Core Scripture: “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)

Message: I love to dream.  Always have.  Back from the time I still thought I would be a professional golfer and win the Masters (childhood), to winning the Heart of America Golf Tournament with my brother (college), to realizing that would NEVER happen and shifting to more realistic dreams like winning Teacher of the Year or publishing a book or becoming a motivational speaker (adulthood). 

Something is lost as we get older.  People forget to dream.  We lose that childlike innocence of believing there are possibilities of achieving colorful, ambitious goals because … well … life happens.  We get stuck.  We lack belief that we can accomplish the unachievable because we become numb to reality.  We get married, have kids, and might even get laughed at by others if we dare to dream. 

Or maybe we just forget how to dream.

So, what do we do?  We become complacent.  We get satisfied with the status quo, thinking to ourselves, hey, that is life!  Just get by.  Survive.  Stop thinking foolishly and just do your 9 to 5, pay your bills, and go through the motions.  Passion dissolves like snowflakes melting on a hot day.  The next thing you know your dreams are puddles, sliding aimlessly down the sewage drains.  Forgotten forever. 

I am not oblivious to this.  Throughout my teaching career, I loved the impact I had on kids, but I must admit, I ached for something more.  I knew politics would always keep me from getting voted Teacher of the Year.  I did the same lessons every year, tweaking things here and there but still knowing I was too content.  I was kinda … bored?  Maybe a bit of teacher burnout was setting in?  Not sure.

Teaching was such a wonderful job for me as a husband and dad!  I started mapping my future out.  Just teach long enough while the boys are still home.  To enjoy them and relish those days off with them.  And my wife too, of course.  Then when the boys move out (fingers crossed on that one), I would quit teaching to pursue a career in writing or speaking or even better writing combined with speaking.  It sounded like a good plan, a tangible dream to achieve. 

Little did I know I would find myself out of work—about a year ago to the day to be exact—suddenly thrust into an opportunity to go after that dream a bit quicker. 

It just hit me the other day.  It has been a year since I have been in the classroom.  A year since I was unemployed for about a week.  A year since I almost went into the roofing business as a door to door salesman.  A year since my wife spoke loving truth to me, telling me to NOT take that job.  A year since I was watching the Chiefs play on a Sunday afternoon, and my wife suggested I apply for a job at Amazon. 

“I hear they hire quickly,” she said.

Quickly is an understatement.  I was hired that next morning!  The Lord provides in the clutch doesn’t he?  Not only that, but He took an almost 50-year-old man (me) who had never worked nights, never worked warehouse, and never in his right mind would think he’d be doing both, and wouldn’t you know it, fast forward to now, I am one of the most reliable, soundly-trained Amazon veterans.

Are you kidding me?  Glory to God!

I became Employee of the Month in April.  I was recently trained to become a Learning Ambassador.  I have the possibility of moving up in the company and have been quietly approached by managers, encouraging me to do so.  I have a plethora of new friends I never would have met.  Friends from all walks of life, different ages, different countries, men and women alike. 

This is where it gets interesting.  As I have been growing at Amazon, I have been seeking out that new career in writing and speaking.  I have been networking quite a bit.  Zoom calls.  A speaking conference in Columbia, Missouri.  Phone calls.  Face-to-face meetings.  Lots and lots of practice, not just in writing on my blog but also speaking to local FCA huddles and adding a few YouTube shorts here and there. 

I have been working on that dream!  No, it has not produced any fruit in terms of a new career or a paycheck, but I still cling to those aspirations for the future.  They give me purpose.  Hope.  They remind me that you can still have hope in this crazy world.  A world where I work the midnight shift at Amazon four days a week.  Don’t feel sorry for me.  I am blessed!  And I am indeed finding joy in my current job.

But I still dream. 

I envision myself reentering the field of education not as a teacher but as a teacher of teachers.  I want to take the teaching philosophy that worked wonders in my classroom for a decade, Ohana teaching, and share those life-giving experiences with fellow educators.  I likewise want to enter school assemblies with keynote topics to motivate students toward success.

