Rethinking Treasure

This morning, Joel Osteen delivered a message about doing the things in life that set in your heart. There are all sorts of powers that will set themselves against you when you set out to live your dreams, things which will test your resolve and shake you to the core.

Osteen later made a comment that really struck me as profound. He asked the question, "Where is the greatest treasure in all the world?" He then went on to say that it wasn't in the diamond mines of South Africa, or the oil fields of the Middle East. Rather, it lies just beneath the cemeteries and graveyards of our world. How many dreams lay down there, unrealized? How many books went unwritten? How many cures for diseases went undiscovered? How many deeds went undone out of the fear of stepping into our desire?

Harold Whitman writes, "Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

If we bury our dreams and desires too long, we may find that they will remain that way forever. Follow your bliss...

So baby dry your eyes
Save all the tears you've cried
Oh, that's what dreams are made of
Oh baby, we belong in a world that must be strong
Oh, that's what dreams are made of

And in the end on dreams we will depend
'Cause that's what love is made of
Van Halen - Dreams