The Death of a Dream: What Now?

By David Ryser

If you ever see a turtle on a fencepost you can know that it didn’t get there by itself.  (Allan Emery)

One of my dreams died today.  Although this death is somewhat painful for me, it is not unexpected.  Dreams don’t die all at once…they can take a long time to die.  And this dream has been on life support for several years.  Today it was time to pull the plug.

My dream died quickly and peacefully in its sleep.

Now, my dream is not the only dream that has ever died.  The Bible is full of stories about people with God-given hopes, aspirations, and ambitions who have experienced the death of their dreams. 

The story of Joseph is one such example.  Joseph had two dreams through which God revealed to him that he would rule over his father’s household.  Typical of God, He did not reveal to Joseph the details of the difficulties through which the dream would come to pass.  Before the dreams were fulfilled in Joseph’s life he was sold into slavery, was falsely accused of sexual assault, and was imprisoned.

It’s bad enough to be in prison.  It’s even worse to be a slave in prison.

Finally, Joseph was released from prison 17 years after he was sold into slavery.  He was promoted to second-in-command over all of Egypt.  He was given great wealth and married into a prominent family.  Life was great for Joseph, especially the first several years of his reign.  Many years later Joseph was reunited with his family, and the dreams God had given to him were fulfilled.

But somewhere along the line, Joseph had forgotten about the dreams.

It was not until his brothers bowed down before him that Joseph remembered his dreams.  Perhaps over time the dreams faded from Joseph’s memory…because his life had turned out so differently from what he had imagined…and Joseph had simply moved on from them to carve out the best life he could live.

But although Joseph forgot his dreams, he never forgot the God Who had given them to him.

Moses also had a dream.  Although he was brought up as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses was raised by his birth mother.  He knew who he was and what he was destined to do.  This dream so burned in him that he killed for it.  When things went downhill after the murder, Moses fled Egypt and lived his life as a shepherd for the next 40 years.  During this time, Moses’ dream…like the dreams of Joseph...eventually died.  When God appeared to Moses in the desert and resurrected his dream, Moses…unlike Joseph…remembered the dream God had given to him.

But he no longer wanted it.

So the stories of Joseph and Moses contain some similarities and some differences.  Both men had God-given dreams.  Both men experienced the death of their dreams over time as their lives took unexpected turns.  Both had moved on with their lives after the death of their dreams…their lives were not wasted mourning over their dead dreams.  Both had their dreams resurrected and fulfilled by God in the end, but by then neither cared.  Joseph had forgotten his dreams, but embraced them when they came to pass.  Moses remembered his dream, but tried to reject it when God breathed new life into it.

And neither man forgot the God who gave the dreams to them even after their dreams had died.

I have read the stories of people who have suffered the death of God-given dreams and experienced the joy of having their dreams resurrected by God and given back to them.  I know people who have had the same experience.  Many…if not all…of these people drew closer to God (although not without wavering at times) through the process of dying to their dreams.  Through it all they remained…or became…steadfast lovers of Jesus who compared to the joy of knowing Him did not care about their dreams (whether forgotten or remembered) by the time God breathed new life into their dreams and fulfilled them.  God is able to resurrect dead dreams.

Resurrection is a wonderful thing.  But it comes with a price.

You see, there is no resurrection without death.  Resurrection by definition requires death.  Resurrection is being raised from death to life.  In order to be resurrected, a person must first experience death.  For a dream to be resurrected, it must first die.

There are no shortcuts.  There is no Plan B.

So now I sit with a dead dream.  And trust me, I know a dead dream when I see one.  I’m not particularly devastated by this loss because I still have everything that matters…I still have Jesus.  And I have the rest of my life before me filled with endless possibilities as I contemplate where to go and what to do from here.  I have a great excitement and expectancy…without expectation…about my future.

And I have not forgotten the God who gave me the dream that has died.

Does this mean that God will resurrect my dream and give it back to me?  I don’t know.  And I don't care.

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com

Live Now: Edit Later

By David Ryser

Pray I never die till I pass away.  Pray I never die lost in yesterday.  (From the song I’m a Wannabe by Metanoya)

My friend Tim and his family recently traveled through one of their favorite places in the country.  They were enjoying the scenery and taking pictures to record the memories of their vacation.  While driving through a particularly majestic place, Tim noticed that members of his family were busy reviewing the pictures they had taken earlier in the trip and deciding which photos to keep.  Concerned they would miss the beauty of their current surroundings, Tim encouraged his family to experience and enjoy the view.

