Friends Along the Way

"No friendship can cross the path of our destiny without leaving some mark on it forever."

Dreams are worth fighting for. Don’t let anyone tell you that they are not. Most importantly, don’t tell yourself that they are not!

However, that does not mean it isn’t important to listen to those around you.

Too often, we lose our dreams to the fog of reality when we listen to others when they tell us that we are crazy to go after our dreams. In the excitement of building a new castle in our mind we often share our enthusiasm with those around us. We let our acquaintances glimpse our plans and they say, “You’re going to do what?!?!” But that’s ok, they’re only acquaintances and we’ve only showed them a glimpse. So we turn to our friends and we give them some of the finer architectural details of our dream castles. They, too respond with the traditional, “You’re crazy!” But, what do they know? They’re not that close to us; our real friends will understand. And so to our best friends—those few people in this world who’s opinion we value more than gold—we bring the unfinished blueprints of our castles.

We take our dream castles and we show them EVERYTHING! We show them everything from the ballrooms to the libraries, the kitchen to the gardens, even the bathrooms. Every nook and cranny! And we wait anxiously as our best friends look over the blueprints and our breaths stop as they slowly open their mouths to speak…

“It’s great and all, but… but how are you going to do this?”

“What?!? Our best friends are suppose to be the ones that support us in everything? How come they are not sharing in our excitement and enthusiasm? What kind of friend are they?”
That’s what I used to think. Whenever I dreamed of a castle and had finally taken the courage to step out the front door, my acquaintances, friends, and best friends always seemed so eager to keep me from going any further. It was (and still is) easy to brush off the opinions of my acquaintances and most of my friends. But my best friends…

It wasn’t until recently that I realized just how much my best friends cared for me. When I show my best friends the blueprints of my dream castles, I expect them to be honest with me. I come to them for advice and trust them to give me a truthful reaction. When all I get back is a, “How do you plan on doing that?” I immediately become defensive.

But that’s not what my best friends are saying at all. My best friends never say, “Don’t go for it.” They never tell me, “That’s impossible for you to do.” What they are saying is this:
“I believe in you. You can do this. But you need to have a how. I care too much about you to let you lose this dream because you couldn’t think it through enough. I care ­so much about you, that I don’t want to see you hurt when you don’t reach it.”

And if that how doesn’t work, if the castle is one that should be lost to the fog, my best friends are there for me too. Too often, I admit, I don’t want to listen to them when they tell me, “Enough is enough. This one’s just not right for you.” But even then, there is great affection in this. Even then, what they are telling me is, “This adventure will kill you. It’s not your path to take.”

And what amazing friends I have for that! I am truly blessed with the friends God has given me. That they care too much about me and care so much about my dreams that they would do this for me!!!

So, I have dream castles. They’re still looming in the haze of reality, but slowly and surely they are materializing once again. Inch-by-inch the fog is yielding and the path unfolding. Moreover, I’ve started down the road…half the battle is already won! And now, I have best friends that I have shared the blueprints with.

The roads keep going this way… that way… and every way… but, for now, thanks in large part to my friends, I’m walking…