The Death of a Dream

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    A few months ago a good friend of mine used the phrase, “The Death of a Dream”. This phrase was also used in my chaplain training when referring to the loss of a child. Of course, there are many layers of grief in death; these are just the first places I heard of grieving the “death of a dream”.

    We all have dreams, we imagine what something will be like, and then it doesn’t come true. We think we know how something will turn out and it turns out the opposite of what we expected. The men on the road to Emmaus after Jesus death said to Him, “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:21) (Jesus was in fact standing there before them but they could not see him … they could not see the miracle of resurrection … yet.)

    All of us have had hopes, expectations and dreams that did not turn out like we hoped, expected or dreamed. Our dream has died and we grieve. The men on the road to Emmaus were grieving. One truth I gain from them is this: resurrection is sometimes standing right in front of us. God can resurrect anything and sometimes resurrection is standing in front of us and we just cannot see it. We do not have the promise that resurrection will come in our lifetime (although I do wish there was a three day turn around on any death) but we have the promise that Jesus is with us. And maybe, just maybe resurrection is before us we just cannot see it.

    My prayer is this: That God would give us the grace to see resurrection. He was, after all, the one that opened the eyes of the men on the road. That we would grieve well that which we dreamed of that we do not ignore the pain of death. That we would also look up with expectation that Jesus who rose from the dead can also raise our dreams up from the dead. And as He does we would trust His timing and would have eyes open wide enough to see the miracle of resurrection.

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**