Dreams and Disappointments

Are you fearful and worried?  Are you disappointed with a dream you had that isn’t happening?   Are you trying to make things happen and barriers are in the way or there seems to be no response?  Do we feel that our lack of faith is making our dreams fail?

I have a dream of reaching out to people with learning disabilities with the gospel and equipping others to do the same (especially learning disabled believers themselves).   I’ve had this dream since I even before I became a Christian, even though I didn’t know what that desire really meant until I did know Jesus…. Then the context became clear. 

But when we face disappointment or failure, when we see the world but too many barriers in the way, then it is easy to question your dream.  Is it really from God?  Am I doing it wrong?  Do I not have enough faith? 

We can learn a lot from the dreamers in the Bible.  And the most famous of all is Joseph.  He dared to share his dreams, somewhat naively, to his brothers.  And we know how that turned out.  Don’t you think that when he was taken into slavery and later thrown into prison, that he questioned his dreams?  All those long years of it not turning out right.  I would have questioned God,  I would have asked him why had I got it so wrong?  I would have thought that maybe I needed to lower my expectations of what God was going to do, that maybe I’d got the dream wrong in the first place. 

I’m talking about this because I am dealing with my disappointments that my dreams, that I believe are God given, are not working out… but that is my pride.  I imagined the way my dreams would work out… and in pursuing my own plans I forgot that God works differently.  The other problem we often have is numbers.  How many times are we impressed by Christian and secular people who have thousands of responses to podcasts or you tube videos?  Of those with thousands of followers on any social media platform.  When you touch just one life do you think it is not enough?

Let me encourage you. 

When God touched your life – was it important?  

It was important to you… and it was important to God. 

So when we touch one person with kindness or encouragement or accessing the word of God, then we have made God’s dream come true.  There is so much frustration about what isn’t happening, so much comparison of numbers that we can forget that Gods measure of success is upside down from this world.  Just bringing up your own children with additional needs to know Jesus is a huge dream come true.  Just changing one attitude towards disability in your church is a huge dream come true. We don’t know the after effects.  But God’s plans will not fail. 

One day we might see huge numbers and huge changes, the things we dreamed about.  That will be in God’s time.  Joseph waited and waited faithfully.  He knew what disappointment was and so do we.  God is doing his work and he is giving us the privilege of sharing his dreams.  Our dreams are coming true in ways we can’t even imagine.  You are going to be amazed.  Worship and thank him now.  He is with you.  

I am disappointed but not discouraged and neither should you be. Come to Jesus and lay all your life before him. Surrender and humility isn’t popular in our society, but it is what will bring us into that place where Jesus is in the right place in our life – right at the centre. I am yearning for that holiness, and for holiness to be over all the self-reliance and over-effort I put into everything. Our time of not meeting, of being isolated from our Christian families, does not mean that Jesus has gone anywhere. He is there always. He is more than able to work in you to bring peace, hope and to fulfil HIS dreams in your life.

I have my dream.  I am wondering when it will happen as I imagine,  and I feel frustrated that I seem to be knocked back and getting nowhere.  But these thoughts about Joseph remind me that waiting is just part of the journey.  God’s will, will be done.