I have always been a dreamer.
The kind of person who sees possibilities where others see limitations. I have never struggled to imagine what could be. Dreaming has always come naturally to me. But somewhere along the journey, something quietly shifted.
Not all at once. Not because I stopped believing. But because life has a way of teaching us to manage our expectations.
Dreams delayed.
Prayers that seemed unanswered.
Plans that didn’t unfold the way I imagined.
Without realizing it, I began conditioning myself to expect less—not because I wanted less, but because expecting less felt safer. Smaller dreams meant smaller disappointments. If I didn’t hope too much, perhaps I wouldn’t hurt as much.
Then recently, someone said something simple that stopped me in my tracks:
“Dream big when you dream.”
At first, I smiled. Then I realized I wasn’t doing that anymore.
I had become so accustomed to protecting my heart from disappointment that I had unknowingly placed limits on what I believed God could do. I wasn’t dreaming according to God’s greatness—I was dreaming according to my past experiences.
It reminded me of the story in 2 Kings 13.
When King Joash visited the prophet Elisha, Elisha instructed him to strike the ground with the arrows in his hand. Joash struck the ground only three times before stopping.
Elisha became angry and said,
“You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram completely and destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.” (2 Kings 13:19)
I’ve often wondered why Joash stopped.
No one told him to stop.
Perhaps three felt like enough.
Perhaps he didn’t understand the significance.
Perhaps he simply didn’t expect more.
Isn’t that what disappointment does to us?
It convinces us that “three times” is enough. That partial victory is all we should expect. That dreaming cautiously is wisdom.
But God doesn’t ask us to shrink our faith because life has been difficult.
Scripture repeatedly reminds us of God’s heart toward those who trust Him:
“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us…” (Ephesians 3:20)
Immeasurably more.
Not slightly more.
Not barely enough.
Immeasurably more.
Dreaming big isn’t about chasing unrealistic fantasies or demanding that God fulfill every personal ambition. It’s about refusing to let disappointment become the architect of our expectations. It’s about believing that God’s possibilities are greater than our past.
I’ve realized that somewhere along the way, I allowed unmet expectations to become the ceiling of my faith.
God never asked me to lower the ceiling.
He asked me to trust Him.
Maybe dreaming again means laying down the fear of disappointment. Maybe it means believing that even if life hasn’t unfolded the way I hoped, God is still writing a story far bigger than I can see.
I don’t want to stop at “three strikes” anymore.
I want to pray boldly.
Hope freely.
Love courageously.
Believe wholeheartedly.
Not because I know exactly how God will answer, but because I know who He is.
So I’m learning to dream again.
Not dreams built on wishful thinking, but dreams rooted in the character of a God who is faithful, generous, and sovereign.
Because perhaps the greatest limitation has never been God’s ability to move—it has been my willingness to expect Him to.
And if I’m going to dream, I want to dream as someone who knows that with God, there is always more than my past has taught me to expect.
