Keeping Dreams Alive

Keeping Dreams Alive

It was June of the year 2000, when I found a book entitled "Success, One Day At a Time" by John Maxwell. I liked it so much that over the years, I've given away more copies of that book, except for the Bible, than any other book. My favorite story in the book is about Robert Lopatin and I want to share his story with you in the hopes that it will encourage you and re-ignite the dreams and desires the Lord has placed in your heart. Psalm 37: 4 says:

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will
give you the desires of your heart."

Robert Lopatin was a successful businessman, working in the manufacturing of women's clothing. That, however, was not his first love. As a boy, he had dreamed of becoming a doctor. Circumstances had caused him to lay his dream aside and, after college, he had worked in the family business for 27 years. But then, at a friend's wedding, something happened that changed his life. He sat next to a new doctor and the converation at the table re-ignited his boyhood dream. At age 51, at an age when most people are thinking about retirement, Robert Lopatin entered medical school.

When I read the story, he was 55 and serving his residency at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. What inspired me the most was that, in pursuing his dream, he wasn't someone who was discontented and unhappy. On the contrary, he was successful and doing well. But he had an unfulfilled dream, something that the older he got, the more farfetched it seemed. His age and his circumstances told him "it's too late" but his heart told him to go for it.

We serve a God "who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine". The old song we used to sing said "He is able to do much more than I could ever dream". Is there anything you've given up on? Anything you've said in your heart "it's just too hard"? Or maybe like Robert Lopatin, you think you're too old to go after that dream. Today's lesson - "it's never too late".

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church