Dreams

 May 2, 2021

“I’ve done everything I wanted to do, seen everything I wanted to see.” My boss towered over me with his 6’3” and 300 lb bulk. He had been a bodyguard for someone in the Mafia, traveled, drank, womanized, and now was the manager of the Minute Man gas station. Linda stopped for gas on her way to work one day, crying because she had to leave her job due to pregnancy complications, and Dick told her to have me come in. He had a list of about twenty young men wanting jobs; he tore it up and gave me forty hours a week. He was rough and tough, except for his heart. 

I’m thinking of Dick tonight. In our ‘Ready, Set, Dream’ class, we’ve been listing dreams we have—things big and small we’d like to accomplish some day. When I was younger, I could have easily filled pages, but it’s a bit harder now; unlike Dick, there are plenty of things I’d like to do or see, but realistically, many, if not most of them will never happen. It’s not because they’re impossible; it’s that I don’t really care that much about most of them. I’d like to go back to England some day, but if it comes down to a choice between being a tourist and returning to Cuba for mission work, Cuba will win every time. I’ve had that ‘42 Harley in pieces for twenty years, waiting to be assembled and ridden. Once upon a time, I envisioned myself riding it around; today I just want it out of my garage.

If I’m passionate about anything (besides my wife), it would be Cuba. For the foreseeable future, COVID has shut the door to returning, but the desire is still there, and I do expect to return. Persistence in the face of obstacles is one of the characteristics of a God-given dream. There was a time when I believed if God were in it, barriers would come down and the road would be unobstructed. I’ve learned that the greater the dream, the greater the problems. God is more interested in building our character than accomplishing some great work through us, and problems are his tool of choice in the matter.

I hope I never get to the place my friend Dick was at. With St. Paul, I have learned to be content with where I am, but I don’t expect nor want to get stagnant in it. By the same token, I’ve learned that my dreams are not always God’s plans. I doubt if Moses as a young man dreamed of spending forty years guiding sheep through the wilderness of Midian and another forty doing the same with ex-Egyptian slaves. I can’t envision that being on his bucket list. There are things I would still like to see and do in life, but my real vision is pretty simple—to know Christ better and get better at following him, whether on the mission field in Cuba, or tending my bees here at home.