is your dream the same as God's

Do you have a dream? Of course you do. We all do? The real question is do you know what your dream is? And when we ask the question that may, the answers may be different. Philip Wagner, in his book Unlock Your Dream: Discover the Adventure You Were Created For (WaterBrook, 2016) offers some suggestions for answering that question.

            Like many of the books I buy or request for review, I found the title to be compelling. The brief synopsis of the book piqued my interest, I mean, who doesn’t want to discover and reach God's dreams for our lives. Almost everybody I know wants to achieve his or her full potential. The idea of being empowered and equipped to soar to new heights, to realize our dreams, and to live a life full of joy and expectation for an adventuresome future sounds almost too good to be true. 

Unfortunately this book didn’t quite take me to those dizzying heights. It’s an easy read, there are lots of good examples of making sweet lemonade out of the sour lemons that sometimes show up in all of our lives, but as a life-changer, for me, it didn’t quite work.

Each chapter offers examples of ways that dreams work—or don’t. Most of them are examples from the author’s personal experiences, or experiences of those with whom he has worked in the context of his ministry (long term pastor of Oasis Church in Los Angeles).  One of the highlights of each chapter is the conclusion: dream locks, dream keys, and scripture key. Basically a few sentences that describe some of the things that keep us from achieving our dreams, some effective countermeasures to those negatives, and then a scripture verse to back up the countermeasure.

This book is going to be a delight for a large number of readers, (my guess is that the 20th-80th percentile). Those at the top end of the spectrum will be happy and content already and so won’t really be motivated by, or need the motivation provided by this book.  Those on the bottom edge will probably not be able to see past their own hopelessness and disillusionment, and won’t be able to take hope in the fact that God really does have a plan for them. 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through Blogging for Books, book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

3/5