Do You Still Dream?

Are we too grown up to dream? Do we look down on others who still dream? Do we have disdain for those whose dreams have come true?

I have dreams.

Am I too hard on myself for not having accomplished my dreams yet? "Just work harder" I sometimes tell myself, and it reminds me now of Orwell's Animal Farm. It's not always about the work you can produce with your hands. It's about something else.

What else, though?

Belief in yourself? No. At least . . . not that alone. It's about trusting God.

I think of Abraham in the Bible.

God told him "Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them . . . So shall thy seed be." How many years do you have to wait before you can see your dreams come true? I do not know.

I think of Joseph: rejected by his brothers, and sold into slavery. The catalyst was his dreams. Falsely accused, imprisoned for a crime that didn't even happen. But . . . his dreams came true.

Was his dream his joy? No. It was his mission.

I have a dream, and God has made me some promises. The nitty-gritty of a dream is sometimes quite hard, but I have God's promises to back it up.

A dream without a promise can be an unbearable weight, and an unbearable wait.

I'm grateful I have both a dream and a promise.

I'm learning to look up and count the stars. Learning to remember the promise. Learning not to forget the dream.