Dreams and visions are important in life. Every action we take in life was designed by someone. Every piece of clothing, every building, every hymn book, every chair, every light fixture, and every automobile existed first in someone's vision. Someone had to have the idea or the dream to turn out the product. The same holds true for the way we act. As Jesus said, "The eye is the seat of the body." If you cannot dream it, cannot envision it, then you simply cannot do it.
Dreams and visions can also be very crushing. Not all dreams come true. We invent certain images of ourself, certain pictures of the way life is supposed to be and then we are somewhat shocked at the way things do not turn out.
Dr. J. Wallace Hamilton, in his book Horns and Halos in Human Nature, tells of one of the weirdest auctions in history. It was held in the city of Washington, D.C. It was an auction of designs, actually patent models of old inventions that did not make it in the marketplace. There were 150,000 designs up for auction. There was an illuminated cat to scare away mice. There was a device to prevent snoring which consisted of a trumpet reaching from the mouth to the ear. One person designed a tube to reach from his mouth to his feet so that his breath would keep his feet warm as he slept. There was an adjustable pulpit which could be raised or lowered. You could hit a button and make the pulpit descend or ascend to dramatically illustrate a point. Obviously, at one time somebody had high hopes for each of those designs which did not make it.1 Some died in poverty, having spent all of their money trying to sell their dream. One hundred fifty thousand broken dreams! Is there anything sadder?
If we call God the master designer of the universe, then we must view the New Testament as a book of broken dreams. It begins with a massacre of innocent children by King Herod. It is centered in the execution of its hero. And it ends with the martyred saints crying, "How long, O Lord, how long?" The crucifixion of Jesus caused serious questions to be posed in the minds of humanity. There on the cross was a man who loved his enemies, a man whose righteousness was greater than the Pharisees, a man who was rich but became poor, a man who gave his robe to those who took his cloak, a man who prayed for those who despitefully used him.2 Yet, society crucified him, executed him. The question to ask in the presence of this awesome scene is whether such goodness is the design of the universe or forms an exception. Is life designed to be loving, serving, giving and dying? Does that design work? Does it pay off? Is it rewarding?
We perhaps can identify with the men on the road to Emmaus who were walking and talking with each other. They told of all that had happened, how this Jesus of Nazareth, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, had been condemned to death and crucified.
Are there any clearer words of a broken dream than theirs? "But we had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel (Luke 24:21)." Oh, we had hoped he was the one to make it. We had dreamed he would be the one. But it just didn't work out.
All of us have dreams for ourselves and our lives that just do not make it. We come back home on the Emmaus road with our dream broken in our hip pocket, a sure-fire program that fell flat, a preventive that didn't prevent, a solution that did not solve, a panacea that did not pan out. We wail the plaintive cry, "But we had hoped this would redeem us. Oh, we had hoped it would be another way." St. Paul wrote to the Romans. He told them that he hoped to see them on his way to Spain. Going to Spain was his grand design, his great dream, his high hope. But Paul never got to Spain. Instead, his journey ended in a prison cell in Rome. He could not pull off what he saw in his mind.
It has been very well said that every person dreams of one life and is forced to live another. Such appears to have been true for Jesus, and yes, even for God! From the Garden of Eden to the crucifixion, God seems to have had a grand dream for the human race but was forced to live another. Every person dreams of one life and is forced to live another.
For example, Jacob Martinson is president of High Point College. Jacob Martinson had a dream that one day he would be a college president. But unless I'm wrong, when he got to be a college president he found that it wasn't at all like he'd dreamed it would be. He dreamed of one kind of life as a college president and then was forced to live another kind of life.
Gart Evans is dean of students. Gart probably had a dream that one day he'd be a dean. He had in his mind what the life of a dean of students would be like. Bet it didn't turn out exactly the way he thought it would.
Parents have dreams for their children. We all do. I always knew my children could be a cross between Albert Einstein, Tom Selleck and Bo Jackson. On the other hand, I'm certain that I'm not their dream of a parent, either. I knew just how I'd be as a parent in my dreams. I'd be slim, popular, handsome and very caring and understanding. I'd be up on their music, and kind and tolerant when they brought home poor grades. I'd spend hours communicating with my boys. We'd go down the road, arm-in-arm like Andy Taylor and Opie in Mayberry on the way to the fishing hole and have these long, meaningful father-son talks. You dream one life and are forced to live another.
College can be that way. Everyone had a dream of what college would be like. Mid-term grades are soon to be out and I'm certain a few students will go limping home on the Emmaus road with some broken dreams in their hip pockets.
