Dreams Deferred
Larry Carter was stunned at how much a child’s ability to dream had changed in just a few decades. When he was a boy, his Little League baseball coach asked him and his teammates if they had the dream of becoming a professional baseball player. Nearly every boy raised his hand. His coach said if they hoped to fulfill that dream, they would have to work hard now. The team was so inspired that they practiced and played hard and went undefeated for the next few seasons.
give God your dreams
All of us have dreams for our lives—aspirations to do something great or become someone worthwhile. When shaped by the purposes of God, dreams guide us to meaningful living.
sift your dreams
The memory is vivid. My wife Merryn and I sat in emotional pain, talking. “If this really is our last chance to have a baby and it doesn’t happen,” Merryn said, “I need something else.” We’d spent the past decade trying everything to start a family—IVF treatment, healing prayer, adoption—all without success. We now awaited the result of one final IVF round. “If it doesn’t happen,” she said, her face downcast, “I have to have something else to look forward to.”
your mission statement
Deep down, each of us longs to know what we’re here on earth to do—to have some sense of purpose and mission. Some people have a “life verse” from the Bible that gives them succinct focus. If you don’t have one of those, perhaps today’s passage is a good one to adopt.
drawn
After I finished speaking at a church one Sunday on how the cross shows that God can redeem our broken dreams and suffering, a guy came up to me wanting to talk. “I haven’t been to church in 26 years,” he said. “I’ve just been through a divorce and a business failure—I have lots of broken dreams. Just this week I said to a friend, ‘If there is a God, why doesn’t He step in to help?’ Then all week I had this feeling I should get to a church service. What you said tonight has really rocked me. It’s like I was meant to be here.”
hope deferred
As any couple trying to have a child knows, every 28 days you’re looking for signs of success. For many couples, this expectation is met with disappointment for a few months until conception occurs. But for others, this monthly cycle of raised and dashed hopes can last for years. Proverbs 13:12 describes such an experience well: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.”
one morning
There aren’t many days that noticeably change the world. In my lifetime I would count 9/11, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and perhaps a few more. Even so, today we conduct our business much as we did before those events.
at work
A group of us were sharing dinner and then we gave testimonies about a God who loves His people enough to speak His dreams into their hearts. We heard of an apartment complex for single mothers. A wedding barn and a Christian campground. A new local church being established. Common to all was the desire that God’s name would be made great through each respective leap of faith.
shattered dreams
A friend had been working at a job he loved for many years when he was suddenly laid off. He took another position at a new company, but the work was not as fulfilling and didn’t pay well. Then the first employer asked him to return, which he did with joy. Sadly, he and most of the workforce were again laid off just 7 days later. The other company wouldn’t take him back, and he’s now working a menial, low-paying job. His dreams of having a position he needs and loves have been shattered.
when your dream dies
In his book, Me, Myself, & Bob, Phil Vischer shares how he invented the popular VeggieTales characters of Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber. Phil’s Christian videos sold millions of copies and he became an overnight sensation. But the creative genius was not a gifted businessman, and his exploding company took on too much debt until it went bankrupt. The rights to Bob, Larry, and the other Veggies were then sold to someone else.
a world at peace
My friends and I once interviewed believers of the four major religions practiced in Singapore to find out their teaching on Utopia. This topic intrigued us, for we knew that all people live in an imperfect world.
guard your heart
Christianity is a religion of the heart. Once God has our heart, the rest of life flows. To God, the heart is central.
life and submission
Jesus taught us to lay down our lives for others. At its most costly moments, I believe this submission of our wills happens in four progressive stages.
The first stage is recognition. We are presented with a need or a person for whom a decision of submission must be made.
The second stage is deliberation. There will be a cost…
making death smell better
Some years ago, I hopped aboard a plane in Simferopol, Ukraine, for a flight to Moscow. Officials had told me a separate Russian visa was unnecessary. They were wrong. Russian military stopped me at the plane’s door upon arrival in Moscow, detaining me overnight until they could stick me on a return flight the next morning. Meanwhile, my family was…
March 26, 2012
Movie director James Cameron fulfilled a dream of his last weekend—journeying seven miles below the surface of the sea to the Mariana Trench, the earth's deepest point. What’s a dream of yours that you’re praying will come to fruition one day?
