"When you wish upon a star...
Makes no difference who you are...
Anything your heart desires...
Will come to you...
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do..."
Leigh Harline and Ned Washington wrote that now famous song for Walt Disney's version of Pinocchio in 1940. The song is sung by Cliff Edwards as the character of Jiminy Cricket in the movie and can be heard in the opening credits and final scene of the movie (according to the Wikipedia article found HERE). In 1940, it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Since then, it has become synonymous with Disney World and the Walt Disney Corporation.
Funny thing is: It's a complete lie.
It's a nice thought... It's pleasant to think about... It's even fun to dream about...
But unfortunately, it's a lie.
I can dream about becoming an NBA Superstar... or a starting NFL Quarterback who wins the Super Bowl... or running a 5 minute mile... or winning the Nobel Prize in physics. While I can dream all I want, some things just don't come true.
As many of my faithful readers know, I'm a marathon runner. I have run now two full marathons and a handful of halfs and a bunch of 5k's. While I like to think that I could keep up with the likes of Ryan Hall and other amazing runner athletes who will be contending for the title of winning the Boston Marathon in a few months, it isn't going to happen. My only hope is to, someday, be fast enough to get to run the race at all (which, by the way, is pretty fast). I have absolutely no chance to winning it... no matter how much I dream, wish upon stars or fantasize about it.
Question is: How do you deal with that reality? the reality of shattered dreams...
When the bank forecloses on your dream?
When you lose the dream job that you thought you had?
When your high school sweetheart walks away from your marriage after 5 months?
When you don't get into the college you always saw yourself attending?
When you can't cut it in the college major you thought would lead you to your dream career?
When you drive that $1000 Honda instead of that Porsche you saw in your imagination?
When you don't make the team?
When you don't get the girl or the guy?
Bummer... huh?
How do you handle that?
See, this week we are reading chapter 3 of the story. This part of the story is all about Joseph. And if anyone had some wild dreams, Joseph had some wild dreams. He was the youngest of 12 children and he had the dream... not once but twice... that all of his older brothers and even his parents would bow down to him. Crazy dream!
But Joseph believed it... right up through being sold into slavery by his brothers... sold as a slave in Potipher's house... wrongfully imprisoned for years... stuck in a jail for a crime he didn't commit... forgotten... alone... left to rot...
What do you do when your dreams don't come true? When they don't work out like you had intended?
I'm fairly confident that most of our dreams aren't going to come true. I'm never going to be an NBA Superstar... or start at quarterback in the NFL... or even run a 5 minute mile. And I'm okay with letting go of those dreams (a couple of which I never actually had)...
I'm okay with trusting God to take care of the details and following His lead... when things don't work out like I had wished...
JC
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