he or she is accomplishing this particular goal and why this mission matters. [4] 

Lastly, dreams and visions must have internal motivation.  That is, the dreamer must understand why the dream or vision matters.  There must be meaning to the dream or vision that makes sense to the dreamer. [5]

I believe these three concepts are present in this week’s article and in this week’s quotes about dreams and visions.  The article “Management Tools for Building a Better Workplace” by Daniel Robin describes how these concepts relate to a work or business environment.  The purpose of the concepts is to provide unity between management and employees which leads to employee loyalty. [6]

The quotes chosen for this week’s assignments also reflect these concepts.  Some of the quotes, like the article, are from the perspective of dreaming and envisioning for a business.  Others, however, are from poets, authors, psychologists, and movie makers.[7]  All of the voices behind the quotes share a belief in the importance of dreaming and being willing to follow one’s dreams.[8] 

While I agree with what this article explains, my favorite dreams and visions quotes from this week add a different nuance.  Although there were many quotes that I liked, the ones that I can relate to the most are “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before” by Edgar Allan Poe [9] and “Visions are born in the soul of a man or woman who is consumed with the tension between what is and what could be” by Andy Stanley. [10]  

I like these two quotes, in particular, because they both show dreams and visions are not arrived at lightly.  There is a tension.  There is a struggle.  There is a fear and sometimes even doubt associated with them. 

The one quote that I both agree with and disagree with that coincides somewhat with the first two is John Barrymore’s, which reads, “A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.”[11]  I believe this quote does show the struggle, but it does not speak the whole truth.  It is my experience that it is not regrets that necessarily erase dreams, but people’s opinions. 

Just yesterday, I was looking at Liberty’s degree options.  I have been thinking about pursuing my PhD when I am finished with my master’s.  As I began looking through various programs, I thought that if I had truly had a choice, I probably would have pursued seminary training rather than the degree program I am currently taking.  It is not that I do not like my program.  I do.  I have learned so much from my classes, and they have been a good fit for me.  However, I have always felt called to ministry.  That has always been a dream of mine.  

The reason I chose this program rather than seminary is the pastoral recommendation that is needed to proceed into seminary.  When pastors look at my past, they often cannot see my future.  I grew up in a very controlled, very matriarchal environment.  I was truly never allowed to be independent or even alone until my mother died in 2000.  I was a few months away from turning 28.  Because I had never been allowed independence, I did not know what to do – particularly when my home situation changed to include people that were difficult for me to be around because of more control and even abuse.  I moved out of my home and into the home of my now husband.  Many do not understand why, but I wanted something that could not be taken away from me.  I purposely became pregnant with our now twelve-year old son.  A few months later, my husband and I were married.  However, my husband is not a Christian. 

Those two decisions in my life turned the Christian church against me.  So often, my fellow Christians want me to say that my decisions were wrong.  I cannot do that in good conscience.  I believe God had a plan for my husband and me and our two sons.  I cannot say that I regret those choices.  However, Christian churches often view me as unrepentant. 

Several years ago, I spoke with a woman about her ministry.  She told me she always wanted to do church ministry, but the pastors of her church had explained to her that she could not because of her past.  They encouraged her to pursue counseling, which, I believe, she did.  Churches have done the same with me.  It is though counseling is a close second to ministry.  However, as far as dreams and visions go, it is not the same.  It is as though the spiritual gifts of teaching and prophecy and other areas of ministry are overlooked because of rules that are used as reasons.  I, personally, do not believe this is what Paul had in mind when he gave pastoral qualifications. 

I could go into detail about how the qualifications that Paul gave were specifically for church leaders, not leaders in other ministries.  However, this post does not allow the time or space for that, and that is really beyond the purpose me sharing my personal story.  I share my personal story to show the tension and doubt and fear that Poe and Stanley spoke of and to show that it is not necessarily regret that makes people give up on dreams, but the opinions and interpretations of others that cause them to take the next best thing. 

This leads to my dreams and visions for my personal ministry.  Perhaps I should begin with my vision.  My vision for ministry is one that is inclusive – one that does not see one sin as worse than another, one that does not use the Bible as weapon against others.  My vision is for a ministry that allows healing through grace rather than more hurt through rules and even legalism. 

My ministerial dream is to help victims of spiritual and emotional abuse, because I grew up under both and because I have experienced both in my adulthood and know the depression and anxiety and post-traumatic stress that can result.  Another ministerial dream is to work in prison ministries.   This is an area that God put on my heart many years ago.  According to the information about my degree program – human services with a Christian ministries cognate, - this program can lead to chaplain certification.  This is something I am interested in pursuing.  This is one area that most would not argue my qualifications.  Chaplains are able to be from any religion because they are dealing with all religions.  I certainly have experience in this.  Lastly, a ministry goal is to work in inner-city missions.  I would love to work in a large city with those that are often ignored by Christianity.    

Bibliography

Dempsey, Rod.  “Quotes on Dreams and Dreaming” (lecture notes for Liberty University online, Lynchburg, Virginia). 

Dempsey, Rod.  “Vision Quotes” (lecture notes for Liberty University online, Lynchburg, Virginia).

Robin, Daniel.  “Management Tools for Building a Better Workplace.”  Vision, Mission, and Values: 1-6.  Accessed May 12, 2015.  http://www.abetterworld.com/developing-the-organization-and-the-people-in-it/

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[1] Daniel Robin, “Management Tools for Building a Better Workplace,” Vision, Mission, and Values: 1-6.  Accessed May 12, 2015, http://www.abetterworkplace.com/developing-the-organization-and-the-people-in-it/

[2] Ibid. 

[3] Rod Dempsey, “Quotes on Dreams and Dreaming.”  Lecture, Liberty University online, Lynchburg.  Accessed 12 May, 2015.  www.liberty.edu. 

[4] Robin, “Management Tools for Building a Better Workplace.” 

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

                [7] Dempsey, “Quotes on Dreams and Dreaming.”   

[8] Ibid. 

[9] Dempsey, “Quotes on Dreams and Dreaming,” 1. 

[10] Rod Dempsey, “Vision Quotes.”  Lecture, Liberty University online, Lynchburg.  Accessed 12 May, 2015.  www.liberty.edu. 

[11] Dempsey, “Quotes on Dreams and Dreaming,” 1.