Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Putting the American Dream to Death

While on my way home this week, I realized that I am slowly learning some pretty big life lessons.

Lesson #1: I am not in control – but I try to be

I have always struggled trusting God with every area of my life. More often than not, I think I give God the areas of my life that I don’t care that much about while I hold on to the areas that are a big deal. This is a thorn on my side that continues to bring me to a humbling state.

Lesson #2: God is in control

I am a dreamer and a planner. I think long term and I pray that my plans will be God’s plans as well. However, rarely do my plans come true – and that is usually a very good thing, but not easy. When I was a junior at UW, I had some BIG plans. I was going to get married that summer. I planned on graduating, finding an awesome job (with a generous salary). John and I were going to pay our loans and become debt free. We were going to save money to make a down payment on a house and within 5 years of marriage we were going to start having kids. And we were going to be happily ever after. This was the plan. This was my American Dream.

So far, I am married and graduated. Some of our debts are paid off. And the rest did not go as planned.

The rest is still a big unknown. And I dislike unknowns.

But I am making baby steps and moving toward finding joy where I am. I am realizing that God’s plan might be different than mine and I need to trust him.

I am realizing that maybe I need to focus on Jesus and not on my version of the American Dream. Perhaps a life of personal happiness and material comfort should not be part of my life plan.

I am currently reading the book The Hole in Our Gospel, by Richard Stearns. Every chapter so far has brought some challenging questions that I continue to wrestle with. Chapter 18 is all about how people tend to view money in the United States – and the American Dream is what most people are trying to get.

Unfortunately, I too have been trying to get to my definition of the American Dream.

Lesson #3: Trust God

This is what I need to work on. This is a hard task at times and I know I will be challenged. But this is where I want to be – and in order for this to happen, I need to put the American Dream to death.

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