Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Oatmeal Dreams


As I was stuck in traffic this morning, I took a few moments to talk to God. As I prayed, I felt the urge to pray for myself. Sometimes, I forget to do that…but today, I felt like God really wanted to hear the issues of my heart. Traffic started to move and I ended my talk with God. I felt good.

I looked to my left and noticed a billboard—one I have probably passed 100,000 times. But today, two words stood out to me:

DREAM BIGGER. 

Bigger?!?!?!

*Cue the internal monologue*

What’s wrong with my dreams? I mean, they are nice and regular. They are the things that everybody wants. They won’t push me too far out of my comfort zone; the chance for failure is minimal. My dreams are average. Bland. Safe. 

That’s not the definition of a dream.

It is, however, the perfect description of oatmeal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I rediscovered oatmeal at a time when everything else was making me sick. I tried a bowl and…nothing happened.

No rumbling.

No searing pain.

No….well, I’ll just let you speculate about the other symptoms.

I was nervous, so I waited a few hours just to be sure. I was still okay! I felt more relief than Alka Seltzer. I decided right then that I would eat oatmeal every single day for the rest of my life!

For about two weeks, everything was great. Then, I got bored.  I tried to jazz it up a little—throw in some fruit; add a little cinnamon.  I even added a small amount of milk (I’m severely lactose intolerant) to change the consistency. It still smelled like oatmeal. It still tasted like oatmeal. It was still oatmeal. In a world of thousands of choices, I grew resentful of the fact that oatmeal was my culinary lot in life.

I wanted to drop-kick the Quaker Oats man in his forehead.

A funny thing happened when I talked to my doctor about my digestive issues. She confirmed that I was truly lactose intolerant—of course, I already knew that—but my other problems might have less to with what I was eating and more to do with how I ate.

I hope someone gets where I’m going with this….

Some of us are so quick to throw away our dreams because they do not happen at our preferred pace. Or, there are those of us (like me) who manage down our dreams to what everyone else deems acceptable.

Need some real-life examples?

That job? Nah….too far out of your reach. Stay in the same field; take that lateral move. 

Buy a house?!?! In this economy? No, just keep renting (and putting money in someone else’s pockets, but I digress).

And my favorite….

You want to get married?!?!? But….but….half of all marriages end in divorce! You could get your heart broken! No, it’s better to just take whatever you can get! 

See?

Oatmeal.

I don’t know about everybody else, but I am sick and tired of oatmeal dreams. I think it’s time to look in the mirror, take a deep breath and say:

“I don’t want what everyone else wants for me. I want what God has for me….and it ain’t oatmeal.”

It won’t always be easy.
People will talk about you.
You might not get there on the first try…or the second….or even the fifteenth.
Go anyway.

For those of you who are wondering my doctor advised me to do three things:
· Change my posture.
· Slow down…and don’t bite off more than I can chew.
· Reduce my portions.

If you're wondering how that advice worked for me, let me just say it like this: today, I had turkey sausage for breakfast.

Be Encouraged,

K.