The ideas are flowing.  I don’t know if any will actually play out into a career down the road, but I tell you what, it has been fun to dream again.  For inspiration, I just finished reading the story of Rudy Ruettiger.  Yes, the same Rudy they made the hit movie about.  I still remember watching it in the theater with my brother, Clay, weeping as Rudy lived out his dream, sacking the quarterback on his last play at Notre Dame. 

When Rudy graduated from Notre Dame, he was pretty directionless for a good while, but then the idea came to make his story into a movie.  The book discusses how Rudy made that new dream happen.  It was anything but a cakewalk.  As a matter of fact, Rudy hit pothole after pothole on a bumpy journey where his original ghostwriter for the movie script flaked out and numerous meetings with bigwigs got him nowhere.  He could have given up.  But he didn’t.

Rudy never quit.  Every Thursday night he got together with his buddies and did “chalk talk” where he wrote ideas down on a gigantic whiteboard at his condo.  He met Angelo Pizzo and David Anspaugh, the same guys who hit a homerun with my favorite movie of all time, Hoosiers.  Pizzo even said he hated Notre Dame and would never do another sports movie, but Rudy persisted.  Sure enough, his movie hit theaters in 1993.

Do you want to hear something cool?  After the movie, Rudy never stopped dreaming.  He wasn’t content with that.  He used the movie to vault his new career as a motivational speaker.  He inspired people everywhere.  Businesses.  Schools.  Churches.  You name it, he booked it!  Rudy Ruettiger is now 77 years old, and although I am sure he has probably slowed down a bit, he more than likely is still touching lives through his gift of gab.  The man motivates like none other. 

I want that.

I want to inspire.  I want to give back to the profession I lived the first half of my life.  I want to speak life into students and teachers alike, helping them realize the potential they have.  I want to write books, speak, and stir the souls of many, pushing educators and students to use their God given gifts for the greater good in grandiose ways!  (Alright, I must admit, the alliteration of the “g” sound was a bit overdone but nonetheless cool.)

The Lord is not through with me yet.  I am hoping His plans for me align with what I have planned though, because if they are not, none of this will matter.  How will I know if these dreams are aligned with God’s will for me?  Through a lot of prayer and trial and error.  It may produce fruit.  It may not.  But I will never know unless I have tried.  And I am tired of putting these dreams on the back burner.

I want to encourage you today … Don’t be afraid to dream.  Never discount the power of the human spirit.  If you have something you feel the Lord is calling you to do, don’t hesitate.  Don’t balk.  DO IT!  Get off your duff and make it happen. 

Challenge: What are you dreaming of right now?  What has been put aside that you want to do but just haven’t made time for?  Maybe it is getting your Masters.  Maybe it is visiting that special vacation spot or going skydiving or running a marathon or learning to play the guitar or whatever it may be.  Write down your thoughts as I am doing here.  Start creating a plan to live out your dream, and take the first step in that plan this week.  You will not regret it.

Video application: Wanna see the real Rudy?  Here is one of his speeches.  As I watch him talk, I marvel at how the Lord has blessed him in the art of speaking. 

Just for fun: I feel obligated to share this tidbit of information with you.  Do you know why the Chiefs have won their last two games?  It is because I have worn my Patrick Mahomes wig at Amazon on my last shift before they play.  No, I can’t wear it when I work on the dock in my hard hat, but I break out the Mahomes wig during picking stage once a week, and I have been known to wear it in public a time or two.  Like the picture below when I went out to lunch with my old Amazon buddy, Downtown Warren Brown.  The big question remains: will my wife and kids allow me to wear my Mahomes wig to the Chiefs tailgate at our church tomorrow night?  Or will my wife roll her eyes at my shenanigans and my boys completely disown me in sheer embarrassment?  Time will tell my friends.  Oh yes, time will tell!

Prayer: Father, as I get older, help me keep my dreams alive.  May my dreams ALWAYS align with Your dreams, and if You want me to act on my future, open my eyes to discover your promptings.  Amen.