Musings on Susan Boyle and Churchill

I bought a CD recently, “I Dreamed a Dream,” by Susan Boyle. Do you remember her stunning performance on Britain’s Got Talent a couple of years ago? If you never saw it, you need to, it’s priceless. Here is the link…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk

I read and contemplated the lyrics to her song, from Les Miserables, about a mother living in hard times. They are rather depressing lyrics about dreams of youth being shattered, and hopes of life deflated.

One stanza reads,

“But the tigers came at night

With their voices soft as thunder

As they tear your hopes apart

And they turn your dreams to shame.”

The song ends with these sad words,

“I had a dream my life would be

So different from this hell I’m living

so different now from what it seemed

My life has killed the dream I dreamed.”

Have you ever felt like this? I have. I dreamed of being like Hudson Taylor, David Livingstone or Jim Elliot only to be stuck with Vince Burke, ha. I guess, in one sense, the song is right. It is possible that life does not always allow for the fulfillment of the dreams of youth. Now, before you worry about me, I am not in a shadowy depression of dreams dissolved and hopes crushed. I’m actually ok. As I have pondered these lyrics, I have decided they are incomplete, at least for the believer. There must be something else, something more to life, another side of the coin. I think I have found it while preparing for a speech at Julie’s Baccalaureate. I’ve been led to something more by my favorite politician, Winston Churchill. By the way, “poli” means many and “tics” are blood sucking parasites, put them together and you get politics, ha-ha. Back to Churchill, on May 10, 1940, as Nazi panzers were sweeping across Europe, Churchill accepted his appointment as Prime Minister of Great Britain. After many rough and tumble years in what he called political wilderness, he finally had the helm, and the chance to make a real impact. He writes at the close of his book, The Gathering Storm these final sentences: “Therefore, although impatient for the morning, I slept soundly and had no need for cheering dreams. Facts are better than dreams.”

There it is! “Facts are better than dreams.” The song of life doesn’t have to end with sad lyrics. There is more to the story. So here are some facts to keep you going when dreams seem to turn to nightmares, when the tigers come at night and attempt to tear your dreams apart…

1. GOD STILL HAS A PLAN FOR YOU: Jeremiah 29:11-13,  ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  ‘And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
2. GOD CAN STILL MAKE YOUR LIFE WORK: Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
3. GOD WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU OR GIVE UP ON YOU: Hebrews 13:5-6,  “Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” so that we confidently say,  “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What shall man do to me?”
4. GOD WILL NOT FORGET YOU OR YOUR WORK: Hebrews 6:10-11, “For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.  And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end.”

Don’t let life kill the dreams you’ve dreamed. Dream all you want and can, while embracing the facts of God’s love and grace. “Facts are better than dreams”

We know that God is in control.  We know that it’s ok to dream and hope and anticipate good things about the future, because when God is factored into the equation, facts really do become better than dreams. So, thank you for your prayers in this regard. Thank you for your support, friendship and love.