What would you do when things don't go your way?

SHATTERED DREAMS

Lk. 15:1-3, 11-32

 The loving father at the request of the younger son let him have his share of the estate.  He couldn’t leave immediately because he had to get his belongings together.  He needed to turn his assets into cash.  How could he travel with livestock?  While he was getting his things together, I am sure he spent those few days day dreaming.  He was pondering on the good times that lay ahead of him.

So, when he had got all his money together, he bade farewell to his father and his home and went off to a distant country.  Instead of being careful with his money he squandered it on a life of pleasure.  When all his money had gone, he thought he better get a job.  He soon found he had hit rock bottom.  Feeding pigs was not the life for him.  There was much more to life than this.  He found the pigs were eating better than he was.  There was only one thing to do and that was to swallow his pride, admit to his father that he had made a big mistake and could he be employed as a hired servant. 

We know, of course, that not all dreams come true.  Some of them fail and leave the dreamer deluded and disillusioned with life.  The human mind can be very creative, but it also has a knack for dreaming up things that simply will not work.

I knew a person who read about pyramid selling and was certain that he could become rich quickly.  He bought a large quantity of soap.  He was encouraged to get dozens of people to buy quantities of his soap.  He was told that they would easily take them off his hands, and in a short time he will have sold all the soap and he would have amassed a little fortune.  Sadly, he couldn’t interest many of his family and friends.  Those who did try to help him out only took a little.  He was left with a large quantity of soap and a large hole in his pocket.  He had learned the hard way that ‘get rich’ quick schemes very rarely work.  All these schemes have one thing in common.  They are based on the idea that wealth is the goal of life, that pleasure is the highest good.  This is just not true.  It just doesn’t work.  People who make a mission of becoming wealthy are seldom happy.  Read what it says in the book of Ecclesiastes.  “I refused my heart no pleasure.  I then reflected on all my hands had achieved.  What vanity it all is, and chasing of the wind.” (2:10.11)

Thrills don’t last.  It’s fairly easy to figure out why.  We human beings are complex creatures with more than one set of desires. If it is true that we have a desire to run away to a distant land and do nothing but play, it is also true that we have a desire to be respected, to do something useful and constructive.  That is why the prodigal’s dream could not come true.  He could get away from his father’s house, but he could not get away from himself.  He was chasing an illusion that could never come true.  That is why he had to come back.

 A little boy playing in his back garden saw a butterfly flitting from flower to flower.  For a while he was content to watch.  Then he thought, I’ll catch it and keep it for my own.  So, when it landed on a flower, he crept up and grabbed it in his hand.  When he opened his hand, he saw an ugly smudge.  The wings of the beautiful creature were broken.  It was dead.  So, it is with some of our dreams.  When we catch them, they are no longer beautiful.

A story is told of an ancient king who appointed a servant to stand before him every morning and say to him, “Sire, remember that you are mortal.”  He needed that reminder lest he got carried away with his grandiose dreams and forget his kinship with the earth.  It seems to me that we all need another voice to whisper in our ear, “Remember you are immortal.”  We need that voice lest we forget our kinship with eternity.

 The younger son could not remain in a pigsty.  Something in him would not allow it.  He remembered home.  He remembered his father.  He was draw to his true heredity.  He got up and went home. 

Lord Jesus, if we have our dreams let us make sure that we have them with You in the picture.  It is only then that we will have our feet firmly on the ground and our dreams will not be an illusion.  You have made us for Yourself and our souls will find no rest until they rest in You.

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