Shattered Dreams

Last year, I felt the Lord prompting me to begin teaching a junior high Sunday school class. It only took a year to actually begin. Immediate response has never been a strong point of mine. While I have only taught a few lessons, I've enjoyed it so much. This past Sunday, Cindy, the girls' youth leader, was sick. Instead of my junior high girls and boys, I had junior and senior high girls. In getting together the lesson I had worked on through the week, I wondered if it would apply to all the girls. I prayed and asked the Lord to guide us. If He wanted them to hear that lesson, I would teach it. But I chose to be flexible. Not always easy for me!

In catching up with the girls, we talked about school, ACT's, and how both were going. One of the girls was worried. A mistake had been made and she couldn't see how it could be fixed. And the conversation went from there. I tried to explain to her that this mistake just gave her a way to watch how God works. All the Christian 'self-help' slogans preach that mistakes are just opportunities for God. But it's not just a phrase. It's truth. We forget that until the world comes crashing in. When health breaks down into sickness. When the money runs out and a pink slip comes in. When the ones we trust betray us. When all we've ever wanted becomes impossible. When our dreams lay shattered at our feet.

I told my own story. I cried. It's quite humbling when you're supposed to be leading and teaching and you cry. I tried to explain that God always makes a way and that I was learning that through my own experiences. Sometimes His way is a broken path. He doesn't always fix what we want Him to fix. But He walks that broken path with us. While we may feel alone, we never are. And He always replaces what we long for. Do I still miss those dreams? Yes. Especially at night, when the house is quiet and I'm the only one awake. But I'm not alone. And I don't mean my loved ones asleep in their beds. He is with me. And He comforts me. It's much easier to cry when you're alone and writing, by the way.

But I want you to know something. There are things and people in my life because of those broken dreams. I don't know if they would have been there had I not walked this path. I don't know if I would have appreciated them as much as I do now. Be encouraged, friends. He does have a plan through those 'mistakes'. And those plans can only be shown to His greatest glory through fractures.