|
Regardless of how you look at it - we do not live in a very happy,
satisfied society today. Look around you. Everywhere you look
you see the strained faces of people rushing through the daily
chores of life in a struggle to either get ahead or stay
afloat. Personal debt levels are at an all-time high as people
use their credit cards and borrow money to ‘buy their
dreams’. Others are just scraping by, hoping to survive the
next financial disaster.
What happened to our childhood dreams? You know the one where you lay on
the cool grass looking at the clouds floating by, dreaming
about how your life would be when you grew up.
Life can hardly be called a dream today. Certainly there are moments when
we forget our problems and enjoy peaceful times with the ones
we love, but then there are many others where we wish for that
lottery win; that big gain in the stock market; or that big
break which will allow you to buy the house and car of your
dreams.
I heard a story one day about a boy who said to God, “I’ve been
thinking, and I know what I want when I become a man.”
He proceeded to give God his list: to live in a big house with two Saint
Bernards and a garden...marry a blue-eyed, tall, beautiful
woman...have three sons - one who will be a doctor, one a
scientist, and one a professional hockey player. He also
wanted to be an adventurer who climbed tall mountains...and to
drive a red Ferrari.
As it turned out, the boy hurt his knee one day while playing football.
He no longer could climb trees, much less mountains. He
married a beautiful and kind woman who was short with brown
eyes. Because of his business, he lived in a city apartment,
took cabs, and rode subways. He had three loving daughters,
and they adopted a fluffy cat. One daughter became a nurse,
another an artist, and the third a music teacher.
One morning the man awoke and remembered his boyhood dream. He became
extremely depressed, so depressed that he became very ill.
Close to death from a broken heart, he called out to God,
“Remember when I was a boy and told You all the things I
wanted? Why didn’t you give me those things?”
“I could have,” said God, “but I wanted to make you happy.”
Recognize that true happiness comes from accepting the life with which
God has provided you. Happiness does not come from big homes
and fancy cars. True happiness comes from your attitude
towards your own unique situation in life and the loving
people around you.
I remember when our first son was born. The lady in the bed beside my
wife had just given birth to her first child as well... a
beautiful, healthy baby girl. However, her husband was
absolutely distraught. He wanted a son so badly that he
wouldn’t even hold his daughter when he came to visit. I
even went and found him a gown one evening and brought it to
him, hoping that he might hold his marvellous daughter. He
would have nothing to do with her. The mother was so depressed
that she even asked my wife if they could trade her daughter
for our son. Here was a time in this young couple’s life
when they should have been so happy with their first born, and
yet, because of their ‘dream’ of having a son, they
couldn’t see the happiness.
I often wonder if one day she and her husband too will
look up to God and ask why He didn’t make their dream come
true? I wonder how many of us will also look up to God and ask
why he didn’t make our dreams come true? Perhaps we will all
be surprised when he answers, “Because I wanted to make you
happy.”
Let’s not spend so much time longing for our childhood dreams that we
miss out on the happiness that we have been given. When God
tells us that he didn’t make the dreams come true because He
wanted to make us happy, let’s hope we don’t have to hang
our heads in regret because we were too blind to enjoy the
happiness we were given in our life.
|
