WHEN THE DREAM IS ALIVE AFTER HOPE HAS DIED

Throughout our lifetime we dream of what we can accomplish, the things we will acquire and who we will share our life with. Our ability to dream never completely goes away, although the dreams may mature or be replaced with more realistic expectations. As a little girl, I wanted to be a bride and have babies just like my mom. During a revival, I dreamed of being an evangelist’s wife, wearing high heels and playing an accordion. After attending my first gospel concert, I wanted to be a professional singer and tour the United States, performing nightly for my adoring fans. At eighteen I married prince charming, wore the high heels, had the babies and sang in the church choir. Some of my dreams have been fulfilled in ways I could not have imagined, others took their place in the distant past of a little girl’s fantasy, and a few of the dreams lingered in the future still waiting to be realized. What do you do when you wake one day with a living, breathing dream but recognize that the hope of bringing it to fruition has died?

In the Bible we read the story of David. We are first introduced to the Little Shepherd Boy, David. He tended his father’s sheep, played music on his harp and sang songs praising God. Every child knows the story of David coming against Goliath with a simple sling, five stones and his faith in God. As he became a man and won many battles for Israel, we learn that he was anointed King of Israel. He triumphed, he sinned, he repented, he wrote Psalms to the Lord and danced before the ark as it was carried back to its rightful place. God blessed David throughout his life, and promised that his house would be established forever. It would appear that every desire of his heart had been fulfilled, but there was one dream that David would never live to see accomplished. The dream was alive but for David, hope had died.

In 1 Chronicles 17, we read about David’s dream; “Now it came to pass, as David sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, Lo, I dwell in an house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD remains under curtains.” David had a dream of building a house of worship to the Lord. A house that would hold the Ark of the Covenant; a house that would honor the God that he loved and for whom he had written some many Psalms of praise; a house that would bring attention to the God of Israel. Nathan, the prophet, agreed that it was a wonderful idea. 1 Chronicles 17:2 says “Then Nathan said unto David, Do all that is in thine heart; for God is with thee. What could possibly be wrong with this desire to honor God? In verse 4, God tells Nathan, “Go and tell David my servant, Thus saith the LORD, Thou shall not build me a house to dwell in.” For David, hope of building a magnificent house to glorify God had died. He would not live to see the Glory of God fill the temple at the dedication service, it would never be called, “David’s Temple,” but the dream was not yet dead. In 1 Kings 5:5, we learn that God told David, “Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build a house unto my name.”

What did David do when he finally realized that the hope of accomplishing what he had dreamed of was dead? Did he get angry, give up on God, or stop being King? No, we find that David continued being king and he continued to trust God for victory over the enemy. Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he began to dedicate the spoils of war to God and amass many of the materials that would be used in building the temple, its furniture and vessels.

There are times in our lives that we must face the reality that a dream is never going to develop as we had envisioned and hope dies. Don’t give up; perhaps you were given the dream for a purpose. What if your purpose all along was to be the “David” to “Solomon” in God’s plan? Perhaps that youthful dream of being a professional ballplayer was given to you so that you would coach the little league team of the next all-star pitcher. The exalted dream of “Making a difference in the world” took a course beyond your wildest imagination and you made a difference by nurturing and raising the little boy or girl who would go on to preach the gospel to a people who had never heard of Jesus. The dream of pastoring a mega church wasn’t just a pipe dream, you were given the dream to be the planter or the waterer and God will give the increase to the next generation. Next time you use that hairbrush as a microphone, remember, your voice was always meant to glorify God rather than be the next American Idol.

1 Corinthians 3:6-8 “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 7So then neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters; but God that gives the increase. 8Now he that plants and he that waters are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. “You may not see the completion of the dream but God may use you to be an important component of the end product. Maybe you will be the one that proposes the idea, or the one that assembles the materials or people. The dream may not stand as a living memorial to you and no one may ever even realize that you were the one with the idea, but God put the dream into your heart for a purpose and He will accomplish it in His way; in His time.