The American Dream

Seth Godin has a great blog post on the importance of choosing your dreams carefully!

"Sometimes, though, we get sold a dream instead of creating our own. Is it really every girl's dream to become a princess, to be chosen by someone of royal birth and to have a $34 million wedding? Or is that the Disney-industrial complex betraying you, selling you short?

It's so easy to be sold on the combination of compliance, consumption and approval by the powers that be. Of course, you're entitled to any dream you like, but I hope you will choose a bigger one."

Somewhere along the way the American Dream lost its way. Here is origin of the term.

Historian James Truslow Adam popularized the phrase "American Dream" in his 1931 book Epic of America:

"The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, also too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."

The American Dream ... a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are capable and recognized by other for what they are, regardless of birth or position.

So what do you dream about? Are you being sold a dream or are you in active pursuit of your own? We all have a dream. Is your dream worth giving your life to?

Scott Harrison has a dream of providing clean drinking water to the one billion people who don't yet have access to this basic necessity of life. You can watch his story at charity: water.

I dream of proving a lunch buddy for every student at Polk School. To impact this under resourced area of our community with the good works and the good news of the gospel.

I dream of providing a scholarship to every graduating high school senior in Cedar Rapids who develops a spiritual growth transition plan for their first year of college. To mentor and encourage young adults in their faith and life development.

I dream of a church that impacts eastern Iowa and the ends of the world with the gospel. People who love and live like Jesus and follow Him on mission.

These are my dreams. What are yours? Dream big!