Here, it seems, is the essence of life. If indeed every person dreams of one life and is forced to live another, then the manner in which one repairs that dream has to be the greatest news in the world. The essence of the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not solely to be found in a personal guarantee of life after death for you and me. The resurrection of Christ is an affirmation of a certain dream for life. The schematic designs of human evil were exposed and condemned for what they were. The central claim of the New Testament is the ultimate triumph of goodness. The resurrection is the triumph of a design for life that is upheld as the fundamental principle of the universe even if the world tries to crucify it.
Consequently, Paul could affirm, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his dream (Romans 8:2)." Here Paul is not saying that we all get to live the life of our dreams. A lot of things happen to us that are not good. We are indeed forced to live another kind of life at times. Paul is saying that if a person will consider all the experiences of his or her life, both the good and the bad, and bond them together with love for God, then the sum total of that life, the grand design of that person's history will be good. As such, it is indeed possible to believe in the sun when it is not shining, to believe in love when you cannot directly feel it, and to believe in God when God is silent for a period. Even if the world crucifies you, the design of God's universe and your life with it will ultimately triumph. The dream will triumph even if it is not immediately evident.
Sometimes it is important for us to back up from our particular experiences, hurts, angers and pressures to reflect on the grand design of things, the larger issues. Perhaps that is why the first gospel, Mark, was not written in finished form until almost 100 years after Jesus died and rose. Perhaps only then could the early church feel strong enough to assert that the design of love holds, stands, triumphs for all generations over the design of darkness and death.
You and I live by our dreams as much as by our particular experiences. In this world of broken dreams, in this world where we dream of one life and are forced to live another, a conclusion comes from resurrection. If God's dream for goodness triumphs, then one thing is certain.
Failure is relative to time. No one really knows when he has succeeded or failed if all he does is look at the present.3 God's design and God's time turn a lot of failures into successes. We must measure success by God's standard of design in history, not whether or not we are immediately on the top of the world's heap. I know many people who have "arrived" and they are not very happy. I know others who look back on what they thought was a burden at the time and they now view it as having been a tremendous learning experience.
Consider Rev. Kiyoshi Tanimoto. In 1944, he was the minister of the largest Protestant congregation in southern Japan. It was in the city of Hiroshima. Tanimoto must have been proud of his large church. Then one day, a yellow flash came. Mr. Tanimoto dove instinctively into a garden and wedged himself between two huge rocks. A powerful blast of wind and fire blew over him. It knocked him unconscious. When he came to and got on his feet, the city was flat as a desert. Sixty-eight thousand human beings were killed instantly. Only 30 members of his 3,500-member church were still alive. Rev. Tanimoto began to rebuild his crucified church. He arranged for the spiritual adoption of 500 Hiroshima orphans by North American families. As a result of his work, all bomb survivors became eligible for free medical treatment. Rev. Tanimoto also created a Peace Foundation. In that Foundation's museum a little girl named Sadako placed two cranes made of folded paper. It was her belief that if a person who was ill made these little paper cranes, the person would get better. Well, Rev. Tanimoto died and little Sadako also died, after 10 years of horrible suffering.4 Two people who loved their enemies, whose righteousness was greater than the Pharisees, who were executed by forces they did not understand, cause us to ask, "Where was the design in all of this?" What happened to the dream? They believed in the sun when all they saw was a mushroom cloud that rose six miles high in only eight minutes. They believed in love when they could not feel it, and they believed in God when God was silent for a period. Naked, bleeding, hairless and with skin hanging loose, they went to their early graves. They dreamed of one life and were forced to live another.
Today, 30 years after their death, a statue stands in Hiroshima. The statue was built in memory of their deaths. It is the figure of two children on either side and another child on top, their arms outstretched to express their hope for a peaceful world. For more than 30 years, to this very day, Japanese children keep the center of that statue filled with many-colored paper cranes. God's design of love holds. It stands. It triumphs for all generations over any design of darkness and death. Paul is absolutely correct. History has proved it in a thousand ways. If a person will consider all the experiences of his life and bond them together with love for God, then the sum total of that life will be good.
The design of God will ultimately triumph. From Bethlehem to Gethsemane to Calvary, the innocent do suffer. The good and the lonely often get what they do not deserve. But goodness never stays in the dark. The truth never stays crucified. The central theme in human history is the same as the central theme of the New Testament: the ultimate triumph of goodness. If we would but believe that, our lives would claim an unbelievable power and freedom. To believe in that goodness. To believe in the power of your own life through God. That's the first step in repairing a broken dream.
1. As used by Charles L. Allen in The Miracle of Hope (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1983), pp. 16-17.
2. See John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus (Grand Rapids, Minnesota: William B. Eerdmans, 1972), p. 61.
3. Ernest A. Fitzgerald, How To Be A Successful Failure (New York: Atheneum, 1978), pp. 6-8.
4. As told by Bruce McLeon, City Sermons (Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Welch Publishing Company, 1986), pp. 69-71.