Chasing Dreams

Chasing the dream; have you ever had a dream that you decided to chase? The trail behind me even as a teenager is littered with the pieces of things that were supposed to make me happy but ultimately didn't. After high school I found myself in the Military chasing a dream and on Friday December 20, 1968 I found myself in freezing cold weather in Duluth, Minnesota; I asked myself, is this my dream? am I happy? I was a 1000 miles away from home with no friends and not even one person that I knew. That soon changed as I lowered my standard and my dream was fading fast for my new friends had no dreams at all; not many did in those days, and if you hang with dreamless people you soon become as they are. My future brightened up on Wednesday January 7, 1970 as I was married to a wonderful young lady but by July of that year I found myself on a plane all by myself headed for a lonely place for the next 18 months of my life. This is not what I had planned. Once again I find myself 1000's of miles away from home with no friends. I remember finding a Gideon's Bible and opened it, looking for an answer, I had no clue to what I was even looking at and soon found myself with the same type of people. I would not find what real happiness was until April 1973 when I gave my heart to the Lord Jesus. You can catch everything this world has to offer and all its acclaims, its wealth, its pleasures, its success and lose the only thing that really matters, which is your soul. It's your soul that's always hungry for something you've never been able to find. And your soul is forever restless because you're away from the One you were made by; the One you were made for. In God's own words,

Isa 59:2
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. I was trying to fill a God-sized hole with things and people that can't begin to take His place. If we live like this, we'll live without peace and without meaning. If we die like this, we'll spend eternity without God and His love. He didn't leave us separated from Him. He pursued us. He sent His Son, Jesus, to sacrifice His life for yours and mine; to pay the cost for all our sin.
John 6:35
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. That could be you, beginning today. Beginning this moment you could admit your need for His forgiveness, your readiness to turn the driver's seat over to Him, by putting your complete trust in Jesus and Him alone as your only hope.

Too many are chasing dreams; and that's all they are. Dreams many times have no meaning or direction and are only clouds floating around in our minds. But a vision is something much different; my father-n-law said this to me many years ago and I think it explains a vision perfectly. We were standing in a field one afternoon and he said "see that area over there; that's where I am going to build a house." I looked and all I saw was tall grass. Then he said this "I know you can't see it but I can see it as if it was already built." That is vision seeing from the beginning to the end and that is far better than a dream. I am so glad that God loved me enough to pursue me and today I can say I am happy and know what happiness is for as the song goes "I'm up right, in right, down right, happy all the time; I'm up right, in right, out right, down right, happy all the time; With Jesus in my heart, From Him I'll ne'er depart, I'm up right, in right, out right, down right, happy all the time." All because Jesus came into my heart! How Happy are you?