Hold Fast To Dreams

I lost my keys. OK... I didn't really lose them. I left them at my office and had to go retrieve them after I thought I was home for the night. As a result, I had a quiet, late night jaunt about town, alone with talk radio and no one in particular on the road.

I've been praying a lot about what God is speaking into my life right now. No, I'm not in crisis. God's been doing a lot of "talking" and, for a change, I have been listening.

There are issues and circumstances that are, shall we say, sub-optimal. There are decisions I have to make about these circumstances. The good news is it's not life-threatening or a pressing issue that I have to make a decision about TODAY.

I realized as I was driving tonight that it's been a series of gentle revelations... Seeing. Hearing. Watching. Pondering. ...and then, responding.

I thought a dream had "died" but God has made it clear - NO. PRESS ON. This is a test of perseverance. Of commitment to what has already revealed to me, and all that is ahead.

Two poems by Langston Hughes came to mind...

Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die,
Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams go,
Life is a barren field, Frozen with snow.

AND...

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Scriptures I have read recently came back in a flood...

Psalm 31

23 Love the LORD, all his saints!
The LORD preserves the faithful,
but the proud he pays back in full.

24 Be strong and take heart,
all you who hope in the LORD.


Psalm 33

16 No king is saved by the size of his army;
no warrior escapes by his great strength.

17 A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;
despite all its great strength it cannot save.

18 But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him,
on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,

19 to deliver them from death
and keep them alive in famine.

20 We wait in hope for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.

21 In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.

22 May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD,
even as we put our hope in you.


Psalm 119

113 I hate double-minded men,
but I love your law.

114 You are my refuge and my shield;
I have put my hope in your word.

115 Away from me, you evildoers,
that I may keep the commands of my God!

116 Sustain me according to your promise, and I will live;
do not let my hopes be dashed.

Proverbs 13

12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

God is keeping me open-hearted and willing to be changed. I lay no claim to understanding the whys of all this... but I believe God is in the midst of it. And that's something that gives me... HOPE!

Peace-
Deb