Why People Fail at Living
Their Dreams
By Shannon Parish
 Years
ago, employed as a church secretary, I had the brilliant
idea of adding a special feature to our church
directory. Mind you, I had ulterior motives because
there was hardly a day that went by that someone didn’t
call me and ask if there was someone in the church that
knew how to do such-and-so, or who provided services in
various areas.
It seemed like a huge no-brainer. Just list what people
loved to do, along with their contact information, and
not only would they be able to act on their own dreams -
others would benefit from their services too!
One by one I called members and asked if they wanted to
place an ad in the directory for this purpose. (The
small fee collected was going to go to the Children’s
Church fund). One person after another would sigh
dreamily and mumble something about how great it would
be if they really could earn money doing what they love.
And one person after another confessed that they just
KNEW they would fail at it and wasn’t sure if they
should bother. My gift of encouragement would kick in
and they would get really excited - all to collapse in a
panicked heap crying out, “Oh my! I’d be so successful I
could never keep up with the demand!” They would quickly
excuse themselves and hang up the phone. Only the
existing business people understood what I was doing and
jumped at the chance to be listed ... all to no avail
because due to the lack of interest, the service
directory idea was scrapped.
My experience with the wishes and dreams of our
congregational members really bothered me. We preach
prosperity, and that God wants the best for us, and that
all that our hands touch will prosper. But the actions I
saw shouted another belief entirely.
My conclusion? Its easy to fail - that takes no effort.
To succeed takes effort, perseverance, planning and
risk. The bottom line? They didn’t want the
responsibility to live out their dreams. It was easier
to blame the devil for beating them up or to righteously
declare that they would “pray about it” or that they
were waiting on God.
No wonder many are called but few are chosen ...
Shannon Parish has retired from full time
service as a Co-Senior Pastor, in order to pursue and further develop the
ministry of Sarah's Tent and her business of Completed People, LLC.
A cartoonist, illustrator and creative life coach, Shannon devotes her life
to encouraging those who are fed up with the 'status-quo' and are determined
to discover
and pursue their purpose and destiny in life.
In addition to Sarah's Tent, Shannon invites
you to visit her other web sites at:
www.completedpeople.com and
http://shannonparish.com
(c) copyright 2006 All world
rights reserved, Shannon Parish, Completed People, LLC. For reprint
permission, please
email me.
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