Dream a God-sized Dream

When I was introduced to the Book of Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu), I was completely puzzled by the beginning of the book, which talks about an enormous fish thousands of miles long. It changes into a birth with a wingspan of thousands of miles wide. It says,

“When it rises in the air, its wings are like the clouds of Heaven. When the seas move, this bird too travels to the south darkness, the darkness known as the Pool of Heaven.” ~Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu).

It didn’t make sense to me, and I wondered what the author was trying to say. After years of study, I realized the author talks about a person with a higher purpose. He encourages the reader not just to have a purpose but an immense purpose to live a meaningful life. It’s about dreaming a God-sized dream.

Many people have a purpose in life, but they are too small. Most have a purpose only for their personal possessions, prestige, and power. In other words, most people have an ego-driven purpose. To live a meaningful life, we must have a purpose above and beyond ourselves—or our ego.

Carl Jung, the famous psychologist, said over a third of his patients did not suffer from clinical neurosis but lack of meaning and purpose. Victor Frankl, the Jewish psychiatrist who survived the Auschwitz death camp, said that as soon as one of his fellow inmates lost their purpose, they died within a day or two.

Purpose makes us healthier and gives us meaning to live. Without purpose, we drift through life and become anxious. We are born with a dream; when we lose that dream, we lose our emotional well-being. Fulton Sheen called this “the anxiety of life.”

Victor Frankl also indicated that finding purpose leads to happiness. You can eliminate many health issues if you have a purpose. Based on Carl Jung, you could eliminate a third of your health problems.

How do you find your life purpose that is big enough to give you the vitality of life?

On the other hand, you don’t want to have an unreasonable purpose like a daydream. The Chinese call those with unpractical dreams “Dragonslayers.” It’s based on an ancient story about a young man who believes his life purpose is to hunt for dragons and slay them. It’s a metaphor for solving a problem that doesn’t exist—a vanity purpose.

A significant purpose tries to solve a problem that does exist.

The famous Canadian Psychologist, Jorden Peterson, wants to meet Elon Musk to determine why Musk is developing SpaceX. Peterson seems to feel that Musk is solving a problem that doesn’t exist. At least not yet. Do we really need to build habitats on Mars? It is a very costly endeavor. That money could have been better used to solve other immediate problems we are facing in this world. We know most of Musk’s projects do solve practical problems, but is SpaceX a dragonslayer’s dream? Only time will tell.

The point is we must have a purpose significant enough to live a meaningful and happier life. We are born to dream a God-sized dream. At the same time, we must not daydream like a dragonslayer to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.

The good news is that Jesus left us with a significant purpose to fulfill. He not only wipes away our past sins but also gives us a great purpose for the future. Previously, I’ve mentioned that Jesus has greatness thrust upon us. Today, we deal with Jesus’ last word, in which he spells out our enormous purpose, known as the Great Commission.

His purpose is also practical because it solves a clear and present danger in our world.

Most importantly, his purpose gives us meaning to live a happy and fruitful life. Let’s take a look at it today.