I (Don't) Have a Dream!

My best friend and I were challenged a couple of years ago when she visited me one November and we heard a sermon by our Minister of Students on the importance of having dreams. Kevin and Annette don't remember it, but the three of us stood outside afterwards, and we told Kevin very sadly that we didn't have a dream. So we started praying about it and met again at Christmas. I asked her if God had given her a dream yet, and it turns out he had given us BOTH the dream of going to Israel. Long story short, we went in March, and it was wonderful!

Now Annette is getting a new dream for her empty nest years, but I don't have one, and I think I really need for God to give me a new one for my retirement years. This story got me thinking about that--

The first day of school a professor introduced himself and challenged the class to get to know someone they didn't already know. A young man stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. He turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at him with a brilliant smile. She said, 'Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I'm eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?' The student laughed and enthusiastically responded, 'Of course you may!' She gave him a giant squeeze.

“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?' he asked. Rose jokingly replied, 'I'm here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids.' 'No seriously,' he asked. The young man was curious about what may have motivated her to take on this challenge at her age. 'I always dreamed of having a college education and now I'm getting one!' she told me.

After class, they walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake. They became instant friends and every day for the next three months would leave class together and talk nonstop. Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon, easily making friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and reveled in the attention from the other students. She was living it up.

At the end of the semester, the students invited Rose to speak at their football banquet. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she accidentally dropped her three-by-five cards on the floor. Frustrated and a little embarrassed, she leaned into the microphone and simply said, 'I'm sorry I'm so jittery. I'll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know.'

Rose cleared her throat and began, 'You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die. There are so many people walking around who are dead and don't even know it! There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. Anybody can grow older. That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity in change. Have no regrets. The elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets." Rose concluded her speech by courageously singing 'The Rose' and challenging the students to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives.

At the year's end, Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation, Rose died peacefully in her sleep. Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it's never too late to be all you can possibly be. It’s never too late to dream.

I'm very grateful for the vision God gave me back in December to begin loving and supporting my worship pastor and his family wholeheartedly (what a joy!), and I'm plugging away with my support group (which isn't an easy ministry to have), but I think there's something else God wants to do in my life, too.

Maybe I'm just jealous because Robert's in Africa, I don't know......

I know one thing I want to start doing every year, and that's going to the Worship Institute! I've definitely got a vision for that! I'll let you know when I get some direction...

'In the last days, God says, 'I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.'' Acts 2:17 (NIV)

BREAKING NEWS FLASH! Disregard! I think maybe God gave me my vision just as I was crawling in bed. It's nothing I can share yet, but I'll let you know when/if the pieces come together!