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A new year has begun. Is there a dream tucked in
the pocket of your heart, a dream so fragile that you refrain from taking it
out to share, even with the dearest of friends, because – what if the dream crashes?
It’s easier if it falls apart inside, isn’t it? Keeping hope hidden protects
our pride, doesn’t it? The public mess of a dream deferred is spirit crushing,
yes, but isn’t it also demoralizing? When the dream dies we must take ownership
of what we believed would be, and accept the emotional, foolish mess we made
boldly hoping. Shovel in hand we bend low over dirt and dig a grave. Do we dare
ever hope again?
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In the early 1950’s, America was still racially segregated.
Black Americans were considered second class citizens, and not only in the eyes
of white Americans, but also according to the current written laws. During this
time Langston Hughes wrote a poem entitled “Harlem” in which the author posed
this question. “What happens to a dream deferred?” This poem expressed the burden
of the black American dream.
Harlem
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten
meat?
Or crust and sugar over
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
To this very real and pervading human ache, Martin
Luther King, Jr. replied on August 28, 1963. “…We cannot walk alone…I am not
unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations….
We cannot turn back…Let us not wallow in the valley of despair…I have a dream.”
Dr. King anchored his hope and secured his message to the Word
of God. He referred to Scripture in Amos and also from the book of Isaiah,
because Israel’s history, like American history, was also fouled by injustice
and slavery. The prophet Amos called out for social justice, and the prophet
Isaiah proclaimed God would rescue the oppressed and restore His divided nation.
Some two thousand years later into the bleak circumstances of American history
Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed this same message of God to those who needed
to hear, needed to see, needed to believe: “…Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the
rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all
people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
He may have been called a fool for dreaming then, but he is
most certainly respected and even honored for that powerful dream that changed
the world then and is still changing the world today.
God, by His Word, will make all wrongs right.
So are you holding a dream close to your heart for 2015?
Is your dream anchored in the Word of God? Because if it is,
there is good news for you and for me: “…no word of God will ever fail” (Luke
1:37). If you have a dream, and it is not born from God’s word, bury it with
the other things of this life that fade away.
“For, all people are like grass, and their glory is like the
flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of
the Lord endures forever.” 1 Peter 1:24-25
Is your God-given dream being derailed time and time again
by circumstances beyond your control? There is still good news: your hope will
not put you to shame.
“Therefore since we have been justified through faith, we
have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus, Christ, through whom we have
gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in
the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings,
because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character;
and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has
been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to
us.” Romans 5:1-5
The prophets and saints of God most certainly grew
discouraged. Their trials are recorded throughout the Bible. Was God reluctant
to fulfill the dream that He had given? No. This is his reply to those who long
and have longed, who wait and have waited for what He has said that He would
accomplish:
“Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the
glory of God?” John 11:40
What God has said already is, and will one day be seen
(Hebrews 11).
Hope in God does not disappoint; let nothing defer hope’s
purpose and power within you, and let nothing defer its purpose and power
through you. After all, that hope is a gift of God (Jeremiah 29:11), for such a
time as this. Trust Him with it completely, and change the world.
“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose
confidence is in him.” Jeremiah 17:7
For further study to encourage you concerning the
faithfulness of God:
