The Giver of our dreams may ask us to trade them

By Marie Luttrell

Dreams lived out are interesting phenomena. God works through them to bring people to Him in ways, well, ways we hadn’t dreamed of.

Take the story of Simon Peter in the early chapters of St. Luke’s Gospel. His initial contact with Jesus, as Jesus began His ministry in Galilee, was not spelled out, but we might guess, knowing Peter’s impetuosity, that he was attracted by Jesus’s outspokenness and the authority in His teaching.
We do find out that Jesus cured Peter’s mother-in-law from a fever, so their friendship might well have been brewing by this time.

St. Luke reports in Chapter 5 that people were pressing in on all sides and that Jesus saw two boats and got in the one that belonged to Simon. Putting out from the shore, he sat down (the position of a teacher) and taught from the boat. After he had finished teaching, things began to get interesting for Simon.

Now we sometimes think of the fishermen of that time as rather dim, so to speak. According to Father Robert Barron, this was not the case. (Father Barron is a priest of the Chicago archdiocese whose weekly homily can be heard at www.wordonfire.org. He is a gifted and thoughtful speaker. I recommend him highly.)

A fisherman had to be a shrewd businessman as well as have the considerable skills required to navigate, fish, and maintain boats and nets, so Simon was not a “Simple Simon.”

He must, therefore, have been a little skeptical when Jesus told him to “put out into deep water,” but he was intrigued enough to do so. Hauling in not one but two boatloads of fish must have been the highlight of his career. He had reached the peak of being a fisherman; God had blessed him so very abundantly.

Peter could have accepted these boatloads of fish simply as a gift from God. He could have been the shrewd businessman and traded them, perhaps buying another boat. He would have been set for life.

Would he have been happy as a fisherman? Probably, and the story of this catch would have brought him great regard, a story he could tell his grandchildren. Peter’s instant response acknowledged the gift Jesus had offered in return for using his boat.

This huge catch was back-breaking work for him, and he could have taken the credit. Instead, though, he recognized his unworthiness. He knew whose hands were really at work.

However Jesus had the bigger catch; he had caught Simon. Using the threads of Simon’s smaller dreams: his enthusiasm, hard work, sense of leadership, and skill, Jesus asked Simon to weave a net so he could become Peter, the catcher of people. Peter traded in his biggest dreams, walked away from his biggest catch, and followed the giver of the dream.

When we view parts of our lives in hindsight, we too can see where our dreams were cashed in, traded for the better deal of going where God needed us.

This happened in my life with our log home. When my husband and I were dating, we began talking about living a simple life, about being self-sufficient, about building a log home as our family home and having lots of kids.

We talked and talked, and made our way to a semi-isolated place, tried living there for a time, and soon found a way to purchase property. Over the course of three years, every weekend, every summer was spent with our best friend, building the dream.

Finally, with a roof over our heads but with much more finishing work to do, we moved in. On our first night we opened a beer, toasted ourselves, and remembered we were now sitting in our dream from our courtship days.
We thought it was all our doing, our hard work, but truly it was our boatload of fish. We got to enjoy it with our children and foster children for two years. Then God got through, and we traded in our dream to find the life God wanted for us. This life continues to be an amazing ride.
The great gift that God gave us, even though we had to put our sweat into it rising a log at a time, was the opportunity to learn reliance on each other, and patience, and the simplicity we longed for. These are a few of the many threads God used to weave a new net for us.

I see similar stories in the lives of those I love. Their dreams of making a name in the business world or owning their own restaurant or travelling till their hearts are content have been somewhat fulfilled.

These were good dreams, and they have worked hard to try to reach them, but as they traded them, God has woven nets for them which have made them far happier and more fulfilled, and He has given ways for them to live generous, faith-filled, loving lives of service and satisfaction.

Not all dreams can be traded. Some, such as unrequited love, shatter. Some are snatched away: a miscarriage or an unexpected layoff. Some die slow and painful deaths: a crumbling marriage. Some collapse of their own self-absorption: making it into stardom.

These are dreams that call for mourning, for healing and new beginnings. God will walk you through these, still pulling out the threads to make brand new nets.

The dreams we trade are ones where happiness could have been ours. If we have recognized with gratitude the great gift of the dream, and understand the call of the Giver, our dreams yet undreamed will provide fulfilment we cannot even imagine.