When Roadblocks Stand in the Way of Fulfilling Your Dreams

Sometimes we fail to reach our goals because no matter how hard we try, roadblocks keep standing in our way. We may wonder why God isn’t clearing the trail for us to reach our destination.  After all, we’ve prayed. We’ve worked hard. We believe that God placed those desires in us—he gave us the gifts that seemed to lead us down a certain path. Why aren’t things working out the way we want them to? It’s not only frustrating, it hurts.

But a roadblock isn’t an excuse for giving up on the journey.

My husband, Sonny, is a linear thinker—that’s just how he’s made. His normal thought process is that to go from Point A to Point D, you must first go through B and C, in that order. But he’s learning that you can still reach D by taking a route that curves around, goes under, or goes above. There may be several ways to reach the same place. But if we get fixated on only one, we may find ourselves stuck in front of a roadblock or possibly turning around, feeling defeated.

I belong to the Northwest Christian Writers Association. An opportunity is given at each meeting for writers to share news about their projects. Some talk about books or articles being accepted for publication. We celebrate with them. But others talk about the rejections they’ve received—only we don’t call them rejections, we use the term “redirections.”  We celebrate those too! Why? Because they were brave enough to submit their work to a publisher, and through rejections, they can possibly learn what to do better next time. They may also decide to try something different in pursuit of their publishing goals.

There’s another type of roadblock, one that’s familiar to most of us. It may be different where you live, but every summer, we have to live with a lot of road construction. It seems no matter which direction we take, we’re forced to pay attention to signs telling us to stop, drive slowly, or take a detour. It’s easy to grow weary of the hassle. So, I try to focus on the end result of nicer roads, which will help make travel—and my life—more pleasant.

Like dealing with road construction, the journey to fulfill our dreams may be bumpy, and it may take us a long time to get there, but we need to avoid giving up. If roadblocks stand in our way, let’s either find a way to move them—or redirect and be willing to take a detour.

The destination will be worth it!

What kind of roadblocks are standing in your way of fulfilling your dreams? If you were to redirect and take a different approach, what steps would you need to take?

Dawn