The Value of Shattered Dreams

All of us have dreams. Unfortunately some of our dreams end up shattered, like broken pieces of glass lying on the ground. Sometimes others even step on the broken pieces of our shattered dreams, crunching them under their feet. But there is hope. There is value in shattered dreams.

In Isaiah 6, the Prophet Isaiah writes that in the year King Uzziah died he saw the Lord seated on a throne, high, exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple. Seraphs, which are angels, are present calling to one another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of his glory. At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shake and the temple is filled with smoke.

Isaiah cries out, Woe to me, I am ruined for I am a man of unclean lips, among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord almighty.

At this one of the seraphs flies to Isaiah with a live coal in his hand which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With the coal he touches Isaiah’s lips and says, Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.

Then the voice of the Lord asks the question, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? Isaiah responds, Here I am. Send me.

At this point the dialogue becomes something other than what we would think. We expect God to say something like, Okay, go and tell my people I love them, I am their Lord, they are my people. Instead, God says, Go and tell this people be ever hearing, but never understanding, be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people calloused, make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.

Isaiah is a little confused. This is not the answer he expects, so he says, For how long Lord? In other words, Lord, why would you want to make the heart of your people calloused and their ears dull and their eyes closed? And for how long will you not let them see your glory.

So the Lord answers, Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.

The message of God to Isaiah is straightforward. The real question is,why? Why do these things need to happen before the hearts, ears, and eyes of the people will be opened to Him? I think the short answer is until their hopes and dreams for the life they wanted apart from God were dashed, they will be more interested in the things of the world than the things of God.

I think it is the same with many followers of Jesus today. As long as life holds the illusion of value derived from our plans, goals, and dreams, we are unable to fully devote ourselves to our own spiritual growth. We are unable to ask the question of what God truly desires of us. We are blind to the life God has to offer. It never occurs to us there is so much more in our relationship with God than the things the world offers us. It is only when our hopes and dreams for the life we desired are shattered on the rocks of life that we begin to ask the right questions of God and are truly open to His answers.

Hopes and dreams of the career we wanted, the spouse we wanted, the children we wanted, the wealth we wanted, the meaning we wanted, the significance we wanted. This is the picture of the personal cities in our lives being ruined, the houses we have built being left deserted, our fields ruined and ravaged and our hopes and dreams utterly forsaken. Only then do we realize we built those dreams on the false assumption, the false expectation that we anticipated God would bless and accomplish what we wanted in our lives as opposed to what He wants.

In this sense the shattering of our hopes and dreams for this life perhaps is the best thing God could allow in our lives. Given the choice, we would choose our hopes and dreams over our relationship with Him. We would choose the lesser things. But once our hopes and dreams are like broken pieces of pottery at the feet of our lives, we no longer have the choice. All that remains is God, which is perhaps where He wanted us all along. Perhaps the shattering of our hopes and dreams is not the end of our lives as we initially think, but rather the beginning of our lives, our new lives with God. Perhaps the shattering of our dreams is the beginning of our passionate pursuit of our own spiritual growth.

Until the Israelites’ hopes and dreams had been dashed against the rocks of life and they washed up on the shore of despair and brokenness, they would not truly turn to God. Until they realized what they desired was not found in the things of the world but only found in relationship with God, they would never fully turn to Him and realize He alone is enough.

We are the same. We are modern day Israelites. You would think we could learn from their example and avoid being dashed on the rocks of life of our own making. My experience is life does not work this way. The allure of the world on the outside and our sinful natures on the inside are too powerful. The two together create an irresistible force binding us irrevocably to their influence. Only having experienced the world and finding it wanting does the world lose its hold over us. The rotten apple which looks so good on the outside only loses its appeal once we have bitten into it. Once bitten into, all desire for another taste is lost. In fact, even the bite we already tasted becomes repulsive and is spitted out in disgust.

But if not for that first bite, thoughts of the rotten apple continue to occupy our thoughts and make our mouths water in anticipation of the illusion of delight. An illusion never tasted and found wanting is perhaps the strongest illusion of all.

What shall we say then? Must the world be tasted before we spit it out in favor of finding our satisfaction in God alone? I fear it is so for the vast majority of us trying to find our way in this world, which is not our home. Yet our confidence is in knowing when we have reached the place where God alone is enough, the delight of the satisfaction of relationship with God is more satisfying than even we could have dreamed. In our wildest imagination we could not begin to have understood the amazing joy of finding sufficiency in God alone. It is truly the greatest joy of all, transcending anything the world has to offer.

For the few who travel the narrow road and find it, theirs is the greatest life of all.

The dilemma of course is that to find this place of satisfaction with God requires we give up all hopes and dreams of finding satisfaction apart from God. That includes anything the world has to offer, even the good things in life. We must find our satisfaction in God alone. This is the road that leads to spiritual growth. This is the path to spiritual growth success.