Modern Day Samaritan Woman

Dream Stalks, Fables, Hopes and Dreams.

How to survive a shattered dream!

Jack and Jill went up the hill to build themselves a dream.

Along came Bill, ignorant and dumb and tore the whole thing down.

A fable:

Once upon a time Jack and Jill lived in a faraway land in a beautiful little cottage.  It was a lovely place with flowers and animals of every kind. They loved their animals and their home and wanted to share the blessings with other people. They realized that not everyone had the blessing of being close to sheep and horses and donkeys. Not to mention 101 assorted geese and ducks.

One day Jill came rushing home excited because she had been to market and had managed to obtain a packet of magical seeds. The packet held promise of a future full of dreams fulfilled and their very own castle in the sky. It held the promise of Jack and Jill being together, forever with their animals and beautiful hopes.

Jack, being the practical down to earth man that he was, was skeptical at first, because he had always expected to have to work really hard to get by, and merely humored Jill, but she persisted endlessly and gradually the spark of possibility, lit the flame of hope in his heart and within a short time the ground was prepared and the seeds were lovingly planted.

Jack and Jill settled in to wait and watch as the “Dream Stalk” began to germinate, safely hidden in the depths of ground. The preparation was done and now it was time to watch…

Every single day they worked tirelessly, watching and nurturing and tending their “Dream Stalk” and eventually the tiniest of green shoots of impossibility broke through the ground and stretched itself slowly towards the limitless sky of possibility. It was tiny and precious and fragile.

As the “Dream Stalk” grew so too did Jack and Jill’s hope and dreams. Ideas of all sorts seemed to blossom from nowhere and plans were made to share everything the “Dream Stalk” promised with all the boys and girls. It was exciting and thrilling and was exactly the motivation they needed to work even harder. Do more and more to ensure that growth and survival of the tiny fragile “Dream Stalk”, as it stretched hungry leaves towards the heat of the sun, and smiled at them, winking of endless joys to come.

It was the most beautiful of all “Dream Stalks” they had ever seen and they cherished it and nourished it almost religiously every single waking moment of every day.

Eventually the time came to start to give names to their plans and hopes, still invisible to others, but in their minds eye they could see the fulfillment of the mature “Dream Stalk” They could visualize every minute detail of every minute plan. If they held hands and held their breaths and closed their eyes they could tenderly touch the beautiful “Hopes” and “Plans”.

THEN!!! HORROR!!!

On an ordinary day, deceptively ordinary, because everything was just so normal, Bill came a calling unexpectedly while Jack and Jill were out, carrying along his brand new shiny axe. He passed the “Dream Stalk” which by now was nice and healthy and sturdy and with no thought whatsoever, he swung his axe and chopped down the beautiful “Dream Stalk”, hacking at it until there were only fragments of it scattered all over the ground. He didn’t spare one green shoot or one green leaf. Everything was chopped and chopped and trampled on. He then continued on his way totally unaware of the devastation he had caused in his wake.

When Jill saw what had happened she was devastated. In tears she gently tried to gather all the fractured broken pieces of their hopes and dreams into her arms  and try as she might, with all her tears and efforts, she couldn’t piece them all together again. All their dreams and plans were scattered all over the ground like millions of autumn leaves, blowing in the wind being crushed underfoot. She couldn’t coax the “Dream Stalk” to life again. It had been killed and destroyed by one thoughtless action of one thoughtful individual. She never got over it for the rest of her days and spent the rest of her life wondering what might have been.

Jack was also devastated by the loss, but being the practical man that he was he just went back to what he had been doing before they had planted the “Dream Stalk”. After all it was his opinion that he would always have to work hard to come by.

The Moral of the Story: No matter how ordinary or mundane something appears to you, always remember that it might be someone else’s dreams and hopes. Don’t destroy things just because you can.

Have you also had dreams broken and shattered by the thoughtlessness of others? Dreams you thought you would never get over and think about often.

Surviving broken dreams seems impossible. The mind and heart just do not want to accept the end of something special. The more we hope and dreamed about something, the harder it is to find acceptance that it is lost to us. The memory of the wonderful day dreams linger in the mind’s eye and cause the heart to ache.

Just like you I have also had shattered dreams and no doubt there will be more to come.

The first thing I learned was that I had to let them go. As hard as it was, just like Abraham of old I had to lay down that which was precious to me and leave it in God’s hands. Abraham had to lay his Isaac down on the alter and although God did make an alternative plan for Abraham, He does not always do so. Sometimes the dream is an idol, no matter how beautiful, how precious, it can cause a division between us and God and we need to lay it down. This is not a one-time event but repetitive because before we know it we are pining for our lost dream all over again. Then it has to be laid down again until the day we stop fetching it from the alter. Only then will we find that we have a new dream…

Something better…Something from God…

Jeremiah 29:11 

“This is God’s Word on the subject: As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for”. The Message

The second thing to remember is that the devil is behind every evil thing. Our battle is not against flesh and blood. He will use anyone who allows him to destroy the dreams and hopes of other people. We need to guard against this at all times.

1 John 3:8

“So, my dear children, don’t let anyone divert you from the truth. It’s the person who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah. Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil’s ways.” The Message – Emphasis my own

And finally we need to turn to God and allow Him to design our futures as He sees fit. He knows the desires of our hearts. Most of the time He is the one who plants the desires there and if we allow Him to direct our paths we will see the desires of our hearts to fulfillment.

Proverbs 3:5-12 

“Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil! Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life! Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best. Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over. But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline; don’t sulk under his loving correction. It’s the child he loves that God corrects; a father’s delight is behind all this.” The Message

*Hugs* till next time.

Ariéte