Devotional - Dreams
?To dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, to bear with unbearable sorrow, to run where the brave dare not go...? -From the Broadway show, ?Man of La Mancha?
Acts 2:17 - And it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all humanity; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.?
In the two-part episode, ?The Monster,? Jonathan and Mark are confronted by one of their biggest challenges.
They must somehow convince two physically challenged people to regain their dreams. Rachel is blind and Julian is disfigured by a birth defect. Each has allowed their handicap to define their self-worth. Neither is willing to confront the world, until a ?chance? meeting gives them both a second chance.
Unable to see Julian?s face, Rachel discovers he has a beautiful soul, and soon confides that as a child she used to dream of being swept off her feet by a handsome prince.
?Pretty silly, the things we dream as children,? she says.
?Dreams aren?t silly,? Julian replies. ?Sometimes they are all you have to keep you going.?
Julian insisted that dreams were not silly, and he was right. The American author William Burroughs put it succinctly when he wrote, ?There couldn?t be a society of people who didn?t dream. They?d be dead in two weeks.? Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan was fond of quoting Carl Sandburg ? ?Nothing happens unless first a dream.?
?I have a dream!? declared the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and changed the face of America.
?You see things that are; and you say, ?Why?? But I dream things that never were; and I say, ?Why not??? the playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote. Nobel Prize winning author, Anatole France intoned, ?To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.?
Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living. Our dreams give us focus, sustain us through desert times, refresh us when we are weary, and refuse to allow us to become complacent during the times of success.
?Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men,? the brilliant German author, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe insisted. ?One man with a dream, at pleasure, shall go forth and conquer a crown,? declared the British poet, Arthur William Edgar O?Shaughnessy.
Rachel and Julian were surrounded by people, who had forgotten how to dream; who could not see beyond the surface. All they knew was life as it is, and as anyone who has lived it knows, life as it is can be pretty difficult.
In the Broadway musical, ?Man of La Mancha,? Miguel de Cervantes is being held in prison, awaiting trial by the Spanish Inquisition. His fellow prisoners charge him with being mad for continuing to see the good in people. He is ridiculed for being a dreamer, ?Cast off this madness, and see life as it really is,? they charge.
?When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies,? Cervantes asks. ?Perhaps to be too practical may be madness. To surrender dreams, this may be madness. To seek treasure where there is only trash; too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all ? to see life as it is, and not as it should be.?
?Dreams,? says author Anais Nin, ?are necessary to life. The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle.?
If you advance confidently in the direction of your dreams and endeavor to live the life you have imagined, you will meet with unexpected success, insists American philosopher, Henry David Thoreau. As author Louise Driscoll admonishes, ?In your heart, keep one still, secret spot where dreams may go and sheltered so may thrive and grow.?
A little dreaming is dangerous thing, but the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time, to dream big, and then dream bigger. Let no man steal your dream. Refuse to negotiate. No government, no legislature, no kingdom, power or authority has a right to limit your dreams. As Rabbi Zadok Rabinowitz wrote, ?A man's dreams are an index to his greatness.?
Acts 2:17 - And it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all humanity; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.?
In the two-part episode, ?The Monster,? Jonathan and Mark are confronted by one of their biggest challenges.
They must somehow convince two physically challenged people to regain their dreams. Rachel is blind and Julian is disfigured by a birth defect. Each has allowed their handicap to define their self-worth. Neither is willing to confront the world, until a ?chance? meeting gives them both a second chance.
Unable to see Julian?s face, Rachel discovers he has a beautiful soul, and soon confides that as a child she used to dream of being swept off her feet by a handsome prince.
?Pretty silly, the things we dream as children,? she says.
?Dreams aren?t silly,? Julian replies. ?Sometimes they are all you have to keep you going.?
Julian insisted that dreams were not silly, and he was right. The American author William Burroughs put it succinctly when he wrote, ?There couldn?t be a society of people who didn?t dream. They?d be dead in two weeks.? Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan was fond of quoting Carl Sandburg ? ?Nothing happens unless first a dream.?
?I have a dream!? declared the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and changed the face of America.
?You see things that are; and you say, ?Why?? But I dream things that never were; and I say, ?Why not??? the playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote. Nobel Prize winning author, Anatole France intoned, ?To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.?
Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living. Our dreams give us focus, sustain us through desert times, refresh us when we are weary, and refuse to allow us to become complacent during the times of success.
?Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men,? the brilliant German author, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe insisted. ?One man with a dream, at pleasure, shall go forth and conquer a crown,? declared the British poet, Arthur William Edgar O?Shaughnessy.
Rachel and Julian were surrounded by people, who had forgotten how to dream; who could not see beyond the surface. All they knew was life as it is, and as anyone who has lived it knows, life as it is can be pretty difficult.
In the Broadway musical, ?Man of La Mancha,? Miguel de Cervantes is being held in prison, awaiting trial by the Spanish Inquisition. His fellow prisoners charge him with being mad for continuing to see the good in people. He is ridiculed for being a dreamer, ?Cast off this madness, and see life as it really is,? they charge.
?When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies,? Cervantes asks. ?Perhaps to be too practical may be madness. To surrender dreams, this may be madness. To seek treasure where there is only trash; too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all ? to see life as it is, and not as it should be.?
?Dreams,? says author Anais Nin, ?are necessary to life. The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle.?
If you advance confidently in the direction of your dreams and endeavor to live the life you have imagined, you will meet with unexpected success, insists American philosopher, Henry David Thoreau. As author Louise Driscoll admonishes, ?In your heart, keep one still, secret spot where dreams may go and sheltered so may thrive and grow.?
A little dreaming is dangerous thing, but the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time, to dream big, and then dream bigger. Let no man steal your dream. Refuse to negotiate. No government, no legislature, no kingdom, power or authority has a right to limit your dreams. As Rabbi Zadok Rabinowitz wrote, ?A man's dreams are an index to his greatness.?
Source...