He said, “Live now.  Edit later.”

The last ten years of my life have been spent largely in a time of intense introspection.  This has not been due to some narcissistic self-absorption on my part; but rather, it has been a time of revelation and healing.  God has walked with me through my past in order to prepare me for my future…a future He would not even allow me to speak with Him about during most of this part of the journey.  I’ve heard it said that God is called I AM because He is a God of the now, not a God of the past or of the future.  I once listened to a preacher say that God is called I AM because He is in the present, not in the past (making Him I WAS) or in the future (making Him I WILL BE).  It made for some really good preaching.

And like a lot of what we call good preaching, it’s a bunch of baloney.

The truth is that the omnipresence of God means that He is not only everywhere, He is also everywhen.  God is inside of time…past, present, and future…and He is also outside of time.   And all at the same time.  The reason we typically connect with Him in the present is not because He is not in the past or the future, it is because we are not in the past or the future.

Usually.

What about when God takes us by the hand and leads us back into our past?  (Or when He shows us our future?)  I can say from experience that we are very much connected with God…what He is showing to us and saying to us…when we walk together into the past.

One should never confuse connected with comfortable.

A walk with God through the past can be a wonderful and redemptive…if often painful…experience filled with insight and renovation.  I have discovered that the past can be a marvelous teacher.  But the past can also become a terrible prison where a person can become trapped for years in a cycle of remorse and shame.  At some point healing should come.  The season of intense introspection and death to self comes to an end, and a season of restoration and resurrection replaces it.  We return to the present with expectancy about our future.

“Live now.  Edit later.”

Tim’s words rang out in my spirit when I heard them.  It was as if God was speaking to me about an imminent change of season in my life.  No longer would I concentrate on where I had been.  My attention has turned to what He is saying to me in the present.  I’m living more in the moment while at the same time experiencing a renewed excitement about where my journey with God will lead me next…without being unduly concerned about where my destination is or when I will arrive.

It’s a great way to live.

And I plan to experience this season to the fullest.  To see the sights and hear the sounds.  To take in all God is showing me.  To listen to all He is saying to me.  To sing along with the song He is singing to me.  To walk down the path He has laid down for me.  To laugh.  To love.  To dance.

For as long as this season lasts.

Because I know that as time passes, there will come another season of editing…a season where that which is unwanted and no longer needed will be removed.  But that is then, and this is now.  This is the time for me to embark on the next adventure.  To see and experience new things and make some new memories.  To take a few “pictures” along the way.  It’s the season to live.

I’m going to live now…and edit later.

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com

A Bird in the Hand is Worth: More than Me?

By David Ryser

Scars remind us of where we've been.  They don't have to dictate where we're going.  (A line from the television series Criminal Minds)

Jesus asked a lot of stupid questions.  These questions litter the gospels.  For example, Jesus was touring the temple one day and wandered into a pool area where dozens of sick and infirm people were waiting for the stirring of the water so they might be the first into the water in order to be healed.  Jesus walked over to one of these people and asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”

What?  Of course the man wants to be made well!  This is why he’s at the pool to begin with.  What a stupid question!

Another time Jesus was walking down the road when a blind man cried out asking for mercy.  Jesus called the man over and asked him, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

Duh!

What did Jesus expect the man to say?  The man was blind!  Was he going to ask Jesus to cure some warts he couldn’t get rid of?  What a stupid question!

I found myself considering the gospels with an eye to spotting stupid questions posed by Jesus.  I was reading along in the 12^th chapter of Luke and came across a question posed by Jesus (in verse 24) asking, in effect, “Are you worth more than a bird?”

Enough, already!  What a stupid question…or is it?

I had the opportunity to work Jesus’ question into a conversation recently.  I was talking with a friend and asked her, “Are you worth more than a bird?”  Without hesitation she answered, “No.”

So maybe this isn’t such a stupid question after all.

