Dreams For Sale
By Larry D. Wright
Chasing dreams is a risky thing in life. You can get disappointed.
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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.
