Alan W. Goff
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The Death of a Dream
One of my favourite movies is "Facing the Giants," the story of a sports team that overcomes some major obstacles and adversity. The DVD for this film also provides some inspiring stories about the lives of actors and actresses that portrayed some of the characters.
One story that particularly captured my attention was told by the woman who played the wife of the head coach in the movie. The actress told about her passion to be an actress that she had developed at an early age. She even moved to a major city to pursue that dream, only to be disappointed.
Eventually her husband’s career prompted their family to relocate to Albany, Georgia, a small town in the south-eastern portion of the United States. As she was driving into Albany, she came to the conclusion that in making the move, her dreams of acting were dying. This was no place, the actress realized, to begin to establish a career as a performer.
She cried out to God, acknowledging the pain of admitting defeat and the loss of a lifelong dream. But she declared that although it appeared she would never act, she still wanted God to know she still would praise Him. Little did she know that although Albany, Georgia seemed an unlikely, even impossible place for an aspiring actor, this didn’t seem so impossible for God. This in fact became the place where she was "discovered," and her acting role in "Facing the Giants" was one evidence of that.
Many of us have cherished dreams in our life that result only in disappointment. They may involve ambitions in business or professional life; they may relate to marriage and family life; or they may concern goals for personal achievement. Sometimes these dreams are not our destiny, and we need to release them – no matter how difficult that may be. However, there are other times when the apparent death of our dream is just part of the process God has for guiding and shaping our future. As Psalm 37:4 teaches, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart."
Our motive is the key: What is the underlying motivation for our dream? If our eyes are fixed on God’s plan for our life, rather than insisting on our plan and demanding our own way, then God can give us the desires of our heart – even if it means changing what our desires are.
By killing a dream, many times God accomplishes his goal of prying our fingers off something that He Himself may want for us, but not for the purposes or reasons that we have in mind. He may agree with what we want, but have different ideas about why we should want it.
Other times God may want our dream to die, because it’s notHis dream for you. He may have a different plan, a better plan, even if it does not seem that way at the time.
If you are wrestling with a dream that doesn’t seem to be becoming a reality, prayerfully consider your motives for this dream. Are you delighting in the Lord, or are you delighting in yourself?
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