Unrealized Dreams

Since I was a little kid, I have typically known what I wanted to become and strive for in life.  Have I achieved my life's vision?  A resounding "No!" must be given as a response.  Have I rolled with the punches and played the cards dealt me?  I must reluctantly respond "Yes."  With each passing year, I sense the potential to actualize my childhood dreams growing less and less viable.  Now I merely see them as lofty visions of grandeur as I settle for the realities of this harsh, cruel world.  Early in life I firmly believed God did not have a Specific Will, but rather a General Will, for human beings on this ethereal sphere called Earth.  I must agree with Henry David Thoreau as he "...somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to 'Glorify God and enjoy Him forever.'"  God's General Will is to glorify and worship Him in all I undertake in life.  This doesn't imply I will have the clouds part with glorious rays of sunshine falling upon me as a voice stipulates, "Phillip, you will become a doctor.  In five years, you will marry and have three kids...."  The General Will, as I believe and understand through the spiritual relationship I have with my Heavenly Father, allows the freedom to pursue the glorification and worship of God through the passions, skills, and natural inclinations He has innately given to me.  If I'm gifted in math and science, then by all means pursue the gifts God has endowed.  I do not believe God would have us pursue a career contrary to our natural gifting.  I glorify and worship God through complete immersion in who He created me to be.  Certainly I do not have all this figured out, and I probably won't this side of heaven.  However, I continue to seek and understand how to infuse my relationship with God in everything I strive to accomplish.  In times such as this, I often turn to the Biblical book of Hebrews chapter 11, especially the last four verses.  These can provide comfort as well as a sense of unsettling.  They read,
"Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.
They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword.
They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated -- the world was not worthy of them.
They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.
God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect."  (Hebrews 11:36-40)

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