Sometimes dreams must die.

Dreams never realized can be heartbreaking, but there's nothing that leads to that craggy road called discouragement more directly than dreams realized and then lost. The hope of marriage broken on the rocks of disappointment and conflict. Booming investments in the market tail spinning into oblivion on the comment of a high political official. God's promises realized seemingly put to bed for good. 

Seemingly. 

I want to give you hope. She is just sleeping. The young vibrant female we call hope is not dead. She is just sleeping. But she needed to lay her head down into a lifeless slumber, lest, we come to trust in her instead of Someone greater.

There's a story of a rich woman, a childless woman. Her lifelong and dormant dream was to give birth to a child. It was a hope for her, a dream; a good dream. Many of us are like her. We hope, but never get our hopes too high, lest they be disappointed; lest we be let down into the overwhelming mire of swampy disappointment with its gasses that reek of "never again". 

She was given a promise, the fulfillment of a lifelong dream - "About this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms." Oh, how sweet it is to embrace our dreams, to grasp what we cannot grasp. But, "No!" she exclaimed to the man of God giving her the promise, "Don't mislead!" Yet, even in her doubt and inability to conceive of such a thing, a year later, she held a son in her arms.

Oh, the elation! Hope deferred makes a heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life. And she ate of that tree for many years until the child became a young boy. It was then that she lost her child, in the middle of the safety and assurance that years passing can bring, he was no more. She had realized her worst nightmare. Her hope was gone.

She kept her chin up, and would find herself saying, "All is well." All is well until she broke down and voiced her deep hurt, "Didn't I say, 'do not raise my hopes'?!" Can't we all imagine, don't we all know, the pain of deep loss? What does a man do when God allows the withdrawing of his dreams?



From this woman, and from this story, we learn a most valuable lesson. Our hope is not in our dreams, or in the things that God has granted us. Our portion is not in this life or things thereof. Our hope is in the Lord alone, for He alone provides and He alone revives. On the day her son died, the man of God came to her dead son and through the power of God raised that boy from his death bed and returned him to his mother's embrace. 

Right now, in my life, I have seen some dreams die; hopes I had, plans that never materialized. How about you? It's uncomfortable, it's trying. I call them cave experiences. But God is in the cave, in the trial; and my hope is not in the dream, it is in the God who raises the dead. For when God takes our dead things and brings them to life, we no longer fear loss, for the worst that could happen has happened, and it has not defeated God. No, all things are possible for Him, and loss loses its power in the light of Who He is. 


Place your now in His hands, and let Him be your portion, your desire, your fulfillment. I pray that you will see your dreams made alive again, and when they are placed back into your embrace, that you will continue to hope in Him alone.