Tag Archive - Awaken The Dreamers

Dreaming Big Again

May 4, 2012 in Exceptional Living 17

From Tony: This is a guest post by Jon Stople. If you are interested in submitting a guest post, click here.

When I was a kid, I had big dreams. I dreamed of being a Broadway actor. I dreamed of opening my own baseball card store. I dreamed of flying in outer space. I dreamed of creating a new town where pollution was low, where people got along, and where people were proud to live and work.

What happened to these dreams?

Maybe some of these dreams were unrealistic. Maybe some of my interests changed as life moved forward. Maybe. But maybe somewhere along the way I stopped dreaming.

It’s easy to allow the realities, pressures, and challenges of daily living to dampen our dream mechanism. We grow complacent with the status quo. We become content with puny passions.

What happened to dreaming big?
How can we reawaken our capacity and desire to dream big?

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Dreaming Awake

November 30, 2011 in Exceptional Living 141

I’ve written a lot about dreaming. I even started a series called Awaken The Dreamers a few months ago. It’s a been a significant focus for me this year. I wanted to use the series to encourage myself and others. I even contemplated writing a book about it. Then I stopped writing about dreaming all together.

Honestly, I got tired of talking about it. You can only theorize for so long before you start to question if the idea is really possible in your own life.

Today all that changes. Today I became a Quitter.

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When Dreams Don’t Come True

June 10, 2011 in Exceptional Living 47

Today’s post is brought to you by one of my very favorites. Cathy has become a great friend from when I stumbled across her site and we connected immediately through our mutual love of reading. She blogs at Windows and Paper Walls about her fascination with literature, learning and all geeky things science related. She’s thoughtful, well-spoken and even sometimes pretends she’s from the hood (inside Twitter joke, if you aren’t tracking). I absolutely love her thoughtful post today. I hope you do to.

We all have dreams. Whether we are the type to shout our passions to the world or hold them quietly in our hearts, we all have desires burning deep inside.

But this broken world can be a harsh habitat, one that cares nothing for our best-laid plans, our bucket lists. So what do we do when our fondest dream doesn’t come to pass?

Here’s an inspiring true story.

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Awaken The Dreamers: Moe Vivas

April 11, 2011 in Exceptional Living 83

Next up on the Awaken the Dreamers series is Mauricio (Moe) Vivas. Moe is a native New Yorker who has a passion to educate, mentor and disciple people. He was born in Cali, Colombia and came to New York when he was four years old. He enjoys the beauty, history, people and the rich cultural diversity found in the city of New York. Moe has a healthy appetite for writing, reading, photography, technology, and coffee. Most days, he can be found drinking a fine brewed cup of coffee while writing on his shiny Macbook Air at your neighborhood coffee shop. He writes at betaChristian.net. I’m honored to call this guy friend. Seriously, we’re like brothers from another mother.

The Will To Dream

My 7 year old daughter tells me one day that she knows what she wants to be when she “grows up”. Curiously, I say to her, “I would love to hear it”. She goes on to say:

  1. A dancer
  2. An artist
  3. A singer

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Awaken The Dreamers: Jim Foreman

April 1, 2011 in Exceptional Living 38

Next up on the Awaken The Dreamers series is my friend Jim Foreman. He pastors Sedley Baptist Church in Sedley, Virgina. He blogs at On the Brink of Something Large. I love what he’s done with the series today. I hope you’re encouraged the way I was.

I am honored that Tony asked me to share today.

It all started for me several years ago when I read the book No Opportunity Wasted written by Phil Keoghan, the host of the Amazing Race.  It is a book that I really enjoyed and was challenged by.  One of the parts and main points of the book has to do with a Life List.  The Life List is something that you are encouraged to make so that you are living life to its fullest and not allowing opportunities in our life go to waste.

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Living The Dream

March 18, 2011 in Exceptional Living 50

I decided that for my second entry in the Awaken The Dreamers series, I would share a handful of my own dreams. I actually wrote these in April of 2010. It’s pretty cool to see how my life has changed since I wrote these out.

I remember my first list of dreams weren’t really dreams at all. They were goals. I realized that goals can be achieved with hard work. Dreams will be achieved with God work. As I changed my perspective, I began to realize how much was actually in my heart. I started to think of what I would want to do if I knew I could not fail. It wasn’t easy to give myself that kind of license but I did it.

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Awaken The Dreamers: Cris Kerr

February 15, 2011 in Exceptional Living 52

Welcome to a new series entitled Awaken The Dreamers. Based on a post I wrote last month, I was challenged to sow into the lives of people that are dream chasers. In an effort to stir up the faith in this community, I decided to feature a different person each month to share their personal story.

First up is one of my closest friends. She is one of those people that just breathes life into everything she does. She is the epitome of a dreamer and the kind of person that makes you believe that anything is possible. I knew she was the perfect choice to start this series. Two years ago, she quit a great job to chase her dreams. For the past two years she has been at the Bethel Supernatural School of Ministry in Redding, CA. This is her story. I hope it encourages you.

Cris Kerr

Cris Kerr

Recently at school I learned about dreams and was encouraged to write a list with at least 100. I started with 20 and thought they were just my own dreams and goals for my life but I have come to realize that God loves me so much that He was always giving me my dreams. His dreams, my dreams…they are one and the same. Basically, “He gives me the desires of my heart, and then He goes and gives me the desires of my heart.”

After sharing my top 20 dreams and desires with my family and a couple of close friends, their feedback was super positive. They loved my boldness to dream things that seem impossible and at the same time my ability to dreams things I know can be done in my lifetime if go after them with all my heart. Little do they know that I am definitely dreaming to my full potential.

This year, the dreams that I want to run after are: sing to presidents and kings, share my home with international students, get a tattoo as my wedding ring and feed multitudes. I feel like at some level, I can start to live out these dreams right now. For example, I can practice and improve my voice and guitar playing skills. I can share my home with students and friends that are around me this semester. I can continue praying for the amazing and honorable man that is going pursue me passionately! And I can participate in feeding people on my missions and ministry trips this year as well as get involved in ministries that include feeding the poor. In addition, I would like to start to go after the languages one – I already speak 3 languages: Portuguese, English and Spanish and I am learning French. I would like to go after Italian, Greek, Hebrew, Mandarin, German and Arabic. This year I would like to see significant improvement in my French. Hopefully get it from a 3 to a 7.

Here’s my list:

“20 things I wanna do in my lifetime”

  1. speak 10 languages fluently
  2. be a great-great grandma
  3. live in Greece for 1 year
  4. feed multitudes
  5. live in a solar powered house
  6. jump off of a skyscraper (and either fly or have a parachute :P )
  7. honeymoon in Fiji islands
  8. sail across the world
  9. clean and rebuild slums in Brasil
  10. make a million dollars and give it all away
  11. share my home with international students
  12. walk on water
  13. own an artsy coffee house where everything is free and people express themselves through music and art
  14. sing to presidents and kings
  15. get a tattoo as my wedding ring
  16. pay off my nephews’ education – all 8 of them
  17. birth girl triplets
  18. give girls who feel ugly amazing makeovers
  19. graduate from a culinary school
  20. meet and influence Gisele Bundchen, John Mayer, Mark Zuckerberg, Celine Dion and Queen Elizabeth

I wanted to share some of my dreams with you… and maybe you guys can write me some of yours and we can keep experiencing more of this life together seeing each other’s dreams come to true!

“I don’t dream at night, I dream all day; I dream for a living.” Steven Spielberg