An Overview and Syllabus

Very few of cherished wishes ever come true. Very few will ever live the dream that they choose.

Wayne Watson, “Born in Zion” (Giants in the Land, 1985)
Words by Michael Hudson

These few words from a song by Christian artist Wayne Watson place dreams in perspective for all of us.  More often than not, dreams go unrealized, and Wayne says that shouldn’t bother us, especially if we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.  If anything, we should take solace in the fact that, as believers, we belong to God.  Regardless of our circumstances here, we are “born in Zion.”  Wayne doesn’t exactly say in his song that we should stop dreaming. I believe we can dream with reality.

The “circumstances” Wayne mentions may be due to something that impacts each of us.  We call it natural law.  If you step in front of a moving train, something’s going to happen.  If you jump off of a cliff without a parachute, something’s going to happen.  However, more often than not, natural law manifests itself in a frightening diagnosis of some critical physical illness, loss of a beloved one, or other choices like taking drugs that didn’t involve trains or cliffs.

Natural law is quite fair in a culture that politicizes fairness.  Natural law affects all of us. It is an absolute truth.  It does not respect age, race, socio-economic position, what sex you were born with or the gender you choose.  Rich or poor, educated or not, it doesn’t matter whether you believe in God or have another worldview.

What about the person who dreamt about but never “hit the big time” in popular music?  Some do well in investments, while others lost big on Sallie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Only a few ever win the lottery, and the losers number into the hundreds of thousands.

The truth is this notion of fortune is not fair.  Very few of us are “born to riches” or “ever famous.”  Fortune comes to some, but not others.  We receive messages from the dominant media that fortune needs to be made fairer.  The media often asserts that fortune comes disproportionately to those outside of the inner city and of a higher socio-economic class and position.  However, this is a half-truth, which is not a truth at all.  We can dream, but we can’t wish ourselves into God’s grace or worldly prosperity no matter who you are or where you live.

Politicians who say that they can “spread the money around a little” and make fortune more “fair” are telling people lies.  Even worse, people are telling others what they should dream and, by doing so, are robbing them of better dreams that have a better chance of becoming true.

This is a philosophy that you need to work through.  It’s an intellectual construct that may make your brain hurt a little.  Pleasure philosophers are out there especially on college campuses peddling “fortune.”  They abound in government and media.  If you’re in the media, what’s more interesting and lucrative to report than a “rags to riches” story?  They’re not going to make as much money reporting a story on natural law.  Our culture is drowning in pleasure philosophy.

If you can’t understand the philosophy others are trying to force on you, it will be increasingly difficult to dream for yourself.  Wading through the daily torrent of truth and lies gets messy and is hard.  However, if others tell you what you should dream, dreaming with reality becomes even harder.

Have we stopped dreaming?  Do we just tend to hold dreams close to us?  Dreams are some of the last vestiges of privacy in this open information age.  I see tons of people on social media sharing everything from their political views to personal habits.  People share the most incredibly personal information.  “Selfies” are everywhere.  And there’s infinitely more sexting, harming the youth of our culture, than sharing of dreams.  Have we stopped dreaming?  Or do we let others tell us what our dreams should be?

That’s what happened to my dad.  He started his working life right after World War II when the nation was relying on everyone to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”  His professional development courses taught him that he should go to work every day in a white shirt and thin tie.  If he worked for the same company for 30 to 35 years, he could retire at age 55 or 60 and live in a house with a two-car garage somewhere in suburbia.  That was the American dream then, and, while I’m sure he had other dreams, he was told that he and others needed to be self-made men.  Our nation’s future was threatened by the likes of Adolf Hitler.  Everyone was asked to take personal responsibility for their circle of influence.  Faced with an enemy they all could see, most everyone agreed.  The country pulled together to defeat that aggression and build a nation that would be secure for over half a century.

We have new national enemies now, but we are no longer secure.  No one seems to agree on how to defeat them.  Or worse, these enemies come from within our own borders.  In the days immediately following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, we witnessed national unity on a scale that we hadn’t experienced in decades.  Of course, terrorist threats still persist.  Why should it take another calamity to pull us together as a nation?  Have we stopped thinking for ourselves individually or collectively as a nation?  Is there just too much information each day for us to be completely informed citizens in our country?  Is philosophy just too hard to figure out on our own?  Have we each stopped dreaming?  Is that a contributing source of our national insecurity?

When we do not think critically about the world around us and assess for ourselves the truth of what we are seeing or hearing, could the enemy be near us?  When we vote for a president because “he’s cool” or “we’re angry” or we willingly give up our freedoms because we just don’t care, we lose our freedom to dream with reality when the time comes.  At the time when we may want to dream with reality, our enemy wants us discouraged or depressed or feel defeated enough to not try at all.  Is this where you are today?  Have you tried to dream recently?  What has discouraged you or defeated you enough to give up before you even try to dream with reality?

