Dare To Be
A few years ago I attended a writer’s conference. You see, for the last eighteen years of my life my one goal has been to be a science fiction and fantasy writer. I grew up reading the Narnian Chronicles by C.S. Lewis, The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, and I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. I wanted my books and more importantly my name to be recognized just like those men. That was the ultimate goal.
At this particular convention, one of the speakers came up to the podium and the very first words out of his mouth stunned the audience. He said, “Only 1% of you will ever be published in your lifetime.”
Automatically I started doing some math. There were about 500 people in the room. That meant that only five people were ever going to see their name in print. So counted all the published authors in the room that I knew of. There were eight. That meant that the rest of us were never going to get published.
My heart sank. Imagine the discouragement at that moment. All around me other people were noticing the same thing. I’m sure that their hearts were breaking just like mine.
Now I know that during the next few weeks you’re going to hear a lot of encouraging advice from all sorts of places. You’re going to be told to look to the future. You’re going to be told to follow your dreams. You’re going to hear so much of this kind of talk it will all start to mix together.
So tonight I want to give you some words of wisdom. I learned these lessons over the years the hard way. You see, I was like some of you teens here this evening. I thought I knew it all.
I was wrong.
The first thing I want you to know is that you have to hold on to your dreams.
There were writers at that convention that left disappointed. I know of some that walked away and never wrote again. Their dreams had been destroyed.
Right now every single person in this room has dreams. They’ve got goals for their lives. You’re making plans for your future.
You’ve got plans for college. You have probably decided what you want to do for a career. Maybe you’re already thinking about marriage and families. You have dreams.
It’s my belief that dreams come from the very heart of us. Not the one that beats in your chest and pumps the blood through your body. I’m talking about the very center of who you are. The place where all your true desires come from. They’re the dreams that you know if you could somehow achieve them for the rest of your life you would be extremely happy.
Winston Churchill knew about these kind of dreams. In fact he said these words about them, “Do not ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that thing.”
He was talking about accomplishing your heart’s desired. He was talking about being truly happy.
But dreams are so easily crushed. In the Bible, Proverbs 29:18 says this, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
Some of your parents and grandparents may know exactly what I’m talking about. You have big hopes for the future. Then sudden the dream is gone and you’re scrambling to figure out where life went wrong. You lose site of the goal. It’s gone and life just seems to go from one day to the next. You want so badly to figure out what’s missing in your life. It’s as though you have lost control of it.
Another version of the same verse says, “Where there is no revelation, the people are uncontrolled.”
For months following that convention I seemed to drift through what I was doing. I couldn’t seem to focus on the writing on wanted to be doing. The dream was slipping away. I had to force myself to write anything.
I had to grab back hold of that dream to keep going.
Through your life you’re going to have to do the same thing.
Hold on to your dreams. Set goals for yourself and always keep them at the front of who you want to be.
Hold on to your dreams.
The second thing I want to tell you tonight is never stop learning.
Right now there are some of you who think you know everything there is to know. You’re smarter than your parents ever were. I know I am.
The truth of the matter is you can never know enough.
Mark Twain once talked about the knowledge of life. He said, “When I was a boy of fourteen I thought that my father knew nothing. When I was a man of twenty-four I was surprised at how much he had learned in ten years.”
But we never really know everything.
Not that long ago I stood up here on a Sunday morning and I asked the married couples in our church how many of them knew all the rules and knew everything about their spouse before they got married.
One person, Jim Henry who delivered the opening prayer this evening, spoke up. He said, “Tim, I’ve been married for 60 years and I still don’t know all the rules.”
Sixty years is a long time.
Now I’m going to put Jim on the spot tonight.
Jim, do you have life figured out yet? Do you know all the answers.
Not yet.
Here’s what I found out about knowledge. This comes from Proverbs 2:2 – 4.
“Turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, Then you will understand.”
You see knowledge is a treasure. You can’t simply just stumble across it. You have to actively seek is out. You have to look for it.
How many of you have seen the movie National Treasure? The first one. Not the second one.
I love this movie. The main character, Ben Gates, is out to find the ultimate treasure. He steals the Declaration of Independence, solves all kinds of riddles and puzzles, some of which still baffle me, and finds the treasure hidden where it’s been for 200 years. What happens to it? He gives it away. Why? Is he insane?
No. He gives it away because he knows the value of the knowledge that the treasure contains.
Knowledge is a treasure that is worth more money than you and I will ever see in out lifetimes. So never stop learning.
Finally, above all else seek God.
If you take nothing else out the door with you tonight let it be this. Seek God.
One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible is over in Matthew 6:33. It says this, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you.”
The truth is that we live in a world that is searching for answers to all of life’s questions. Is there a God? Did the world accidentally come into existence? Is there a heaven or a hell? How do I get there if there is? What am I going to be when I finally grow up?
Just a few semesters back I attended an online World Religions class at Allen County Community College. There were 67 people enrolled in that class. All of them were looking for the answers to life’s questions.
There is only one answer.
Seek God.
When the troubles of life come and they will. When your friends seem to have abandoned you. When the whole world weighs heavy upon your shoulders. There is one truth you need to be aware of. God is there. Seek him out.
He will take care of you. I won’t tell you that he’ll make you rich. I don’t believe that. I won’t tell you that you’ll never have any problems in your life. Because you will. I won’t even tell you everything will go exactly the way you plan it. Because it won’t. But God is there even in the moments when you think he’s the farthest away.
Seek God.
They’re simple thing really. I told you they would be. Lessons I learned the hard way. Hold on to your dreams. Never stop learning. Seek God.
