“Nothing happens unless first a dream.”
- Carl Sandburg
Last week, my dad shared a powerful and timely message with us. During his message, I was reminded of the statement above by poet, Carl Sandburg.
Truly, nothing happens unless we dream. Without dreams, we end up living lives of monotony, going through the mundane just to survive. But we weren’t called to survive. We are called to thrive. When God tells us to be fruitful and multiply, that is a call to thrive! Yet, many of us live just to survive. We get caught up with the mundane and it seems like we’re getting nowhere.
Perhaps this happens when we lose our dreams. The thing about life is that it seems to be proficient at opposing our dreams. Often, the more we live life, the less we dream. When we were young, we would dream all sorts of dreams, even if they were impossible. The sky was the limit, and we wanted to be astronauts, princesses, soldiers, doctors, nurses, heroes, and so on. This list was unlimited because we didn’t know the word “impossible” then.
But with age, comes experience. And often, experience is gained through battles. We face setbacks and failures, and eventually, “impossible” seems more real than ever, and our dreams fade away. This happened to Joseph in the Bible. He actually forgot his God-given dream over time. After Joseph was made governor of Egypt, he had two sons. His first born was named, Manasseh, which means “God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” (Genesis 41:51) And truly, Joseph did forget all the things of his past. It wasn’t until his brothers arrived in Egypt that he once again remembered his God-given dream (Genesis 42:8-9).
I believe that Joseph forgot his dream because he had endured a life of hardship. He understood pain and injustice. What was once a bright-eyed young dreamer became an old scarred man who just wanted to survive. But his story didn’t end there. God rekindled that dream and Joseph saw it coming to fruition. This is why the Bible reminds us that old men need to dream dreams again (Joel 2:28).
You have been created to dream. Today, God can rekindle a forgotten dream or give you a greater one. Seek Him, and trust Him. You have been born to thrive, so start dreaming for God!
- Deputy Senior Pastor Daniel Khong