Dreams

What are we to do with our dreams? With those precious, difficult to utter hopes of our heart? Those things we think about in the rare moments of silence in our lives. In the car… as we are doing the dishes… when the world is still and we have a moment to dream for a while. We have dreams of the way we would like to see our lives change. Dreams of love, of a growing family, of impact, of carving our names into the tiny corner of our world. We also have dreams of the way we hope our lives will never change. Dreams of the same little voices waking us every day, of the same smiles greeting us, of the same tranquil nights, of the same strength, the same energy, the same passion filling us day after day. What can we say? Our hearts are fertile soil for countless dreams to grow. But what do we do with these dreams? These hopes that are at the same time so fragile yet so powerful in their control over us! The natural instinct is to hold them tight, to clutch them to ourselves. After all, no one cares for our precious dreams like we do. No hands are better suited to guard our hearts than ours… right?

A Way of Life

That is so often how we live. But the truth is that this way of life breeds nothing but fear and anxiety. In a world that we cannot control, how ill-equipped we are to defend our dreams! How ill-suited we are to be the keeper of the hopes of our heart. As we look around, our powerlessness is thrust into our faces. We cannot control the weather. We cannot control traffic. We cannot control the decisions of those we love. We cannot control if we wake with a headache or not. We cannot even control what brands of food are offered at our grocery store. Our power is small. Our control is even smaller. So again, what are we to do with our dreams? Where is a safe place for them? We do not want to be hurt. We do not want to lose them; and yet, being the powerless people we are, we are not a wise choice for their protector, their defender.

In His Care

It is typically in the wake of this frustration, when our anxiety has become nearly unbearable that we begin to lift our heads to look around. Perhaps… just perhaps… there is a safer place for our dreams than in our arms. It is at this point, when the words of God in Proverbs 3:5 sound both the sweetest and the most impossible. “Trust in the Lord,” He tells us, “with all your heart…” He bids us come and entrust all our heart, every dream and hope nestled there, to His care. Like a child worried over trusting a new treasure to his parent’s clearly more capable care, we hesitate. We aren’t certain. These dreams are so precious to us. They are the things that fill us… how do we let them go? How do we know they will be safe in His care? After all… we have seen many trust their hearts to Him whose dreams were later crushed.

I know. I know both the hesitation, and I know that my life’s story may be one of the reasons for it. But hear the voice of one who trusted and has been hurt. One who placed a dream in His hands only to have it dissolve: He is a worthy keeper of dreams. He is a trustworthy guardian of hearts. He allows pain, yes; but ever so carefully. You see, the view you have of my life is only from the outside. You see only the dream lost; you do not see the comfort. You do not hear the songs in the night. You do not know with what faithful love He has met me tear for tear. You don’t know the way He has filled each gap in my life with His presence, with His love. You don’t know how He has since shown me that all He has taken He has the power to restore. You don’t know what I have known; so you hesitate still.

Dream and Hope

Oh, my friend, you can trust Him. You can trust Him with all that is in your heart. With every dream and hope and desire. You can trust that He will guard them. He will wisely watch over them in a way that you, in your powerlessness, never could. You can rest in peace knowing they are safe within His care. And should there be a dream that is never to come to fruition or a dream that is lost early, You can know that the choice was not made indifferently. The crushing was not done out of cruelty. And you can fully expect the presence of a faithful Comforter Who will remain by your side as you mourn the loss of that dear, sweet dream. You can fully expect a supernatural grace that you now know nothing of. You can fully expect a nearness and a strength that you now know nothing of.

Oh, trust Him! Trust Him with all your heart, hold back not a single dream! Do not settle for a life of anxious fretting and defending what is indefensible. Place it in His hands; and rest in His wise and loving care of your heart. There could be no more fitting place for any heart than in the hands of its Creator. There, and only there, will it be safe.