Genesis 37: 18-20
18 Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him. 19 Then they said to one another, “Look, this [b]dreamer is coming! 20 Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!”
Quickword: Dream-Killers
Do you have dreams for your future? Dreams of a successful marriage or relationship; Dreams of obtaining certain educational goals; Dreams of a family and a meaningful and successful career; Dreams of reaching your full potential. A sister whose friendship has blessed my wife and I stopped me in the hallway after church yesterday. She asked me how I was doing, she stated to me that you don’t look ok. If I’m honest with myself, I gave her a half-truth answer. I said Sis, I’m fine. In reality I was fine, but only to a certain extent, my health is good, my finances are in place, my relationships with my spouse, my son , my close friends and siblings are intact. The rest of the story is that in actuality, I recognize some of my dreams are dying or being killed. Hear me clearly, I’m well into my second career after retiring from the military. I’ve been in ministry for 28.5 years, serving as an Associate Minister, Youth Minister, Assistant to the Pastor, Pastor in two places and now a staff minister at a very established church in the 7th largest city in the country. All of that is good, the Lord has been with me and blessed me mightily. My response to my sister on yesterday should have been, I’m fine but I find myself dealing with the reality of my dreams being killed or dying. In the text, Bible Scholars know the story. Joseph, the youngest son of Jacob was his favorite son. He was given a coat of many colors by his father. His brothers were jealous of him because of his father’s favor. Joseph was a dreamer and one day he had a dream that he shared with brothers. The dream interpreted that he would one day reign over his brothers. One day as Joseph was sent by his father to find his older brothers, because they envied him, when they saw him afar off conspired to kill him. They said here comes the dreamer, let us kill him and cast him in a pit. Maybe, this post only applies to me, your dreams maybe coming into full fruition without any delay. In full transparency, there are some spiritual forces that are trying to kill my dreams, some of the attacks on my dreams that are being killed are intentional, some of the attacks are unintentional, and others are even self- inflected.
Intentional Dream Killers: These are people like in the text, there goals are too kill your dreams. Be careful what you share and with whom you share it.
Unintentional Dream Killers: These are people who are so consumed by their goals that as a family member, member of an organizations, personal friendship, work colleagues and even ministry, your dreams are killed while supporting them.
Self-Inflicted Dream Killers: You can stay at a place or in a relationship too long even though things are ok that you settle and your dreams die.
I’m over my usual time in this space, but the good news from this story is that Joseph ‘s dreams did not die. He was not killed. He was sold into slavery, falsely accused of violating Potiphar’s wife and imprisoned and almost forgotten. Yet, Joseph’s dream became a reality. My brothers and sisters, I’ve made up my mind that I’m not going to let anyone or anything kill my dreams. Like Joseph, I may have to go through the pit, the false accusations, even metaphorical prison time, but my dreams are going to come true before the Lord calls me home. I pray that you will pursue your dreams with all the power, passion and purpose that God has put into you.
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