Starting something new: How do you shape and live your dream?
We talked with author, spiritual director, former pastor and campus ministry leader, and current retreat center owner (fallcreekabbey.org) Beth Booram about her book, Starting Something New – a spiritually directed yet practical journey into how to discern and develop dreams into something real. Our book study of Starting Something New begins February 23, 2023 – details here.
What dream of yours prompted you to write Starting Something New?
Beth Booram: Several years ago, I began to pay attention to a dream forming inside me to found an urban retreat center in Indianapolis. As I put my hand to the plow, I discovered a lack of resources particular to me, a non-businessperson, attempting to start something that required entrepreneurial skills. As I searched for resources, I found only business-oriented ones that felt off-center from the focus and tone of the work I was doing.
Simultaneously, in conversation with many—including individuals that I meet with for spiritual direction—I began to notice numerous people describing longings within their own hearts to start something new or take a new life direction, often involving their vocation, lifestyle, calling or geography. Most people expressed a profound attraction to the idea and a tremendous anxiety about what to do with it.
Q: You talk about bringing a God-given dream to life as “not a straight line from A to Z.” How did you handle that, and what do you advise others when they face that kind of meandering?
BB: There’s often a belief that if God is in something, then the stars should align, and everything should come together beautifully. This sure didn’t happen in our case! Instead, we spent months trying to sell our house during the recession—showed it 72 times—and getting Fall Creek Abbey up and running. It caused us to question, are we on the right track?
My own personality also played into it, since I prefer closure and seeing things come together smoothly and quickly. I longed so deeply for this to work out! I started to see a willfulness coming out of me to push things forward, trying every which way to jam this thing through! This was a meeting place for God and me. Or to frame it with language from the Ignatian tradition, it was not a time of consolation but desolation. So this was a place God needed to meet me, purify my heart, and make sure I was more committed to following Jesus than making things happen according to my plan.
Q: What’s the biggest impediment for people when they’re dreaming but don’t know how to get to the next step?
BB: Often people stall out when they lack confidence in what God is calling them to do. When they hit bumps, they start to question and lose steam. If they’re unwilling to take risks, they can lose their sense of calling and the willingness to hang in there. You need to develop a new capacity to live in the space where you don’t have control.
Q: What words of encouragement would you give our Christos learners about starting something new?
BB: I want to encourage them that they do have what it takes. A lot of times we don’t know our most intrinsic gifts because they are buried — we haven’t really taken hold and employed them because life hasn’t required us to. We have to dig down deep and find the courage to offer them. It takes time and determination. Trust that if God is calling you to do something, then surely you have what it takes to do it!