COVID part 4 – dreams

“Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” 
~ Psalm 37:4 ~

I read a blog post today that reminded me of the necessity to look ahead — not back. I like to think of myself as a dreamer. There’s something wistful and romantic about it. But in these quiet Covid days, I often find my mind retreating to things of the past. I don’t know if wishful thinking is exactly the right term; but the dark fold of my romantic personality sometimes enjoys lingering on past hurts, past failures, almost romanticizing them. Sometimes, almost without realizing it, the faces and voices and conversations of the past resurrect themselves like shimmery apparitions. My adjusted view of the past almost makes those memories look shiny, even if they’re quite dull or ugly in reality. 

I want to look ahead. I want to take on the attitudes of Scripture. 

“Strength and honour are her clothing; she shall rejoice in time to come.”
(Proverbs 31:25)

Other translations say that “she smiles [or laughs] at the future”. 
We are a people called to lay “the broken, irreversible past in [God’s] hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him” (Oswald Chambers). We are not called to look back with longing. Jesus actually said that the person who puts their hand to the plow and turns back is not fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62). 

So what about dreams? Dreams past, dreams present, dreams broken? Dreams still to be realized? 

Certainly they have a place. Our imaginations were not an arbitrary ingredient when our Creator made us in His image. In fact, I think we are made to imagine and to dream. If what scripture says is true, then God is “able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” — doesn’t your imagination just start to go wild at that phrase? What could God not do? That is the rhetorical question. 

So this evening, as I’m enraptured by the moody rain-and-sun outside my patio doors, I am asking myself: what am I dreaming? What is the focus and the source of my dreams? 

If my past holds more allure for me than the prospects of my future, then I need to hit ‘reset’ on my framework. As my mom often used to say, “Our dreams should be greater than our memories.”