My Dreams

            I have a ton of dreams. I dream a lot about the future. I often think about certain boys and try to imagine what life would be like if I married them. I like to dream about what I may do as an occupation. Sometimes, I have pictured myself being a teacher, missionary, doctor, or engineer, just to name a few. I have also considered what I might do as an avocation. There are many things that I am passionate about; whenever I discover a new thing that I just love to do or would like to do, I write it down. Among my list of things so far are the following: examining the amount of time in which God created the world, climbing rocks, exploring caves, doing puzzles, learning more about God and singing lovely songs to Him, and studying cave formations. I can see myself doing all of these activities in my spare time. I also dream about what heaven is like. Right now, I just cannot imagine worshiping God all of the time, but I trust that heaven is far better than I can even dream.

            I wonder if all of the above dreams are part of a great story or an “epic story.” In A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller has a conversation with Steve about what makes an epic story, rather than just a great one. The two elements of an epic story are the following: 1. The thing that the character wants must be very difficult to obtain. 2. “The ambition must be sacrificial.” With those characteristics in mind, I feel that my “vocation dreams” are more of an epic story than my “avocation dreams,” since my “vocation dreams” seem to directly involve other people, while my “avocation dreams” do not. Even if that is the case, I still personally believe that even if I pursued only the “avocation dreams,” my life would still be epic, as long as I lived it out in full obedience to God, since that is how I define an “epic story.”
1. How do you define an "epic story"? Do your dreams fit that?
2. Why is it so difficult to embrace the "whimsy" of life?