THE POSSIBLE DREAM

THE POSSIBLE DREAM

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Many dream the impossible.  The dream may not actually be unattainable but could not be maintain even if attained.  So then there are two kinds of impossible dreams.  There are dreams that are impossible because they truly are unrealistic and those which may be attainable but unsustainable. Overcoming evil with good is one of those ridicules dreams which is both. Nonetheless we cannot help but long for the beauty inherent in the dream of good triumphing over evil.  Something inside us longs for that kind of justice.  

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As human beings the kind of justice we are most familiar with is retribution…an eye for an eye.  It is hard to imagine another kind. However Jesus displayed a superior justice offering Himself on the cross.  In his books Derek Flood calls this type “restorative justice”.  The dream was attained in Christ and was left for His people to sustain.  However awakening within a world of massive cruelty and injustice overcoming evil with good is an impossible dream. Yet that is exactly what God calls us to.

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Oswald Chambers insists in his February 16^th devotion from, “My Utmost for His Highest” that there are occasions when God inspires us beyond mere human initiative to actualize an impossible dream.

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“We all have any number of visions and ideals when are young, but sooner or later we find that we have no power to make them real.  We cannot do the things we long to do, and we are apt to settle down to the visions and ideals as dead, and God has to come and say-‘Arise from the dead.’ (Eph.5:14)  When the inspiration of God does come, it comes with such miraculous power that we are able to arise from the dead and do the impossible thing. The remarkable thing about spiritual initiative is that the life comes after we do the ‘bucking up.’ God does not give us overcoming life; He gives us life as we overcome.  When the inspiration of God comes, and He says-‘Arise from the dead,’ we have to get up; God does not lift us up.  Our Lord said to the man with the withered hand-‘Stretch forth thy hand,’ and as soon as the man did so his hand was healed, but he had to take the initiative.  If we will do the overcoming, we shall find we are inspired of God because He gives life immediately.”

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When inspired by God we likewise must overcome the impossibility within ourselves to realize good overcoming evil in our hearts, in our families, in our country and in our world.  Even today when God wakes us from the impossible dream I pray that we will “buck up”, take the initiative, and live the possible dream.