What makes people…even Christian people…feel so valueless that they believe they are not even worth the price of a bird?  The obvious answers are easily identified.  I know people who have experienced horrific abuse, torment, violence, violation, rejection, abandonment, betrayal, loss, and disappointment in their lives.  I understand how they might battle feelings of inferiority and worthlessness.

But what about someone like me?  What’s my excuse?

I was raised…and occasionally “reared”…by loving and godly parents.  I was provided for, nurtured, and properly disciplined.  My parents took me to church and taught me about God.  We prayed together as a family every night before bedtime.  I was never mistreated in any way.  My parents are still living. I have spoken with both of them by phone in the last month and expressed my love & appreciation for them.  I suffered no life-altering traumas as a child…not even so much as a broken bone or devastating mental shock.

So why would someone like me struggle with thoughts of inadequacy and valuelessness?

In my case, emotionally immature spontaneity and social awkwardness…traits that still plague me to some degree until today…combined with a hypersensitivity to perceived criticism and an over-developed fear of embarrassment, caused me to react inappropriately to even the most loving correction.  I was unable to distinguish doing bad from being bad.  To me, being corrected for doing wrong was indistinguishable from being told there was something wrong with me.  In a tactic that goes back to the Garden of Eden, I attempted to hide from my shame.

Hiding didn’t work in Eden.  It doesn’t work now, either.

To make matters worse, I came of age in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.  This was a time of great social & societal upheaval in the United States.  Parents were concerned for their children in ways that were unimaginable in the past.  Drug abuse was rampant.  Parents were told that children who were withdrawn/hidden might possibly be using illegal drugs.

I was withdrawn and hidden.  My parents were concerned.  I’ll let you guess how that played out.

So from whatever source, each of us experiences a sense of inferiority and worthlessness to some degree.  And we attempt to combat these feelings using a variety of tactics…some more proactive/passive and conscious/unconscious than others…to compensate for this perceived lack of value.

And it pollutes every good thing we do.

I recently had a conversation with a pastor in which he was extolling the virtues of one of the ladies in his church.  I agreed with him that she is a wonderful person.  She is a generous woman who gives liberally of her time and labor, in part because she is especially spiritually gifted for service.

But there is a dark side to her serving.

This dear woman also serves out of a need to be valued.  She needs to know she is loved, treasured, cherished, prized, esteemed, admired, appreciated, and approved.  We all need these things.  But our quest to obtain them can cause us to exercise even our legitimate, God-given gifts out of our own need.  We serve in order to be loved instead of serving because we are loved…and there is a big difference between the two.

And it never ends well.

We want to feel loved and valued.  Instead, we end up feeling frustrated and unfulfilled.  We do good, but for the wrong reason.  And when people do not respond with appreciation for the good we do, our resentment toward them can boil over into anger and might damage…or even destroy…relationships.  Out of our own woundedness, we wound others.  Having sought to do good, we are surprised to look behind us only to see the carnage of broken lives and relationships in our wake.  No decent person wants to harm anyone, so now guilt and shame enter the picture.  What a mess!  Is there any way out of this?

There is no way out.  But there is a way in.

The Bible has a lot to say about being in Christ.  And religious people pay a great deal of lip-service to this truth.  But being in Christ is not simply a nice theological theory; it is a precious reality that can be experienced by each and every child of God.  It may help to know that the term “in Christ” (and “in Jesus’ name” for that matter) is based in part upon a common mistranslation in our English Bible.  In these instances, the word commonly translated as “in” is the word έις which should never be translated as “in”.  It should always be translated as “into”.  There is a word for “in” (εν), and it is used whenever the writer wants to express the concept of “in”.

So who cares?  In.  Into.  What does it matter?

It matters because we treat “in Christ” as positional truth rather than as an experiential reality.  And we use Ephesians 2:6 to legitimize this religious hogwash.  We do not live in the reality of being in Christ because we do not expect to experience it in this life.  And that’s regrettable because Jesus has invited us into an intimate relationship with God as beloved/valued children…in this life.  “In Christ” is a place…not a position.  “In Jesus name” is a place…not an incantation we add at the end of a prayer request in order to make our prayer more effective.  And these both refer to a place to which we have been invited by Jesus Himself.   Now.  Not when we go to heaven, but right now.

So what’s stopping us from going there?   Are we not worth more than a bird?

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com