By Elisabeth Fayt, founder of rnr Wellness
My mother spent the weekend with my family at our cottage recently. After coming back from a walk in town, I saw she had picked up a book called “I Heard God Laugh”. The cover was colorful and lively and it made me do a double-take. After eyeing it all weekend I finally said to her on the drive home, “Hey mom, mind if I borrow this? I promise to get it back to you within a week” And she handed it to me saying “Of course, but keep it as long as you like!” and followed with a cliché I had heard a thousand times: “God laughs when we make plans.” Well, right then and there, I opened up the book to a random spot, and here’s what it said (below). Coincidence?
“There is an old joke about making God laugh. It’s often repeated and rarely questioned, but we will question it together now. ‘If you want to hear God laugh,’ the joke goes, ‘tell him your plans.’ If you think about it, this theory is tragically flawed. What kind of father would laugh at His children when they tell Him their plans? In the joke God is laughing at us–or is He laughing at our plans, or our innocence, or our ignorance, or our arrogance? What kind of God would laugh at His children in any of these ways? Not the God I believe in.
I am a father, broken and imperfect, but I cannot imagine laughing at my children’s plans. The Scriptures tell us that God delights in His children. And God has taught me to delight in listening to what is going on inside my children’s hearts and minds. When they honor me by sharing their hopes and thoughts, I am fascinated. How much more does God, in His infinite goodness, delight when we open our hearts and minds to him?”
(excerpt from “I Heard God Laugh” by Matthew Kelly)
With this in mind, I invite you to refrain from doubting or shying away from your goals and dreams. I’ve often counselled my students by explaining “if you’ve got a dream, think of it as God dreaming through you, so whatever it is you want, He will help you manifest it.”
Sometimes we do get disappointed when life goes in a different direction than we hope or plan. At those times I find comfort in affirming “Thy will be done, not mine” because I know God always knows what is best for me.
So my message to you is to keep dreaming! Don’t ever stop. Because God delights in your dreams whether or not he has something better in store for you.
Namaste,
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