Most dreams don’t come to life overnight. And it’s easy to forget that when you’ve been dreaming for years.

This past week I visited the US Patent and Trademark Office to see an exhibit showcasing Steve Jobs’ patents. In order to have your name on a patent, one must be intellectually involved [...]]]>

Most dreams don’t come to life overnight. And it’s easy to forget that when you’ve been dreaming for years.

This past week I visited the US Patent and Trademark Office to see an exhibit showcasing Steve Jobs’ patents. In order to have your name on a patent, one must be intellectually involved  (not ceremonially simply because one is CEO); and most CEOs of tech companies have somewhere in the zone of 3-5. Steve had 313.

As I examined each patent a few stood out to me. One of which is below:

Yep. That’s an iPad – a device unveiled January 27, 2010. The patent is dated March 17, 2004.

During the keynote announcing the iPad, Steve said they had originally developed the iPhone OS on the iPad (the iPhone wasn’t unveiled until January 9, 2007). So they had been working on this device for over six, maybe even seven or eight years. Of course, the market wasn’t ready in 2004, nor was digital media (nor digital rights, for that matter). So they waited.

Most dreams don’t come to life over night.

I talk to a lot of people about the journey we’re on toward New York. So many people have commented, “I wish we could do something like you’re doing – not New York, but take a risk to pursue our dreams.”

What we have to remind people is that Emily and I met and began talking about starting a church in September of 2001. Ten years ago.

There were so many steps we needed to take. So many parts of our journey we never knew we would go on. For us, some of it was education (college and seminary). Some of it was working in ministry. Some of it was finding some people in Maryland who could help prepare us for starting a church. Some of it was a job at Apple, which has grown me in huge ways. It’s been a long journey – but it’s been worth it. And at every corner, for the past decade, God shows his faithfulness to us.

If you’re pursuing the dream God has given you, he wants you to accomplish your dream even more than you do. So don’t give up. Lay out a path. It might not go exactly as you planned, but you’ll be on the journey – and the journey will shape you far more than the destination you’re walking towards.

Everyone has a different level of tolerance for risk – regardless of how high your tolerance is, there eventually comes a decision that stretches you just [...]]]> We talk a lot about dreaming and taking risks to pursue your dreams, but I realized this week we don’t talk a lot about how to take a risk.

Everyone has a different level of tolerance for risk – regardless of how high your tolerance is, there eventually comes a decision that stretches you just beyond comfort. So, without trying to make it sound to mechanical, here are some of the things I’ve noticed help me take a risk in faith:

First, we have to acknowledge that there is a natural comfort that comes when you make a decision in community. When people see the same thing you’re seeing, affirm the same things you’re hoping for and agree that you’re taking a risk worth taking. Granted, not everyone will agree – but if you’re married, your spouse should. And if you have a couple close friends, who have generally been right about things in your life, they should probably be in on it too. For me, I was ready to move to New York long before Emily was – and God used her uneasiness to pace us out a bit (something he has already proved faithful in).

Some decisions then require a line-in-the-sand moment where you step forward, make the vision public and have a net of energy and accountability walking with you. (And sometimes the thought, “I’ve told everyone” is a key motivator to push through barriers.) Other times I’ve noticed the really big risks I make are in private until they walk themselves out a bit. It’s not that I’m trying to wow everyone, but sometimes a risk is so counter-culture that I don’t want to get discouraged or derailed by what people think.

But the real trick is getting your emotions too live in faith rather than worry. For me, I can mentally make those decisions easier than than I can get my emotions to cooperate. (And as someone raising support to provide for my family and moving to a city that is 3% christian to start a church, risk management has become one of the larger facets of my faith.)

I think the reason so many people (myself included) struggle with this is that risk-taking is a forward-facing process – and faith is just as much forward as it is reflective. Sometimes the faith we need for the next step in our lives is found in the steps, the risks, we’ve already taken. It’s trust we’ve already built. Sometimes it’s about recounting the prayers that have been answered. Remembering the times we spent sleepless nights worrying – only to have God show up the next morning and do something that blows us away.

So where are you? Do you need more trusted friends in the conversation as you bring your dreams to life? Do you need an hour to journal the ways God has already been faithful? How can you move forward in the dreams God has for your life?

A few months ago I met a guy in Manhattan named Eric. He was sharing from his heart about his dream of raising a million dollars to help the homeless in New York City. You could tell when he closed his eyes he could see exactly what everything looked like.

And for many people, [...]]]>

A few months ago I met a guy in Manhattan named Eric. He was sharing from his heart about his dream of raising a million dollars to help the homeless in New York City. You could tell when he closed his eyes he could see exactly what everything looked like.

