I’m just back from living a dream — spending a month in Italy. Hard work, but a dream. For ten years, I worked toward the dream of writing for one editor at one house. I’ve had the great privilege of writing many books for many wonderful editors, but there was a special click when I met this particular editor at our first ACFW.

Last week I turned in the macro edits for the book we are working on together. You can get a sneak peek at the cover here.

That’s the beauty of dreams. Dreams can inspire you to work hard. In fact I think a dream isn’t truly a dream until you’re willing to sacrifice and do hard things to give it a chance to breath and grow. Dreams also require courage. It takes courage to let a dream you’ve harbored in your heart come to light and risk defeat or lack of support from those around you.

That’s one of the things I love about ACFW. Theconference is coming up next month, and I can’t wait.

The place is ripe with expectancy.

Everywhere I look, I see someone with the dream of writing, the dream of one day seeing their name on the cover of a book. That was me in 2005. This year I’ll be co-teaching with Deborah Raney — an unbelievable thrill. It’s an opportunity to breath life into some tightly held dreams.

Dreams can take so many shapes and sizes. The rose in the photo above? It’s at a home I walked by at least once a day as I hiked down the hill to catch the bus into Siena. It was another dream. One that while I was headed in to teach, I kept looking at the skyline, the architecture, the landscape, and thanking God for the crazy chance to work hard to get the experience.

What’s the dream in your heart? Do you have the courage to chase it? What do you need to give it a try?