Day 13: Dreams

There are day dreams and night dreams. There are dreams of a better tomorrow and a hopeful future. I have always been a day dreamer and I get lost in my head.

I must have been 19 because I had graduated from high school. The television was on and it distracted me as I walked by. The commercial was of a little girl sitting at her desk lost in thought while looking out the window. The tagline in the commercials was something like “…she could have A.D.D”.

Huh, so that is my problem.

I have never been tested for Attention Deficit Disorder. Instead, I learned coping skills over the years. I always have a journal with me for taking notes. It keeps me focused on the discussion when I am in a group. I use a daily planner as if it were my Bible. And I integrate posters and bulletin boards for my big projects. For me, it is all about seeing the big picture.

I guess I do not think of my day dreaming as a deficit. There are so many great stories in my head and anything seems possible. Some of my day dreams became real life dreams. Some of those real life dreams have been dashed along the way. I suspect there are dreams of you own that have been crushed and it is painful.

I believe the pain of broken dreams comes from being able to visualize it so clearly in our minds. We could almost reach out and touch it. Crushed dreams bring real grief that needs to be processed. It might be infertility that crushed your dreams of parenting. It might be an injury that wrecked the possibility of an athletic scholarship. There are many ways our dreams are defeated and our hearts are left in rubble.

Lent is a good time to address the pain and grief of lost hopes and dreams. We have a God who understands suffering and He wants us to invite Him to sit with us. Today, I am laying down some dreams that will never come to pass. I am accepting it as my reality. Then I am asking for some new dreams to replace the old. Take some time today to do the same and see what God does in the midst of it all.