Many plans and dreams have fallen by the wayside in these days of lockdowns and pandemic emergency. My good friend, Dayle over at Tip of My Iceburg, shared how the porch they’d planned, saved, and dreamed for finally came true. They built it hoping to enjoy it with family and friends. But it now sits empty except for the two of them.
Hubby and I also face a shattered dream. After working hard and living frugally, we’d hoped to get a better car before we retired. Instead, with even private schools closing he has joined the ranks of the unemployed (perhaps permanently), at the age of 62. And our tiny nest egg is now being used for daily living expenses.
But I have another friend who is facing an even bigger shattered dream. After losing her husband to cancer just before the lockdown, she had hoped to fulfill his wish to have his cremated ashes buried back in England. But she now sits alone in lockdown with his ashes, unable even to take him home for burial.
Dreams turned to ashes
Many hopes and dreams have been reduced to ashes, thwarted at the last minute by the unseen enemy we are all fighting.
I know, and I think my friend Dayle also knows, that the loss of our dreams was not life-shattering. An empty porch and a rickety old car are not the end of the world.
Maybe you too have had hopes, plans, and dreams – big or small – that have been shattered by the devastating times we’re living through.
Shattered hopes and lives
Many people are facing broken dreams that have actually shattered their lives, making it seem like all hope is gone.
Maybe you’d dreamed of growing old (or older) with your spouse, but this virus took him or her away. Or maybe you’d planned to pay off your house, but now you’re at risk of losing it because of unemployment.
And like Dayle, sitting on her empty porch, or me in our rickety old car, you feel disappointed and tired of it all. Or maybe you sit with the shattered dreams of a broken life, wondering how to go on at all. Wondering if there is anything left to cling to.
3 Truths we can cling To
Our greatest hope in all things is that our Lord is unchanging. He’s always the same, never changing. He is always with us, and will always be the solid rock we can cling to. But we can also cling to these basic truths:
1. Nothing in this life is permanent.
And even in this impermanence we can find hope. The emptiness, the loneliness, the disappointment or despair that we now face cannot last. All earthly things, even this pandemic, come to an end sooner or later.
2. We have a true and certain and assurance.
We can cling to the fact that the Lord is always faithful. To the truth that He will never leave us nor forsake us. And that somehow, He will provide our needs, heal our wounds, fill our loneliness, and bring new life and hope.
3. God wants us to hope, to plan, and to dream.
That’s the way He made us. He has placed in us an inner longing for more than we have now. All our hopes and dreams are a reminder that we were made for more. And they can be a blessing from God to help us see above and beyond our problems – and right into the heart of eternity.
Hope comes from God and he created us with an inner longing for more than what we can have here. All our hopes and dreams are just a reminder that we were made for more!
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
4. God’s plans are always good.
He loves us with an everlasting love and has promised to always care for us, provide for us, and be our ever-present companion. Bad things happen but that does not change the good He has planned for us in this life. Or the eternal good He has in mind for us, which is far more than we can even imagine, in the next life.
So never stop dreaming. Never stop planning. Never stop hoping. You’re in good company. You’re planning right alongside the Lord!
For I know the plans I have for you,ā declares the LORD, āplans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11
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