"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them." Thoreau
The old saying goes, "Die with memories, not dreams." But what if I told you this phrase holds the key to understanding what it truly means to walk as a disciple of Christ? Not in the reckless, bucket-list sense we often hear, but in something far deeper—a call to live so fully engaged with our faith that every step becomes a sacred memory etched in divine purpose.
I've been wrestling with this question lately: What does a fulfilled, content, consistently maturing life journey look like for a fully engaged disciple of Christ? The answer, I'm discovering, lies not in the destinations we imagine, but in the footsteps we actually take.
A disciple should always be maturing. This has been with me as I have led others in group and 1-1 discussions but what does it really mean? The moment we think we've "arrived" spiritually, we've missed the entire point. Maturity is never fully realized while walking the earth by a disciple because our very nature is that of a learner.
And what a beautiful design this is. A disciple's very nature is that of a learner—always curious, always open, always ready to be surprised by grace. To be learning is to be changing with the teacher's help, and our teacher, the Holy Spirit, never stops offering lessons wrapped in ordinary moments and extraordinary revelations alike.
I used to think spiritual growth meant having fewer questions, making fewer mistakes, finding a comfortable rhythm where faith felt predictable. How wrong I was. Following the Holy Spirit is to be actively growing, which means embracing both the stumbles and the celebrations with equal reverence. Active growth makes mistakes and celebrates joys—sometimes in the same breath, sometimes within the same prayer.
These joyful celebrations and mistakes demand action. They pull us out of our comfortable spiritual armchairs and into the messy, beautiful work of actually living our faith. This is where dreams and memories diverge on the spiritual journey. Dreams keep us safely in our heads, painting pretty pictures of who we might become someday. But action—messy, imperfect, courageous action—creates the raw material of a life truly lived.
Action, not dreams, are the hallmark of discipleship. While a disciple dreams—and dreaming isn't inherently wrong—discipleship creates memories. Real memories. The kind that come from showing up when it's inconvenient, speaking truth when it's uncomfortable, extending forgiveness when it feels impossible, and choosing love when it would be easier to choose indifference.
I think of my wife who brought me soup when I was sick, not because she dreamed of being kind someday, but because she acted on love in the moment. I remember the friend who sat with me in silence when words felt too heavy, creating a memory of presence that speaks louder than any sermon. These are the fingerprints of active discipleship—not grand gestures we might attempt someday, but quiet obediences that accumulate into a life well-lived.
Creating memories is to live a fulfilled, content, consistently maturing life of a fully engaged disciple of Christ. Each memory becomes a building block in the cathedral of our spiritual journey. The time we chose patience over frustration. The moment we offered help without being asked. The day we spoke up for someone who couldn't speak for themselves. The evening we forgave when our hearts wanted to hold on to hurt.
These memories don't just happen to us—we create them through the daily choice to engage with our faith actively rather than passively. They're formed in the space between our dreams and our willingness to wake up and walk them out, one imperfect step at a time.
As I write this, I'm reminded that the most fulfilled disciples I know aren't the ones with the grandest dreams of what they might do for God someday. They're the ones with treasure troves of memories of what they've already done—small acts, ordinary moments, quiet obediences that together compose a symphony of a life fully engaged with Christ.
So let us choose action over intention, presence over perfection, and memories over dreams. Let us die with hearts full of the sacred memories that come only from a life actively lived in partnership with the Holy Spirit—a life where every stumble was a step forward and every joy was shared.
This is the way of the disciple: not to dream our way to heaven, but to live our way there, one memory at a time.