“It’s never too late to see your dreams come true”, we often hear this from many motivational speakers. However, clinging to our past dreams can keep us from entering the best season of our lives. It’s time to move to Plan B.
Under a monarchy, the king is the most important figure. It was unthinkable to leave the throne empty, so as soon as a monarch would die, his successor would immediately take his place. Which gave way to the famous saying: “The king is dead, long live the king.” It is the same for some of our dreams. Sometimes, we may have clung to a dream since we were young and time or our mistakes made this dream impossible to reach. If we keep clinging to this unrealizable dream, we lose our joy of living in the present. Even if we serve the God of the impossible, sometimes it is wiser to let some dreams die and make new ones.
“I wanted to be slim, but I made poor food choices.” “I wanted to be rich, but I made bad investments.” “I wanted children, but I never found the perfect partner.” We can make bad decisions and miss our goal, or we can be in the position of not being able to pursue our dreams for reasons out of our control. But if we remain attached to these old dreams, we cannot build our future. Some opportunities will never come back. It is necessary to stop living in regret and turn to plan B.
When Samuel anointed Saul to be king, God’s plan for his life was great. “Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man out of the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He will save my people out of the hand of the Philistines; for I have looked upon my people, because their cry has come to me.” (1 Samuel 9.16 WEB) But Saul did not follow the commandments of God, and God changed his plans. “Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of Yahweh your God, which he commanded you; for now Yahweh would have established your kingdom on Israel forever. But now your kingdom will not continue. Yahweh has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and Yahweh has appointed him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept that which Yahweh commanded you.” (1 Samuel 13.13-14 WEB)
God’s plan A was to strengthen the reign of Saul forever, but Saul disobeyed, sinned, and lost this privilege. To save Israel from its enemies, God turned to his Plan B by choosing David. And we all know the magnificence of King David! Often, Plan B may be even better than Plan A.
“I wanted to get married, have children, and serve the Lord with my family.” It is a beautiful dream, but time passed, or your mistakes made this dream impossible to reach. Time to turn to Plan B. There are a lot of advantages of not having kids. Imagine all you can accomplish for God without constraints. It’s the point that the Apostle Paul was trying to make in 1 Corinthians 7.
In 2017, stop regretting the life you dreamt about for so long. Forgive yourselves, forgive those who wronged you, and leave all this behind. Refuse to waste time thinking about your past, including your expired dreams. It is time to appreciate who you are now and to make the most of your talents and experiences (good or bad) to become an effective servant for the Kingdom of God. Keep in mind that your B plan might end up be better than your A plan! A dream is dead, long live the new dream!