When dreams come true – Are we ready for them?

Life is funny. We dream about certain things. It’s a reality jolt when it doesn’t happen. We were looking at American Idol. Some poor little fifteen-year-old girl was voted off. She was missing something—either talent, maturity, stage presence or popularity. She was bawling her eyes out, and so were her parents.

The young girl said American Idol had been her dream. She just didn’t know what she was going to do now. She’d been dreaming all her life for that moment.

She’s got to be kidding. I thought to myself, she’s only fifteen. How much dreaming and working at her craft could she have done in fifteen years? Maybe she could live a little more, learn some more, and dream some more.

What if she had been dreaming for 70 years and working her craft all those years, yet nothing happened? Then this fifteen year old would have something to cry about. I guess it’s how you look at it.

David, Al’s brother, called and said, send me your scripts on your two novels. I talked to a friend about your work. He’s the set builder for all the studio sets in New Mexico. My friend wants to see them. He has worked with five producers on different movies and television series, and as a favor to me (David), he will send them to his producer friends.

I thought to myself. I don’t know if I’m ready for all these pretty people in the movie world. Why at this time of my life? Why didn’t it happen when I was 30 or 40 or 50 or 60, before 30 extra pounds, wrinkles and all these extra years? The energy level isn’t like it used to be. How can a person dream for something her whole life and then if it happens, she isn’t sure if she’s ready.

We were sitting in David’s home in Albuquerque. He socializes with these pretty people in the film industry in Albuquerque. He’s had them in his home and he’s been in theirs. He said it’s about knowing the right people, and he would help me meet these people and get my scripts out there.

I thanked him. Then the phone rang, David picked up his phone and looked at a picture, he nodded and smiled. He read the text and laughed, “She just asked me out.” He text back. “I’ve got a date with her this weekend.”

He showed me the picture of this young girl. I rolled my eyes. You don’t have any business with her, you’re eighty-one years old. She’s too young for you. On his phone was a picture of a twenty-year old blond with a set of plastics abounding out and above her low neckline top. She was giving him a cheesy grin. She’ll probably be on David’s arm going to the next movie premier and walking the red carpet.

Oh me! I’m fifty years older than this girl, abounding with thirty extra pounds and sporting a set of plastic hearing aids. I won’t be giving anyone a cheesy grin, but I could nod and give them a  I-can-hear-you-now grin. Please don’t ask me to walk the red carpet. Please tell me I’m dreaming.

It might be the right time, the right place, the right people, but I don’t know if I’m ready to live out my dream.

Final Brushstroke! Life is funny. It’s a lot easier to dream than to live it. There’s a scripture I’ve quoted for years and have believed it wholeheartedly. When times were tough and didn’t seem fair, I’d remind the Lord of his words. “Your gift will make room for you.” It’s up to the Lord to make room for the gift.  He knows where we are. It’s not our time or place or our gift. It’s his when he wants to say something and when he wants to use us as a vessel to do it. We need to be ready.