Issue 161
When you’ve been trying to decide on some move that matters to you, you may have been encouraged to ‘follow your dream’. Even if that was not the exact phrase used, it is a very common idea to pursue that which excites or inspires you. It is certainly better to engage your energy in something that interests you and holds your attention than be bored and unfulfilled.
The following of a dream on its own, however, may not be enough. There are inherent dangers such as following an unrealistic expectation or more likely a slightly self-centred ambition. The human heart is not always so purely motivated as to leave us with noble dreams which will enrich us or others. The dream to be rich, powerful, famous, or less ambitiously, financially secure, free and in control, may be your dream but its pursuit could also be unhelpful to you.
This is not to say that God looks unfavourably on our dreams or that they are to be dismissed or ignored. Jesus’ invitation, however, was not to follow a dream but a person. That person was himself and the invitation was to “follow me” – it still is.
Just to backtrack for a moment, it is not unreasonable to suppose that characters such as Peter and Andrew were fishermen by choice. They were not in the business simply to make money – there are other, perhaps less dangerous and more reliable, ways of making a living. Presumably, they wanted to be good fishermen and make enough for themselves and their families with as much to spare as possible. They may even have had dreams of greater success in the fishing business.
Jesus’ invitation to them was to follow him and discover another kind of fishing. A different dream but not wholly unrelated. “Come and fish for people” was the invitation. For Zacchaeus, following Christ involved staying put but doing his job differently – fulfilling a dream of an honest tax collector. Most people would consider an honest tax collector as a dream in the fictitious sense, but in the case of Zacchaeus, it was something he was called to achieve.
For all these characters and countless others who have come afterwards, capturing the dream to follow came after the decision to follow Christ. It is a sign of the pouring out of the Spirit of God that we will dream dreams and have visions. Following them, I would suggest, will only be fulfilling if we follow Christ. Maybe this is because he knows us well enough to know what would really inspire us and at the same time be extraordinarily good for us, not to mention being worth the effort.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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