How fragile are your dreams? 

Fantasies are fragile indeed. They come and go as quickly as a new picture pops into our heads through something we see on social media or in a movie. An enticement leads to lingering focus. A different lifestyle choice begins to tumble around in our minds. Before you know it, a city slicker is found wearing the garb of an early twentieth-century explorer and driving a Jeep. 

We adults of a certain age call this a Phase. Phases come and phases go. We try on identities trying to figure out who we really are. Notice I said, We. We have all done it. Maybe we do it all of our lives to one degree or another. 

Deep inside of us, there is that Me I Am Supposed to Be. Not the Me Someone Pays Me to Be or the Me Someone Wants Me to Be, but the Me God Created Me to Be. Joseph knew who God created him to be from at least the age of seventeen (Genesis 37:2). 

When did you understand who you were meant to be? I drew a picture when I was seven years old that declared who I was to become. I am no artist. My first-grade teacher was right. I cannot draw a straight line. Yet there is the unmistakable me who had become who I dreamed I would be. I am that guy.

Joseph had a dream. Then he had another. Then he offended his father along with his brothers. He was nearly murdered. He was sold as a slave. He worked as a household slave for a decade or so before spending a few years in prison. 

Thirteen years after declaring God’s dream for his life, he became who God created him to be. He began to do what God created him to do. Long story short, he saved a nation and he saved his family. His final dream was fulfilled long after his death when his body was returned to his native land in a rescue mission like none other in history and in fulfillment of God’s last dream for his life and legacy. 

Many, many people have pondered these pages telling Joseph’s story. One firm conclusion arises again and again.

God’s delays are not God’s denials.

Some things are worth waiting for. 

How is that God dream for your life coming? 

Delayed? Keep waiting. 

Stuck in what feels like prison? Give it your best every day.

Betrayed by those most closely related to you? God’s fulfillment of your dream may well reorient their lives forever. 

Mistreated, misunderstood, and misplaced? God’s dreams provide the key to open doors otherwise securely locked and closed.