I'm a dreamer who does.

Two truths, two quotes, both on my facebook profile:

The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do. -Sarah Ban Breathnach

Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity. ~Gilda Radner


At first glance, these truths/quotes seem incompatible. I'd say life needs to be a balance between these two. And on a long, rainy ride in the dark home from Kalamazoo in the backseat of my Saturn, I thought about my future.

I've been thinking about California almost every day. It's not hard to wish I were there with the weather we've been having. I also miss it when I talk to my close friends I have there. I miss the megacity, the diversity and the southern California culture, too.

But tonight I was thinking about how to get myself out there in a year from now; even as exact as twelve months from today. When I mention California (again) I see a look come over my mom's face that I can't quite read. I think that she's thinking Gilda Radner is probably right-- that there is so much uncertainty surrounding my future past graduation that who knows where I'll end up. I agree, somewhat, with that interpretation.

There's more to it, though. Here is what I'e been dreaming about-- My plans involve loading up my little Saturn car, or a Uhaul truck, and driving cross-country in a weekend. My imagination includes finding a room to rent (maybe with a family from the church I'd been a part of last summer) and at least a part-time job (I'm good with housekeeping) to get me going, with time for substitute teaching and getting involved with ministries. Sounds great, right? I have plenty of connections in that part of the country, so I'm really not worried.

So I think I can dream about moving to California, and I've found that when I follow my heart, God tends to already be there making a way for it to happen. Everything else is the "delicious ambiguity" and taking God-given opportunities as I go along. It has happened time after time after time again for me, starting when I was just a sophomore in high school and started dreaming about taking a school trip to the East Coast and never thought it would happen. But it did.

And then I started dreaming bigger, about taking a mission trip to Europe, but never thought it could happen. But it did.

On these dreams, I've gone to Yellowstone National Park for a summer, Scotland for a semester, and California for a church internship.

As I've dreamed bigger, so God has also taught me that no dream is too big for Him to put into action-- and each time I've found Him already there, working in my heart and life, teaching me all that I need to know.

When I discovered Thomas Merton, he confirmed my own epiphany; he's all about knowing who you are when it comes to which vocation you choose. Merton articulated everything I had been feeling about pursuing one's dreams. Here's just one quote from my favorite book, No Man Is An Island, that gets at this truth:

In planning the course of our lives, we must remember the importance and the dignity of our own freedom. A man who fears to settle his future by a good act of his own free choice does not understand the love of God. For our freedom is a gift that God has given us in order that He may be able to love us more perfectly, and be loved by us more perfectly in return. (132)


I consider it a tragedy when people fail to pursue the dreams that God Himself has planted into their hearts. It's never too late to become more fully yourself by going after something that seems impossible. In my own twenty-one years, I have lived well. I plan to continue living as a dreamer, as a doer, and as a dreamer who does.

To God be the glory,

Betsy Joy