A resource for the restless

On Starting Something New, by Beth Booram

Uncertain. Analytical. Restless.

That’s not exactly how I imagined I would feel when a dream signaled its presence. 

The box I put dreams into was labeled: big picture thinking, dramatic visions for life, and clouds with silver linings. Spurred on by the wind in their sails, dreams always gave quick answers for a ten-year plan and the resources (real or imagined) to match. Dreams lived at a pace that was unstoppable and had sticky note stacks to prove that their ideas wouldn’t be topped. 

If that’s what dreams were, there were none in my box. Although I had interests, desires, skills, gifts, hobbies, frustrations, responsibilities, convictions, and burdens, those didn’t seem like ingredients for any specific dream recipe.  

Dreams, in my mind, were imposters, brushed off with a smirk and without a second thought. 

What a joke. 

Dreams were subject to quick dismissal, like a puppy wandering into my backyard. 

You’re cute, but you belong to someone else. 

Dreams also risked failure, and that didn’t sound necessary - or dreamy. 

I think I’ll pass.

I had it all wrong, and I almost missed out.

“I have a growing sense that many people live with creative, Spirit-inspired ideas stirring inside them, but have little to no clue (and sometimes courage) how to pay attention to and nurture those dreams.”

-Beth A. Booram, Starting Something New

It’s always difficult to summarize a book in which I’ve highlighted paragraph after paragraph, so I’ll confine my takeaways to the words of the title:

Starting: Beginnings are usually small. Small things are fragile and easily ignored or crushed, but if they’re nourished little by little, they may grow into an oak tree.

Something: It’s hard to explain. A dream begins more like a longing than a defined goal. 

New: One step brings you to the next, which leads to the next, and that’s how God takes you where you’ve never been before. “Way leads to way”.

If you’re restlessly trying to discern God’s prompting in your heart, try Starting Something New.