Have your dreams ever been dashed?
ChatGPTI am a dreamer. Whether in business or ministry contexts, I've never had a shortage of ideas and self-declared grand visions.
Most of my ideas, of course, never came to fruition. A few did. And then one day, not too long ago, the fruitful ones that God had been blessing suddenly crashed and burned.
I won't go into the details here, but I can tell you the death of a dream is a sobering experience. As I was reading John Flavel's The Mystery of Providence (1678), I realized I am now in a new category. I haven't just lived out lofty dreams, but I've now lived long enough to see some of the big ones dashed.
My perspective was broadened by Flavel's statement: "They that have great and well-grounded expectations from heaven, may have too great and ungrounded expectations from the earth" (p. 104).
He goes on to say, "it is very usual for Providence to undermine their earthly hopes, and convince them by experience how vain they are."
In other words, when our personal goals in life get too big, our expectations of what God might do get smaller. Sometimes, if we're "lucky," he helps us realign our futile thinking by reducing our majestic visions and accomplishments to nothing (or close to it). This forces us to rely more on him.
Maybe you can't relate to the feeling of such disappointment. If that describes you, allow me to pass on some wisdom from those of us in the older generation: You will!
Jesus tells us all the same thing: "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33, NIV).
The next time you suffer the death of a dream or a great disappointment, I hope this verse comes to mind. Jesus promises to pull us close and envelop us with his deep, powerful peace. The world and all of humanity's accomplishments are nothing to him.
Still dreaming,
Tom Harper
Founder, BiblicalLeadership.com
LinkedIn profile | My books
 | Tom Harper is publisher of BiblicalLeadership.com and executive chairman of Networld Media Group, a business-to-business publisher and event producer. He has written five books, including Servant Leader Strong: Uniting Biblical Wisdom and High-Performance Leadership (DeepWater Books, 2019) as well as the Christian business fable Through Colored Glasses and its sequel Inner Threat (DeepWater, 2022). Learn More » |
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