Seriously, God...there are more dreams than the American dream?

Tim Horton's is better in Canada, and so has my full support in fueling their citizens' dreams.

A few weeks ago I was in Toronto, Canada, in a hotel room trying to find the NBA playoff game that night. Instead I found playoff NHL hockey which made sense, considering hockey is a way of life for so many Canadians. Another way of life up North is Tim Hortons. If you don’t have a Tim Hortons in your city, the best I could describe it is like Dunkin’s but a few more offerings. But in Canada they offer even more. They fuel the Canadian dream.

This commercial spot was running while I was there visiting, and its opening line caught my ear.

This one minute montage could have very well been shots of US cities and citizens, but Kiefer Sutherland (a Hollywood actor from Canada) opens up and asks, “How come we never talk about the Canadian dream?” I am going to state the most US-centric thing possible–I thought there was only the American dream we were debating whether it still exists or not. But apparently there are other dreams too.

This got me wondering how many dreams there are? Is there a [fill in the blank country] dream? A Christian dream? For me, a Korean-American Christian dream? You name your bubble, and I am sure there is some sixty second commercial dream that could sum it up pretty nicely. My question is how do I know if I have achieved my dream. I have felt like my dreams have been like a phantom–I can see it for a moment but can’t quite touch it or capture it.

When life is a struggle, your mental health reeling, your physical self compromised most aren’t thinking about their dreams. We just want to survive. In my 20s and 30s I always felt this tension of whether I was achieving my dream or debating what my dream even was. After a loss or trauma (in my case my father passing) I know what it feels like to just want to survive. Dreams are a luxury at that point. It feels like I may be approaching a time where I can start dreaming again though. I’m not sure, but it’s nice to think I may be.

Proverbs 29:18-19 NLT says, When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful. Words alone will not discipline a servant; the words may be understood, but they are not heeded.

Divine guidance or in the KJV or ESV–vision or prophetic vision—that sounds nice. Some get caught up in the meaning of “divine guidance” or “vision,” but I think we can understand what the opposite reality is when we don’t have those things–we feel lost or chaotic. I want to dream again, see God reveal a plan little by little, and feel the high of the anticipation. Or in the opposite–I don’t want to feel lost anymore. It’s that space right between anticipation and settling that I think God may be cooking. And it’s not a destination, but an act of being in God’s presence.