Do you ever find yourself staring off into space? I sure do. It seems to get worse as I get older! If you have ever found yourself wondering where the last 5 minutes or more have gone, well you probably have fallen into the world of day dreaming. This phenomena is not that much different from dreams that you have when you sleep, in that you find yourself in a place other than where you expect to be doing things other than what you expect to be doing. Sometimes this can be frightening, other times..."It's a beautiful day, the sun is shining, you've got the radio on, and you're driving'..."
From the 5x platinum, # 3 album Full Moon Fever, comes the second single from Tom Petty's solo debut, "Running Down A Dream". It peaked at @23 at Billboard and was used as the title to a documentary on Petty. It follows the footsteps of Petty's #12 debut single from the album, "I Won't Back Down" (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "I Won't Back Down"), solidifying Full Moon Fever's status as a legitimate solo effort by the leader of the Heartbreakers and founding member (Charlie T. Wilbury Jr., and Muddy Wilbury) of the 80's supergroup The Traveling Wilburys. (George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Bob Dylan).
Cowritten by Jeff Lynne, Petty and Heartbreaker band member Mike Campbell, "Running Down A Dream" is a semi biographical nod to Petty's musical roots and life on the road as a touring musical act. It features the reference to the #1 hit from 1961, "Runaway" by Del Shannon. It portrays the all too familiar process of trying to chase a dream to its ultimate conclusion, but always being just slightly behind and never quite catching up with the pace of the dream. It is the kind of song that you don't mind having the windows down, hitting the cruise control yourself, and singing along. It's just so much fun and could easily serve as the soundtrack for any daydream that you're needing to break up your day.
There are different kinds of dreams. There are those that come in the middle of the night as visions of alternate realities or fantastical stories in which we imbed ourselves. There are those dreams that are reoccurring that tend to visit the traumatic events in our lives. Mine always include ominous men in red blazers showing up at the door and saying, "Mr. Cross we are here from the University of Arkansas. Do you remember the accounting course you took in the summer of 1985? We're here to inform you did not, in fact pass that class. We have notified your employer of this discrepancy and we need to recover your diploma..." Bolt up out of bed in a pool of sweat, scary stuff right?
These are not the dreams we wish to visit today however.
As we face this season of "graduation", it is a good opportunity for us to ask a few questions. What are your goals and desires? To what do you wish to aspire? What are your dreams? Even if we have achieved our "degree", we continue to learn and our opportunity for aspiring to greater heights continues. We live in a world that fuels the ideology that we can never achieve enough. How does this jibe with a world view whose foundation is the Bible, God's Word?
Running down a dream in the Bible takes on many forms. Many of which take the shape of the dreams of our previous discussion. From Jacob seeing angels ascending a ladder, to Joseph interpreting dreams for those he encountered, to the visions that Daniel saw regarding the end of times. But again, these dreams, while important events in history, do not encompass what God desires for us to achieve with our lives.
A letter that the prophet Jeremiah wrote to the conquered and exiled nation of Israel can serve to fuel the goals that we make for our lives. Jeremiah writes:
"For this is what the Lord says: “When 70 years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm My promise concerning you to restore you to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “I will restore you to the place I deported you from."
In this passage, God is providing the dream of restoration to the Israelite homeland, but the promise God is making in Jeremiah is equally true for us today. The difficulty for us in 2017 is that so many times, we do not take advantage of aligning our dreams with God. Notice what He says in verse 11..."He knows the plans that He has for us". One should only imagine that Gods plans are far better than any plan we might contrive. When we align our plans with His plans, His dreams for our lives will come to pass because He has promised that they will.
Jesus promotes this promise even further when He talks about God's plan for our lives. In 10th chapter of John's recording of the Gospel, Jesus is speaking of Himself as a shepherd and about us as His sheep.
Notice that Jesus speaks about the abundance that He provides for our lives. But we must enter Him as we would enter the door to a sheep pen. Once there, our lives, our aspirations, our dreams are enhanced because they are in correlation to the Shepherd's life. We rely on the One Who provides our needs and Who promises abundance. Being in His presences is a place that feels so good, like anything is possible. We don't have to run down our dream, it is already there waiting for us, IF WE WILL GO THROUGH THE DOOR.
Dear friend, God is waiting to provide an abundant life. He is waiting for you to partner with Him in dreaming big dreams. He does not however, force His will on anyone. You choose between God's abundance or your own efforts at running down your dreams. Which will it be today? As the band Rush puts it, "If you chose not to decide, you still have made a choice." Let's choose to "Dream Big" in God's abundance...
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving you,
Randy
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