Hanging on to the Dream

Imagine you are one of 12 sons and a few daughters thrown in for good measure.  A big family with a great heritage, and a few really strange happenings as well.  Your family has big plans for the future and since birth you seem to have your Dad's favor.  When everyone else got K-Mart, you got Armani.  When your brothers ate Happy Meals, you got Steak.  While others worked the fields, you lay protected at home.  And your brothers grow angrier and angrier.  Now imagine that you've been sleeping, while they've been tending cattle and you walk into the kitchen, stretch your lanky arms out and with a big yawn say, "What ya'll been doing?"  Well with grunts and groans they inform you of what they think of your question and as they prepare to get back to work, you pipe up with, "Hey guys - I have a dream."

That's pretty much the story from the Bible of a man named Joseph.  Joseph shares his dream with his brothers (which probably wasn't the smartest thing he ever did), and explained how in his dream they were all going to be bowing down to him someday.  Well if they weren't angry enough, they certainly were boiling now.  Your dreams and your clothes and your preferred status put you in position few would want to be - in the crosshairs of 10 angry men.  They place him in a pit, fake his death, sell him into slavery aboard a transport to Egypt and are done with his dreams. . . or so they thought.

Joseph always amazed me - if anyone could have been fed up with God's dream in his life it was him.  Sold into slavery wasn't bad enough.  He digs out of the pit only to end up in prison accused of attempted rape.  Forgotten in prison, he still held on to the dream.  Finally the call from Pharoah comes and all of Joseph's dreaming and waiting pays off.  He is elevated to second in command of all Egypt and when famine hits, his brothers come and bow before him, fulfilling the dream he'd had so long ago as just a young teenager. 

God is great in that He births dreams within us, plans that He has for us that He gives us a glimpse of as we live our life for Him.  The only problem is that most of the time He doesn't reveal His schedule and how it relates to the dream.  He also doesn't share with us what it will take to bring that dream to reality.  He knows that if He showed us the complete picture, many would drop out of the dream fulfillment process and take an easier road BUT they would never fulfill the GREAT destiny that God had planned for them.  I wonder if Joseph would have so readily embraced the dream if he knew the price.  Nevertheless, if he does not embrace the dream of God, Israel as a nation probably dies of starvation before they ever become more than a single family. 

Habakkuk 2:3 says - "For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry."

Just because it hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean that God has forgotten or you had a bad pizza.  It just means that the dream He's working on your behalf is not quite ready.  Like an amazing recipe, with all the ingredients, if one is missing, the completed product won't be as good.  So let the dream come to pass.  Don't give up, Don't give in.  Even if the path of the dream takes you through the pits and even into prison - it won't last forever - it is for an appointed time - God did not lie - wait for it - it will surely come!

I know it's been awhile.  I've been in a bit of desert place but I'm confident that He is bringing me out and through it all, the report of the Lord remains GREAT.  God bless you all - my wife keeps singing this song and so I close with its words - "Dream a dream if you dare to, dream a dream if you care to, dream a dream and prepare to see what the Father will do for you to make your dream come true. . ." Today I encourage you to hold on to your dream - the fulfillment is on the way!  Love you all!