And for many people, that’s where their dreams stop. They get locked into the mind, only seen with the eyes shut. 

Inside the dust jacket of Steve Jobs’ biography is the phrase, “Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination.” Sure he invented a lot, but he also took other people’s inventions and brought them to life in a way that no one else on the planet was capable of doing. The key, I believe, is that second trait: applied imagination. We can all imagine, but it takes real genius to apply it. Same with dreaming, it’s the people that apply their dreams to reality that really stand out – the ones that pray their hearts out, risk it all, make tons of mistakes, learn on the fly and breathe life to their dreams.

This weekend I got an email from DoYouHaveOneDollar.org. And I jumped out of my seat cheering – first and foremost because innovative solutions like DoYouHaveOneDollar.org that are part of what we need to restore so many people’s lives that are living on the street, but secondly because it is a dream that was birthed to life.

So, how about that dream you see when you shut your eyes? Maybe it’s something for your family. Or something you know needs to be done. A problem you are passionate about. People you desperately want to serve. The big question for you and I is if we’re willing to apply our dreams – to do what we were created to do with our lives.

Sometimes something happens that reminds me I’m not dreaming big enough. Standing on the Top of the Rock overlooking lower Manhattan, where Emily and I feel lead to start a new faith community, was one of those times. And it’s launched me on a journey to do a few things. First, [...]]]>

Sometimes something happens that reminds me I’m not dreaming big enough. Standing on the Top of the Rock overlooking lower Manhattan, where Emily and I feel lead to start a new faith community, was one of those times. And it’s launched me on a journey to do a few things. First, to dream more. Second, to throw myself head-first into developing the dreams we feel convinced are the next step for us. And third, to pray my heart out.

Here are some other thoughts I’ve been journaling on dreaming:

+ I don’t have enough bad ideas floating about – and that’s why the good ideas seem hard to come by.

+ Ideas are powerful – and they can change everything – but they are so fragile when they are new and it takes great care to foster them into enough of a reality you can tell if they’re the right idea or not. (Thought from Jonny Ive.)

+ The trick is knowing exactly when to transfer from dreaming to developing. It’s the pivot point that moves ideas from dreams into reality.

+ The best leaders are able to celebrate the moment a dream comes into reality. The worst leaders are never satisfied and simply move on to the next thing.

+ Revolutionaries don’t have more great ideas than the rest of us – but they do generate more ideas in general. What makes them revolutionary is that they know which ideas to pursue and create the “how.”

+ Pursuing the biggest dream of your life will be the most difficult thing you ever do.

Benjamin Zander of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra

I find so much beauty in this talk – and want so badly to share my love for Jesus the way he shares his love for classical music.

I’ve used my voice to promote my own talents, highlight my success and acquire more comfort for my life. And it’s utterly unfulfilling.

I’ve also used my voice to speak on behalf of those who lack access to water, to encourage those who find themselves without a home, to speak life into someone’s [...]]]>

I’ve used my voice to promote my own talents, highlight my success and acquire more comfort for my life. And it’s utterly unfulfilling.

I’ve also used my voice to speak on behalf of those who lack access to water, to encourage those who find themselves without a home, to speak life into someone’s dreams when they’ve questioned if any of it is even possible. And that’s unspeakably powerful.

You only get one voice – the question is how you will use it.

We stumbled upon this amazing art gallery in Belize City a few weeks ago. It was outside all the tourist checkpoints in an unassuming building with some really awesome street art on the outside.

After talking with one of the guys who works there we learned that they go into rural Belize and [...]]]>

We stumbled upon this amazing art gallery in Belize City a few weeks ago. It was outside all the tourist checkpoints in an unassuming building with some really awesome street art on the outside.

After talking with one of the guys who works there we learned that they go into rural Belize and gather art from artists who have no hope of selling their work locally. The gallery sells those pieces on behalf of the artist and returns with the money for the artist. Such an amazing way to connect the voice of the poets, painters and sculptors of their country.

But for this gallery it wasn’t all about sales or consumption of art – it was about making art that carried the voice of their people. Later in the afternoon that day they were hosting a workshop that would teach blind children to paint. Now that’s beautiful art.

What I realized is that we have so many passions woven into us – what makes them beautiful is whether we decide to point them toward ourselves or toward others. It’s such a tragedy when someone’s passions are oriented around consumption rather than creation and curation in others. When we fight this back we find something beautiful – the opportunity to call out something in others they might not be able to call out on their own. The opportunity to speak into our cities. The opportunity to restore something that has been lost.

My prayer is that we would all unleash our passions for the restoration of this world.