The Difference Between a Dream and a Calling

I think that people get having a dream and having a calling mixed up. And while they can happen concurrently, there is a distinct difference between the two.

Take the dream, for instance. When you hear the word dream, the first thing that comes to mind is a scenario played out in your sleep. But there's another definition. I heard a speaker at the 2016 Essence Festival say it. She said, "When you surrender to the dream, you get to live in the space of the Higher Power. You get to live in the space that you purposefully have been sent to Earth to claim for yourself." In short, it's your space. A dream is your space.

When you truly understand this, the question, "What is your dream?," takes on new meaning. No longer is it influenced by lifestyles of the rich and famous unless you in fact are supposed to be rich and famous. You start to consider something more. You start to ask yourself why you want those things and where that comes from. Is the reason coming out of a healthy sense of who you are or is it somebody else's definition that you have adopted?

I've come to understand this. That a dream isn't wanting what somebody else has. A dream is simply wanting what's yours.

Now this is different from a calling. A calling isn't about a destination. It's about action. It's like the wake up call of the "Reveille." It is what Martin Luther King Jr. refers to as "the fierce urgency of now." It's a summons to do something you've never done before, determined by a Higher Intelligence that enlists you in carrying it out. That's what a calling is. I believe everybody has a calling--I truly do--even folks who haven't heard it yet.

A calling requires sacrifice. It's sacrificing what might be expedient for what is essential. When I think of this, I think of 9/11. It's hard to believe that it's been 16 years since that fateful day. I think about the 44 passengers that intervened on Flight 93, banding together to make sure the terrorist did not fly into The Capitol Building. Those folks as well as many first responders on the ground heard the call, they felt the fierce urgency to act. Because they answered the call, lives that would have been lost were spared.

For those of you who are worried about what your purpose is, I hope this article helps you to rest in knowing that a higher intelligence is at work in your life. Something has been placed inside of you that is calibrated to your dream and to your calling. And its job is to make sure you arrive on time. You will arrive on time.

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