We all have plans, things we would like to accomplish during our lives, people and places we would like to see, perhaps a dream we wish to fulfil. We envision how the future should be. Our plans envelop the following minutes, days, months and years. Some plans succeed, some plans fail. Some plans never get further than the plan itself.
I've made alot of plans during my life and have had many of dreams i've wished to fulfil. Many plans have come to fuitition, and some dreams have become reality (though a few dreams have certainly become nightmares). Our perspective plans and dreams tend to change with time, circumstances and experiences. Do we have courage to dream, to plan and to believe in the future? Or when our plans seemingly fail, does our inspiration to dream of the future die with our failed plans?
This is something many of us battle with, how to deal with dreams that die? Dreams and plans are such an important part of our lives, and how we envision the future. And if there is no dream or goal, how can we see the future? Has our future changed? Can we change the future?
Sometimes it's good for dreams to die. Looking back, there are many things i have dreamed and desired that have done nothing more than take my focus off what is truly good. I've also had many plans and dreams that have completely failed, though i have felt were God given and good.
One of my favourite characters in the Bible is Joseph. God gave this guy a dream, pretty crazy dream i must admit. As i think about his journey, being sold into slavery, imprisoned under false accusations, lies and deciept which bound a man that should have been free. Had his future suddenly changed? Did he have any power to change his future?
Loaded questions, certainly not ones that could be easily and simply answered. Joseph's vision of the future had undoubtedly changed. It would seem he had no control over his future, and no opportunity to change it. Is this the place a dream and vision dies? Is this where one looses hope?
I'm not sure how Joseph felt though all this, but it couldn't have been good. The Bible doesn't portay his feelings well, but it nust have felt pretty hopeless at times. Yet through this depressing experience, Joseph's actions speaks volumes. Here's a man who has lost everything, his family, his freedom, his vision for the future, yet he finds within himself a heart to serve. Rather than become a bitter slave, he served his master well. Rather than become a self centered imprisomed victim, he helps those who have imprisoned him and who he's been imprisoned with.
Most certainly he had written off that dream from his youth. In a way he let go of a dream that died. What amazes me is the transformation in Joseph's life. Coming from the place where he boasted of his clear and hopeful dream of leadership, he humbled himself under severe and undeserved persecution to serve others, a future he had never envisioned.
So did Joseph's future change? Definately yes and no. The dream died in Joseph, but through needed humbleness God brought the dream back to life. It was brought to life not to fulfil Joseph's vision, but to fulfil God's greater purpose which Joseph could have never envisioned.
There's never been a formula for fulfilling dreams, yet letting go and trusting God seems to be an instrumental key. Though enslaved and imprisoned, Joseph became free to serve others. Serving others, doors were opened to his 'new future', perhaps not what Joseph envisioned it would be but most certainly what God planned it would be.
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