Chasing dreams is a risky thing in life. You
can get disappointed.
One such dream chaser purchased a beautiful
five-acre parcel of land with a beautiful stream in the mountains
of Colorado. It was a simple, but perhaps naïve, choice to
exchange a complex life for an undemanding one. In contrast to the
ugly and concrete of the city, he sought to be surrounded by the
beauty and solitude of nature.
However, as is often the case, hard winters,
loneliness, and isolation brought an eventual end to his dreams.
He discovered the cruel meaning of a common saying among natives
of Colorado: "The mountains don’t care." Neither does
life.
After giving the mountains a good try, the man
packed up and moved back to the city. On the edge of his property
he placed a sign that read: "FOR SALE: A Dream With A
Stream".
It’s hard when life pressures you to put a
"FOR SALE" sign on a piece of you dreams.
What happens when your dreams of a perfect
life, marriage, children, health and career are shattered? When
life doesn’t turn out the way you had planned? What do you do?
One day Jesus met a woman whose dreams of a
perfect world were nothing but a shattered memory. As she stood
beside the well of Jacob, if you look close enough, you can see
the pieces of her shattered life lying in the dust at her feet. It
was high noon when she met Jesus but the sun had already set on
her hopes and dreams.
Her dream of a perfect life, the one with a
wonderful husband, loving children, a nice house with a white
picket fence, was all just a shattered dream. On the day she met
Jesus, she had staked a "FOR SALE" sign on a corner of
her once beautiful life. She discovered the one thing that men and
mountains have in common: "The mountains don’t care",
and neither do some men. There was always someone willing to buy,
even a person with shattered dreams.
Engaging the disillusioned woman in
conversation, Jesus skillfully created an opportunity that allowed
her to dream again. They started out chatting about water and
ended up talking about a satisfying life, the kind of life
everyone dreams about. She was surprised to discover that the
unquenched thirst of her life, the one that had driven her to
polluted streams, was quenched in this mysterious man. The Messiah
she longed to meet was sitting on the side of the well beside her.
The kingdom of God was there and he was wearing sandals like an
ordinary man. Imagine that!
His words caused her to dream again. Jesus is
like that. He brings hope into hopeless situations.
I love the way the story ends. She dropped her
water jar and ran into town excitedly sharing her new discovery
with anyone who would listen. Having her hopes restored by this
man, she was anxious to stir the hopes of others. She left her
water jar behind because you can’t put hope in a jar. You put
hope in your heart and it is hope that causes you to take down the
FOR SALE sign and dream once again.
