Dream Work

"But it is precisely the willingness to do something difficult, painful, unintentionally mischievous, or finally impossible that gives purpose to individual lives, both as they are lived and as they are remembered."  Jim Cullen, The American Dream, p. 34

Although Cullen never uses the term "vocation," this sentence sheds light on that notion so often used here on campus.  The light falls upon an aspect of vocation that is easy to overlook, namely that responding to a call, as understood in a theological, Christian way,  is likely to be hard work and perhaps will involve agony.

This the Puritans knew.  They were not looking for an easy life, neither a spiritually easy one nor a physically easy one.  If the later had been on offer, maybe they would have accepted it, but not if that ease brought with it harm to their spiritual life.  They were looking for freedom from the obstacles that would prevent them from engaging in struggle to live godly lives.

So, if we think that having a dream is just a matter of falling asleep and then waking up to a new world, we are sorely mistaken.  From dream to reality is hard work.