Keep on Dreaming

​Dreams of yesteryears can become today’s greatest fears. That was an early motto I developed and lived by. It kept me on the straight and narrow. But it was said in the optimism of youth and not the experience of age. No matter how hard you try to live your dreams the chaos of the world can sometimes take those away from you.

The world does not guarantee it will cooperate with your dreams. So the dreams have to be refined or started over again. But as time goes on it becomes harder to have the faith to refine and start over. So you quit or wear out and give into the chaos.

It is said that we are dreams emanating from God’s heart. Which makes me wonder if God too must constantly refine and start over the dreams. The flood and Noah were one such starting over. Destroy all that is in one’s path and keep the one thing that is true. But Noah is not only about starting over but refining too. One such refinement was the dream of humanity living at peace with the rest of the animal kingdom was given up. It is after the flood when God for the first time allows the consumption of meat. Previously in the Garden, meat was not offered but now in the fall out after the flood it is allowed.

The prophet Isaiah will revive the dream in the famous peaceable kingdom vision. The lion and the lamb shall lie down together. And a child will lead them. And for many, this is what we do with our dreams we cast our bread on the water in our children. To ask your children to take on your dreams and forsake their own is wrong. So we tie our dreams to theirs. What a responsibility and burden to place on their shoulders. It is an impossible dilemma we give our children.

The fear of never living out our dreams can be a great motivator or a great paralyzer. But fear is probably never the best motivator; something more powerful is to be motivated by love. But to extend love beyond the walls of our habitats we live in each day is hard. We can barely keep our own world intact and moving toward our dreams to think of pushing beyond our worlds into the world at large.

We are living in an age full of fear and dreams that are vanquished. We have had huge marches on Washington by women and children. They are calling us to live a dream that an assassinated prophet from old once called us to. A dream that has been distorted by many. The distorters look not to end poverty or racism but are choosing to refine these things to make them more palatable for their divisive visions. After all, the great fear is our world is nothing more than chaos and we cannot ever hope to end the nightmares we have created along the way.
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So why am I talking about dreams deferred? Because all indications are that the November elections will bring a reckoning on the destructive policies of Trump. We should all be working to make sure that we give this dream a chance. But in truth we can never know what the future may bring. The dream of a total comeuppance to Trump in November may not happen. How much better Pence will be policy wise is he may be worse. It is then that we do not stop dreaming but we refine and update our dream. But until then we need to keep a steady hand on the plow so that November is as dreamy as possible. 

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