Who taught you how to dream?  Your parents likely had more of an opportunity to speak to you about sex than about how to dream with reality.  No one taught them how to dream.  That’s not necessarily their fault.  No one taught Dad how to dream.  In Dad’s circumstances, they didn’t have to.

Dad graduated from high school at age sixteen and was the first in his family to go to college.  While the price tag for college was merely a tiny fraction of the cost that it is today, Dad worked and earned scholarship money to go to college and study engineering.  He came from a broken, impoverished family, yet he wouldn’t describe it that way.  His mother died when he was ten, and he wasn’t privy to the prep schools of New England.  Fortune didn’t run in our family but the fact that he went to and graduated from college gave him the opportunity to tell us how fortunate he was.

His dream became real because he remained true to himself.  He engaged truth in the world.  His mother introduced him to faith at an early age.  He lived it out in his actions, and he was content in his most humble of beginnings to know how to launch into his dreams.  Had this not been the case, I may not be writing to you now.  These pages are a reflection of what he taught all of us.

And yet, Dad never sat down and taught us how to dream.  That wasn’t his fault.  No one taught him or his entire generation, and because of that generational vacuum, very few of our young people today are being taught how to dream, much less dream with reality.  That’s what the pages that follow are about.  One of my dreams is to teach a generation how to dream with reality.  Keep reading.

People who know me well know that when I stop dreaming I will have also stopped taking warm breaths.  Dreams have sustained me my entire life.  They are some of the few memories I have of my youth that remain unspoiled and preserved.  I wasn’t the greatest socialite in high school; but, I could dream with the best of them.  I wasn’t the greatest athlete or student.  My success was borne out of my dreams.

I was a little weird in some ways.  Maturity took its time with my passage from childhood to adult life.  I guess I was engaging enough that people gave me chances, and, when I didn’t totally wreck those chances, I was allowed to occupy one of the mid-social strata levels in our high school circle.  My older brother was popular, smart and athletic.  Perhaps people gave me a chance once or twice because I was his little brother.  Once my brother graduated and went on to college, I was then on my own to sink or swim; but it was hard for me to crack through to the top where dreams are realized.  I embarrassed myself many times trying.

Like every other young man I dreamed of dating the high school homecoming queen and being popular, but they were beautiful girls and I had severe acne.  My older brother had played varsity high school basketball.  I wanted the glory that came with athletic success, but too often I shunned what it took to become stronger physically.  I wanted to be a leader in student government, but that required me to occupy one of the higher social (spelled “popular”) positions in my class.  Looking back on those early years, I actually realized a number of dreams when so many of my friends and others around me seemed to be coming up short.

I played basketball one year, and, while I played disappointingly, playing basketball was a dream I realized.  I had no idea how much that year would help me realize future dreams of participating on a national team.  In my senior year, I served as a student government committee chairman for a popular awards committee.  I had no idea how that experience would help me prepare for a life of leadership.

And though I didn’t date the high school homecoming queen, I was able, as a sophomore to date a junior homecoming princess.  She was not selected queen, but she was in the queen’s court and we had a spotlight dance in front of the entire school.  She was indeed beautiful.  Everyone knew I was way out of my league (spelled “social status”).  Or was I?  I had no idea how the self-assurance I gained that evening would bolster my confidence to seek a relationship with my future bride when that time finally arrived, acne scars notwithstanding.  We’ve been married now for thirty-nine years and counting.  You see, I was dreaming with reality.  The really neat thing about that is that you can, too.

Our dreams belong to God.  Everything we have belongs to Him.  Why shouldn’t our dreams also be given over to Him?  He has a great deal to say about our dreams and He wants to be involved in them and use them for His good purposes and our benefit.  They are the “express lane” that God provides us to understand our lives in the realm of the spiritual.  Every experience is uniquely our own.  No pleasure philosopher anywhere can tell you what comprises these dreams.  Dreaming with reality is God’s way of showing us His reality plan for us.  To fail to dream is to admit to everyone, including God, that you just don’t care about dreams.  I don’t think that’s reality.  You know what I’m saying to you is true.  Keep reading and let’s start dreaming with reality.

TERMINAL COURSE OBJECTIVES:

At the end of this course of instruction, you should be able to:

1. Examine truth statements and determine for yourself which ones are true truths/absolute truths, and build upon those truths while dreaming.
2. Assess your personal faith walk with God and describe how dreaming in this faith sheds light upon the unknowns in your future.
3. Understand how God wants you to dream in a spirit of contentment.
4. Allay fears of the unknown that get in the way of realizing your dreams.
5. Articulate your dreams to others so that they may share in your reality.

SUGGESTED READINGS

• Guinness, Os. (2000). Time for truth. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
• Moreland, J. P. (1997).  Love your God with all your mind. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.
• Swenson, Richard A. (2000) Contentment: The Secret to a Lasting Calm. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.