To Dream or Not to Dream

Dream...wish....desire...long for...I am surprised at the various responses these words can produce in people.  In me, they produce a wistful sigh, my head tilts to the right, and my eyes blink slowly and glaze over as if they are looking off into a distant time.  Its a good feeling with images of things like a book with my name in print on the cover, the green hills of Ireland, and a rocking chair for my front porch.

These, I realize, are not everyone's reactions however.  Some people tell me things like, "I don't really have dreams", "I'm a realist", or "I'm content with things the way they are".  It has made me pause to wonder - is dreaming a personality trait that some have and some don't?  Is dreaming the antithesis of contentment?

I have pondered this so hard and from so many different angles that I will probably have to break it down into more than one article, but let me start with this: If God's nature is to give us the desires of our hearts (Ps 3:4), then whether that really means that He gives (i.e. grants) our desires, or that He gives (i.e. shapes) our desires (which, after much pondering, I'm guessing it's both), doesn't that indicate that we were all designed to HAVE desires, dreams, wishes? Where would a tulip bulb be if it did not dream of spring, long for the sun, and desire radiant color?

SO why does this violate our religious sense of contentment? Why are desire and contentment deemed mutually exclusive?  I think perhaps it's because we do not understand the nature of God.  We say we should not dream or desire because we should be content with "the lot that God has given to us".  But is it not God's nature to "work wonders"? (Hmm, there is that word again).  I believe God works (not labors) wonders in our lives.  I love to work in my garden - it's not labor to me (which my family does not understand at all).  I genuinely enjoy to putter around, clipping off dead blooms, watering this, transplanting that, creating a wonder. In the same way, God works in our lives, creating something that inspires awe, surprise, and delight. Often He does this by allowing us to be co-creators through our dreams and desires. What parent does not strive to pull off the Christmas or birthday surprise that will leave their child breathless with delight, wondering how we knew their deepest desire? If I am content with the now but live in expectation of a God of wonders, doesn't that open the door for desire and dreaming?

Contentment and complacency are separated by a very fine line. Complacency is deadly because it is a satisfaction that does not recognize the danger of stagnancy.  It is the gardener who is so satisfied with their garden "just the way it is", they do not recognize when the blackberry bushes begin to take it over or the slugs come to eat it away.  My garden is a mixture of contentment (I'm not looking to move) but also desire (I'm always checking the sale shelves for another perennial that would look just right in that spot or a bush that would be perfect in that corner).  Perhaps it is desire that is the particular ingredient that keeps contentment from turning into complacency.

Some would say "How petty and shallow to think that God cares about a rocking chair!" But why not? Is He not big enough to be able to care about big things and little things? It would be petty and shallow if I could not be happy in life without a rocking chair on my porch, but it does not hurt to dream!    

Or does it?           Perhaps next I will tackle the issue of disappointment...