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Vol. 11 No. 5 May 2009 |
Page 13 |
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Vol. 11 No. 5 May 2009 |
Page 13 |
Dean Kelly
Recently, my son Chris recorded (or whatever you call it on a DVR) the movie version of Man of LaMancha. One of my favorite Broadway songs is the one with which I have entitled this article. The song is sung by the crazy old man, Don Quixote, who thinks he is a knight when there are knights no longer. However, the gist of the song is to set your sights on high and noble goals, and to never give up, no matter “how weary” or how difficult the goals may seem. I like the way the song sounds, but I also like the message, and I believe that it is an important one.
We have individual dreams that come from our hearts and wishes for the future. Sometimes, those dreams come true. Sometimes, those dreams do not come true. However, we are the better for striving to attain those dreams, succeed or fail. Further, our dreams as Christians should be accompanied by an unwavering faith in the One with Whom nothing is impossible (Matthew 19:26). We understand that we cannot know the full consequences of our dreams, nor what the future holds, but we can go into the future with our eyes on our dreams knowing that God knows the future and knows what is best, and therefore, we can put our total faith in Him.
We have many “impossible dreams” to attain as Christians. We are told in this world that the idea of living a pure Christian life is impossible. You cannot possibly stay sexually pure before marriage. You cannot possibly live with one mate for life, in love with each other until you die. You cannot possibly avoid the dangers of alcohol and drugs. All of it is impossible, the world says. And they are right, except with help. They look upon us as being as crazy as old Don Quixote when we speak of doing all these “impossible” things. They cannot see how we can overcome. They point to scores of professing “Christians” who have proven themselves to be hypocrites, practicing what they condemn. Just today a headline read, “Child abused by Sunday School teacher.” They like to hold this up as an attack on those who are trying to live the Christian life, who are following this “impossible dream” and who are depending on God in their lives. They cannot understand that the Christian understands that these goals are not impossible with the God of all hope. We must continue to strive and to dream, and to reach for those dreams with all of our might, and to stay true to our values and dedicated to our cause. They may see us as “Don Quixotes,” but we know that we are the ones who see the reality of this world and the world to come. They are darkened in their view, and cannot see.
Ultimately, we dream of a home in heaven. It is an impossible dream, outside of Jesus Christ. We can hope for and work toward heaven only by coming into a covenant relationship with God through His Son. When we strive to walk the Christian walk, never giving up, no matter how difficult the path is from time to time, we are “walking in the light” and Jesus’ blood is cleansing us (1 John 1:7). Our impossible dream is destined by the grace of God to come true, as long as we dream our impossible dream, and keep on striving toward our goals, in Jesus. Then, we will beat the unbeatable foe, and attain the unattainable goal, not because we are able, but because God is able, and with Him there is no impossible dream.