Present Day Hope: A Classic Case of Watered Down Dreams
We all have things that we are hoping for, dreaming of and desperately desire. I am sure we can each name several things that we would like to see come to pass, materialize - you know just happen. But what do you do when you are in between the conception and manifestation. Initially it is easy to live with the concept, but after a while it becomes harder to "keep the hope alive". It becomes easier to deaden the longing than live with a longing unmet in the wake of the harsh reality that screams "it will never happen". As crazy as it may seem our reality constantly sends messages straight to our brains that cause us to continually assess our present circumstances. However, our dreams reside in our hearts which creates a tug of war - heart vs. mind. Our mind is wired to process facts often gathered through observation, inquiry, confirmation, etc. but our hearts are designed to believe in possibilities that often border the impossible or supernatural realm.
Possibilities are fueled by faith and sustained by hope but often quenched by doubt and suppressed by fear. One of the hardest feats in life is to have hope in the midst of contrary circumstances. So how do we cope… well I can tell you how I cope. It's rather simple really; I water down my dreams to what I can manage and what my abilities can make happen. I take an inventory of my skills, talents and even gifts and draft a plan. Basically I reduce my dreams to attainable goals where some level of effort required but nothing considerable of course then that would be dreaming. Goals are easier to manage, track and eventually attain. It is like having a "to-do" list, goals are items you can cross off and put behind you. Personally it is too hard to hope and live all at the same time. Life has enough challenges without adding the heartache of unmet longings. There are so many demands on me from the world around me on any given day, week, month that it makes it almost unbearable to place a perpetual demand on myself to dream the impossible or believe the incredible.
What is crazy is that just when I have finished trading my dreams for goals and think I have solved the dilemma of hopelessness is when God stirs my desire for dream once again. He will send a messenger that says "Don't give up, Don't give in.. trust Me" or he will permeate my thoughts while I sleep with a vivid dream or he will simply use some nostalgic event to arouse my memory (an old school song, journal entry, picture). God is relentless, persistent but all the while a loving father who won't let us settle down for watered down dreams and won't even let us annihilate the desire to see the dream come to pass. God knows that our attempt to annihilate the hope of our dreams is a form of self mutilation as we kill off a piece of who we are - our hearts. He loves us too much to allow us to degenerate into dead men walking -merely just existing from day to day. If he wanted us to be void of a soul, he would have created us to function as robots. It is the hope of our dreams that connect us to the heart of God and provides an entry point for God to enter our hearts which in turn brings us life and sustains us. Hope expands our hearts to breathe in God but hope is not without its share of tears. Our tears create a pool of water where the greatest miracles can take place - like the turning of water into wine.
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