Is it worth it to dream?
(In a Christian perspective)

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”- Matthew 6:33. This quote from the bible approaches dreams in a way of contact with God. As St. Augustine of Hippo said, our hearts are restless until we rest in God because we are created for him. Likewise, St Francis de Sales quoted “God works through the deepest desires of our hearts for he has put within us our deepest desires and dreams.” We are to do the will of God through our dreams. To do that we must listen and to hear we must pray. This means our deepest desires. We must sort out our wants from needs, good from evil, lust from love, or as St. Paul put it as “testing the spirit.” In Proverbs 13:4 the Bible says “The sluggard gets nothing, while the diligent are richly supplied.” We are rewarded richly for our labors in pursuing our dreams by our own hard work. With all of this, it is clearly worth it to dream.

In The Pearl by John Steinbeck, Kino put all his dreams in one plan to carry out. "For his dream of the future was real and never to be destroyed, and he had said, 'I will go,' and that made a real thing too. To determine to go and to say it was to be halfway there."-Chapter 4, pg. 69. This is defiantly admirable of Kino because of after all that had happened any other man would have run away from his problems. He decides to carry out his dream no matter what. He depends entirely on himself.  Juana, however, mingles luck, magic, and religions together. “Under her breath Juana repeated an ancient magic to guard against such evil, and on top of that she muttered a Hail Mary between clenched teeth.” Together, Kino and Juana try to fulfil their dream. They set aside their differences to do it together. We learn to work with others to fulfil our own dream. The phrase “Go with God” is repeated numerous times in the book. It is often a greeting or a blessing and its short for “God be with you” or “Go and do Gods will.”  Kino’s brother, Juan Thomas, give Kino his blessing asking to put his trust in God. Combining these two factors, we can agree with St. Teresa of Avila when she said “We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can - namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us.”

The poem “Mother to Son” tell about a mother explaining to her son not to give up on life because she’s had a pretty rough life herself and she’s still going. The author of this poem, Langston Hughes, describes life as a flight of stairs. He is trying to tell us, truth is, that life’s not easy. That pursuing our dream can be hard and we have to face it. But we can’t give up because you can’t run toward your dreams and run away from your problems at the same time. Part of the poem goes like this: “And sometimes goin’ in the dark where there ain’t been no light.” We have to trust in God instead of fumbling in the dark. So pray. Always pray when you are beaten down and you’ll always rise back up. “Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.”-Satchel Paige. Another example of pursuing your dreams is in the video on Malala Yousufzai. Malala, a Pakistani school girl of 14, was shot in the head by the Taliban because she was an advocate of girl’s education. Malala miraculously recovered and began her world quest of girl’s education. Other girls would have been scared to go back to school, Malala herself was threatened by a Taliban speaker that if she survived she would be targeted again. But she continues her mission. "I shall raise my voice" she said. When asked why she answered “God will ask you on the day of judgment, ‘Where were you when your people were asking you ... when your school fellows were asking you and when your school was asking you …Why I am being blown up?’” We can learn from her that even under the most horrible circumstances God will help us with what’s right.

Some say that it is not worth it to dream because dreams are just a fantasy to escape a harsh and cruel reality. Their dreams have been crushed by suffering from bad things that have happened to them. They have a jaded response to life and don’t have time for dreams. These people are afraid of believing and trusting God and other people. We have to be ready to acknowledge their suffering by listening to them and not giving pat answers. There are no easy answers to the problem of suffering. It is through loving others and being there for them that we help get through the tough times in life.  We are not alone. Faith is a gift from God that he uses the events and people in our lives to give to us. Having dreams is one more way that god gives us the strength and conviction to carry on even in the worst of times. Dreaming makes the load easier to bear and lighter to carry.

No matter where we go, whatever we do, say, or think, God is always with us. He is our God and we are his people. He has known us before we were born. He tells us himself in Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."  Our dreams are his dreams; our life his will for he knows us better than we know ourselves. So decide for yourself. Is it worth it to dream? 

“And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.”
- Matthew 28:20