Stewarding Dreams

Dreams – We’ve all had them. The realistic ones and the ones more grounded on fantasy than reality. Do you remember the dreams you had as a child? The ones where you dreamed you could fly, or have a pet unicorn, or find out you had superhuman strength? Totally unrealistic and birthed from an unrestrained imagination. Then as you got older your dreams started to be more grounded in reality. Instead of unicorns, you dreamed about your ideal holidays or homes. And instead of the superhuman strength, you dreamed about the career or family life you hoped to enjoy. Dreams and hopes on the fringes of the almost impossible while still being close enough to be on your “perhaps one day” list.

But what do you do when the dreams and hopes you had, the ones that were at your fingertips and you could almost taste on your tongue, lie shattered in a thousand pieces at your feet? Irrepairable and lost forever. What then?

This is how I believe the disciples in felt on that first ever good Friday. Put yourself in their shoes for a moment, without the privilege of seeing how things really turned out.

You had followed Jesus for so long. You had hoped and dreamed about freedom from oppression and you saw Jesus as the one to fulfil this dream. But now He was dead. Gone.
His body hanging naked and alone on the most horrific and undignified way.

Those around who had watched him die, saw this dream you had come crashing down and mocked it as it fell. You’re left feeling like a fool for even dreaming it was possible.

How do you recover from this?

Feelings of anger? Humiliation? Regret? The cost you paid over this dream has been lost and the bitter aftertaste of disappointment stings your mouth.

As I read Matthew 27, I love to see the response of Joseph of Arimathea to what appeared to be the lost dream of Messaiah, and I believe he has a lot to teach us teach us about what it is to steward shattered dreams. Joseph doesn’t leave the dream to hang and rot by turning and walking away. He could have done. No one would have blamed him. But instead of walking away Jospeh took the broken and disfigured remains of the dream, wrapped it with love and care in fine linen cloth. And then placed it in his own tomb for safekeeping.

He did not regret the journey to this place of disappointment. He treasured every step and treated it with the honour and respect it deserved. He was unashamed of his dream.

I am also encouraged by the women at the graveside. Watching in grief as their dream was shut away. But they also, like Joseph, knew exactly where it was. And they allowed themselves to stand and grieve over it.

Stewarding broken dreams is so important. Because what the world considers dead and buried, God has a habbit of resurrecting. In His time, that promise of freedom opened the tomb and walked out.

It was through Joseph’s honourable stewardship that this promise was protected, ready to be resurrected when the time was right.

The dreams inside of you are only dead when God says they are. When God makes you a promise, it is certain. His promises are true and unbreakable, even when they look like they have been shattered beyond repair. Circumstances may indicate otherwise but in His timing those promises will be fulfilled.

Because tombs get unsealed and wrappings get left behind. God’s dreams don’t die, sometimes they just need to be left a while, safely sleeping.

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

Hebrews 10:23