WHEN DREAMS DON'T COME TRUE

WHEN DREAMS DON'T COME TRUE

by Marilyn J. Ehle

Trust God from the bottom of your heart... (Proverbs 3:5a, The Message)

"I thought marriage would be..."

"My children aren't what I'd hoped..."

"I didn't get an education... "

"My husband/wife left..."

"I thought I would be healthy..."

"My child died..."

Contrary to popular songs, dreams don't always come true. Perhaps we need to listen

less to the music and more to what one man said, "If you want to make your dreams

come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up"!

While watching a documentary recently on the life of Henri Nouwen, I was struck by how willing he was to make lifelong mid-course corrections as he listened to the whispers of God. He left the safety of the monastery for the demanding halls of Harvard. He lived with the distressingly poor in Latin America and the profoundly disabled in Canada.

We have only hints of all his dreams when he first chose to follow God, but biographers make it clear that when many of his dreams did not come true, he clung persistently to the same calling we all have: "Trust God from the bottom of your heart."

Trusting that God is sovereign, that He cares and?most importantly? that He loves, is most difficult when our dreams crumble. Trusting is always a risk, but when our trust is placed in the God of eternity, we can count on His character to be what He has promised to be. While walking in the fog of disappointment, often with breaking hearts, if we choose to trust the one who loves us completely, we will find Him able to refashion our dreams so that they are mirror images of His own.

It's hard to trust you, Lord, when my world comes crashing down, and yet I ask the same from my children when I allow doctors and nurses to pierce their tender skin with lifegiving medications. Help me see your hand in the fog, leading me closer to you.