When Dreams Don’t Come True

Moving Past Our Dreams

I had a career goal that took six years of preparation, and it crashed and burned within 3 years of take-off. What was that six years of preparation for? At least I learned something about myself, my weaknesses in particular. As a believer in divine providence, I wondered what good could come of it. I struggled with a sense of failure for many years until I found a way around it, which is to discover a higher purpose to my shattered dreams.

If you dare to dream, there’s a good chance that you are standing on broken dreams as well. You too may be struggling to find the perspective on the situation so that you don’t wallow in depression.

King David had a dream. He wanted to build a magnificent temple where the ark of the covenant would be housed. The story is found in 1 Chronicles chapter 17.

After David was settled in his palace, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.” (1Chron 17:1, NIV)

Up to that time the ark was in a tent, being carried from place to place. But the prophet Nathan told him, not so fast. In a separate dream Nathan was told that David would not build the temple but his son would. That’s disappointing especially because he had every resource to do it himself, including the blueprints!

Rather than get upset and build the temple anyway, he humbled himself and followed the Lord’s instructions. He turned his attention to his son Solomon, to help him with this great project. Not only did Solomon succeed in building the temple, he eventually became David’s successor. And he was a great king at that. Even though David never saw the temple completed, it was amazing and I’m sure all that he dreamt of.

The same may be true for our dreams. They may not come true in our lifetime. Or they may never come true at all. What’s important is we put our shattered dreams behind us and discover something even better.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10, NIV)