Many plans and dreams have gone by the wayside during these days of lockdowns and pandemic emergency. My good friend, Dayle over at Tip of My Iceburg, shared how the porch they’d planned, saved, and dreamed for finally came true. Except the porch built to hold lots of family and friends now sits empty, but for the two of them.
Hubby and I are also facing a shattered dream. After working hard toward retirement, saving and living frugally, we’d hoped to get a better car before retiring. Instead, with even private schools closing he joined the unemployed ranks (perhaps permanently), at the age of 62. And our tiny nest egg now goes for daily living expenses.
But I have another friend, facing a greater shattered dream. After losing her husband to cancer just before the lockdown, she’d hoped to fulfill his wishes of being cremated and buried back in England. But she now sits all alone in lockdown, with his ashes, unable to even take him home for burial.
Dreams turned to ashes
Many hopes and dreams have turned to ashes, foiled at the last minute by the unseen enemy we are all fighting.
Now I know, and I believe my friend Dayle realizes, that our shattered dreams were not life shattering. An empty porch and a rickety old car are not the end of the world.
Perhaps you too had hopes and dreams – small or great – that have been shatered by this illness or all the devastating circumstances surrounding it. Hopes, plans, or dreams that have now gone awry.
Shattered hopes and lives
And many facing broken dreams which have shattered their lives, making it seem that all hope has faded away.
Perhaps you’d dreamed of growing old (or older) with your spouse, but this virus took him or her away. Or perhaps you’d planned to pay your home off but, because of unemployment, now risk losing it.
And like Dayle, sitting on her empty porch, or me in our rickety old car, you feel disappointed and weary of it all. Or maybe you sit with the shattered dreams of a broken life, wondering how to even keep going. Wondering if there is anything left to cling to.
Hope for shattered dreams
Our greatest hope in all things is that our Lord is unchanging. He is always constant, never changing. He is ever with us, and will always be the solid rock we can cling to. But we can also hold on to these simple truths:
1. Nothing in this life is permanent.
And in that impermanence we can find hope. The emptiness, the loneliness, the disappointment or desperation we now face cannot endure. All earthly things, even this pandemic, come to an end sooner or later.
2. We have a true and certain and assurance.
We can cling to the fact that the Lord is ever faithful. To the truth that he will never leave us nor forsake us. And that in some way, he will somehow provide our needs, heal our hurts, fill our loneliness, and bring new life and hope.
3. God wants us to hope, plan, and dream.
It’s the way he made us. He placed within us an inner longing for more than we now have. All our hopes and dreams are a reminder that we were created for more. And they can be a blessing from God to help us see above and beyond our problems – and right into the heart of eternity.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV
Hope is from God, for he made us with an inner longing for more than what we can have here. All our hopes and dreams are but a reminder that we were created for more!
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4. God’s plans are always good.
He loves us with an everlasting love and has promised to always take care of us, provide for us, and to be our ever present companion. He has good in mind for us. The fact that bad things come because we live in an evil world does not change the good he has planned for us in this life. Or the eternal good he has in mind for us that is far more than we can even imagine, in the next.
So never stop dreaming. Never stop planning. Or hoping. You’re in good company. You’re planning right alongside the Lord!
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11 ESV
Images: Broken window by gere | Woman looking at mts. by mcredi fine.
Signora Sheila 
Thank you for the reassurance, Sheila, that “God wants us to hope, plan, and dream.” It is not wrong to hope for joy to overcome grief, to plan for anticipated events ahead, or dream of fulfilling a long-held desire–as long as the events and desires don’t conflict with his ways. But I suppose we have to hold loosely to our hopes, plans, and dreams, because sometimes he has better ideas in mind! (That’s something I need to remember!)
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Amen, Nancy. We have to hold our hopes, plans, and dreams between our fingertips. Not in clenched fists! God made us like himself, and we should plan and hope, for he does. But as you said, we need to remember that he is in control. And that ultimately we are always called to surrender! Many blessings, dear friend!
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I could feel your heart of compassion for others. This has been an intense time of loss and sadness for some. I’ sorry to hear what you and your family have experienced. I can tell you are trusting in God to see you through. I said a prayer for you❤️
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Thank you so much, DeborahMarie. It is such a sad time of loss for so many people. We are surrounded by them over here. People that are ending up on the streets because they can’t pay for housing. Families without food. It’s heartbreaking. All we can do is trust the Lord to bring us and others through, while doing all we can to help. Thank you so much for your prayers. We must pray for one another in this time! God bless.
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I pray for things to get better for your community soon. 😢
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Thank you so much Deborah Marie! We are all in God’s hands, and we know he is always at work! We pray that the Lord will help things to improve all over the world.
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Thank you for your kindness, Sheila! But you’re so right–so many are hurting desperately with losses and shattered dreams that have impacted all of life. But God. He is still good. And still present. And this was never intended to be home, never intended to be our satisfaction, which is hard to grasp when this is what we see now. Oh, for the day that our faith will be made sight! I’m sorry for your savings having to go for living expenses. But I’m also confident the Lord knows your need and seeks to satisfy it with His goodness and grace. Maybe not a new car. Maybe not people on a porch. But in ways He alone can make happen. You are such a dear friend from afar; heaven will be amazing because we’ll finally be face to face and able to hug and know one another as sisters and friends in Him.
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Amen, Dayle. God always knows just what we need, when we need it, and provides in his own special way. It’s so wonderful to know we can always rely on him. And it will be wonderful to meet in heaven, where no one can tell us to put a mask on or that we can’t hug!! Oh, glorious day that will be!!
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