I’ve always been a gal who had a lot of dreams and lists of goals. Every January, I’d spend part of a day thinking, daydreaming about what I wanted to accomplish that year. Of course, I usually had way too many objectives to accomplish, but having many ideals meant I’d usually accomplish at least a few of them.

In our current days, it’s gotten harder to dream. We wonder where we’ll be in our lives a year from now. Will Covid still be an unwelcome fixture on the landscape of our lives? Will we have gotten out of our houses by then, or started traveling again? The unknown makes it hard to plan, and even harder to dream.

The other day I even asked myself, is there any point to dreaming? What if God has something else for me and I’ve spent all my efforts running in the wrong direction? Have you ever had thoughts like that? Those negative-pull thoughts can be powerful and leave behind a rancid smell of hopelessness.

These thoughts aren’t from God, I assure you. He wants us to dream. Problem is, sometimes our dreams are too small. Dreaming is part of who he’s made us to be, people with imagination, wants, hopes. Nothing’s wrong with that. In fact, making plans, having bucket lists, reserving things ahead that we anticipate—those are some of the gifts he gives us. All the things we enjoy are from him. There’s just one caveat: don’t hold these too tightly. Keep submitting them to his leading. I for one don’t know what he has planned for me, so I will plug along with my dreams until and unless he shows me otherwise. We can know some things because he shows us. Other things, we’ll tuck onto a shelf we’ll call trust in his timing. Trust in his character and in what he said.

Reminds me of some of the lyrics to a song I wrote years ago:

Let go, let go and see what I can do. there’s so much in my heart I want to do for you.

Don’t hold too tight to your dreams of limited sight. Let go and see what I can do.

Good advice, eh? Since he’s way smarter than we are and sees a lot further.

In fact, here’s what he does promise:

Ephesians 3:20-21 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

Isaiah 55:8-9 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

Sydney update

Yay, Sydney Rewound is finished! The edits took longer than expected, but hopefully, the book will be better for it. It’s book three in the Second Chance Series, and if you’ve been keeping up with that, book two took us to Florence, Italy, as Julia DeLuca tried to track down some distant relatives.

Sydney will keep you a little closer to home. Her hometown, in fact, on the North Carolina coast. So, if you’re ready for a not-so-laid-back beach story, you’ll like this one (I hope!) I am planning to give you all (yes, just you) advance notice of special pricing for the first week after Sydney is published. It could be ready as early as Monday, August 16. I’d really appreciate any early reads and reviews! That will help the book get a good start in life!

After that, on to Eden’s novel, to complete the series.

Stay tuned for other promotions coming up in the fall.

And whatever you do, don’t stop dreaming!

photo credits: Putu Suardiana