LIFE'S DREAMS: #3 Misplaced Dreams

By Dr. Gilbert W. Stafford
Scripture: Acts 26:9-14

FIGHTING A WAR THAT WAS OVER 

A Japanese soldier by the name of Hiroo Onoda was in Japan’s army during World War II. He found himself on an island in the Philippines at the time of the cease fire and surrender, but unfortunately did not hear about it. Consequently, for nearly 30 years, Onoda continued waging a one man war. It was only when a superior officer, having been made aware of him, ordered Onoda to come out of the jungle and surrender that he finally quit pursuing the dream of a Japanese victory.[i] His was a misplaced dream.

A misplaced dream is a deep desire for and commitment to something that is totally unrealistic. Lt. Onoda desired a victory for Japan, but that for which he gave some thirty years of his life had absolutely no relationship to reality. He was, as we often say, living in an unreal world. It is tragic to expend one’s energies, resources, and time on something that is not to be.



KICKING AGAINST THE GOADS 
That was the case with the Apostle Paul. His dream was that of wiping out the Christian witness. He was willing to expend all of his energies in hopes of realizing that dream. Acts 8:3 says that he “was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.”[ii] Acts 9:21 refers to him as having “made havoc in Jerusalem” among believers. According to Acts 26:10-11, he says to King Agrippa; “I not only locked up many of the saints in prison, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being condemned to death. 11>By punishing them often in all the synagogues I tried to force them to blaspheme; and since I was so furiously enraged at them, I pursued them even to foreign cities.”

Before his conversion, Paul was a religious zealot with a misplaced dream. Nevertheless, he kept running into the stubborn will of god who would not allow him the fulfillment of his dream. Paul didn’t know it at the time, but according to the promise of god, the church can never be obliterated from the face of the earth. Down through the centuries, many have devoted enormous energies trying to do so, but always without success. It is a lost cause from the word go. In fact, it is just as much of a misplaced dream as the one of Hiroo Onoda waging war for a Japanese victory for some thirty years, long after the war was over. Even so, Paul, before his conversion wasted his energies on a lost cause. But for a long time he pursued his dream always however, to be stung by divine judgment. In fact, Acts 26;14 says that when the lord confronted him on the road to Damascus, he said to Paul: “It hurts you to kick against the goads.”

Goads are the pointed sticks used for both driving and guiding cattle. For example, when oxen plowed a field they had to be forced to stay on course instead of roaming around wherever they had a yen to go. If they had been allowed to do that, the work never would have been finished. In order for the field to be worked up, the oxen had to stay with the program instead of pursuing any and every hankering they might have.

Sometimes we humans are like oxen roaming the field. Instead of staying with the program that God has for us, we want to go our own way. We pursue this, that, and the other thing just like oxen in a field might meander her, there, and the other place without ever getting the field plowed.

So, the picture we have here of Paul is that he had been pursuing his own dreams instead of god’s will. God had chosen him even before his birth to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. Therefore, every time that he pursued his own misplaced dream of destroying Christians, it was like kicking against the sharp goads that make oxen do what they are supposed to do. These divine goads were reminders that he was not to spend his life where signs of god’s grace. Had it not been for them, he would probably have devoted his whole life in the pursuit of that which was contrary to the will of God.

The goads in our lives are evidences of God’s grace. They are painful reminders that God has something better for us. They are warnings that we need to stop pursuing those dreams that are not in the plan of God.

But the question that we now need to address is this: How do we know whether our dreams are misplaced and contrary to the will of god? Consider these five tests:

DIVINE CALL 

Test One: Divine Call. Have you heard God calling you to do whatever it is you are convinced you are to do? I am not talking here necessarily about an audible voice, but also about an inner voice that we know to be the voice of God. I am talking about that voice within that comes from beyond. It is a voice that is heard not so much through sound waves by spiritual impressions on the heart. In fact, we are so grasped by this voice from beyond that we have a story to tell others. We can tell them when it happened and where.

Paul, for example, could give particulars about his encounter with the Lord. In Acts 26:12-14, he reports: “I was traveling to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, 13>when at midday along the road, your Excellency, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions. 14>When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’”

Obviously, your story and mine will not be like Paul’s, but we, like Paul, do need to be called. Are your life’s dreams related to an experience of divine call? Are you pursuing whatever it is you are pursuing on the basis of being called of God? If so, you have reason to proceed with confidence.

AFFIRMATION FROM OTHERS

Test Two: Affirmation from those who will tell you the truth. Some people tell us anything they think we want to hear. Others, however, love us enough to tell us the truth regardless of whether we like it. Those who genuinely love us have our best interest in view, not our likes and dislikes. A big difference exists, on the one hand, between those who have our best interest in view and are always honest with us, and, on the other hand, those who only want us to like what they say. It is the first we are talking about. Do the truth tellers – not the flatterers – affirm that you are on the right track? If so, you have another reason to proceed with confidence.

WHETHER IT IS LOVING 

Third Test: Is it the loving thing to do? Love as defined by the life of Christ is that which helps others be all that God wants them to be. Jesus came to us, and ministered to us, and died for us so that we could be all that God wants us to be. When we, therefore, love as Christ loves us, then, we, too, will help others be all that God wants them to be. That is what, from a Christian perspective, it means to do the loving thing. Are your life’s dreams, then, loving? Do they help others be all that God wants them to be? If so, you could have another reason to proceed with confidence.

INTERNAL WITNESS

Fourth Test: The internal witness of the Spirit. We are talking here about a settleness in the depths of your soul that what you are doing is right. That means that you are so confident that regardless of what happens to you as a result of pursuing this dream, you are willing to take the consequences whatever they may be. Is your soul at peace in the presence of god? If you have this internal witness of the Spirit, you have another reason to proceed with confidence.

GOADS OR HURDLES? 

The fifth test has to do with how we experience the obstacles along the way. Do they feel like hurdles for victory, or like goads of judgment? Are they more like the bars over which a pole vaulter jumps in triumph, or are they more like the sharp points of goads in the side of a distracted ox? For Paul, the resistance to his work did not feel like hurdles for victory, but like the goads of divine judgment.

When obstacles along the way are experienced as goads, then it is time to take another look at our dreams. But if obstacles are like the bars over which we can jump to victory, then we have another reason to proceed with confidence.

And so, my friend, make the five point check of your dreams, whether they are dreams about your work or play, whether about marriage or singleness, whether about friends or enemies, whether about the past or the future. Are your dreams God directed? Do those whose judgment you trust affirm your dreams? Do your dreams enable others to be all that god wants them to be? Do you feel at peace about your dreams? Are the obstacles along the way more like hurdles toward victory than they are like goads of judgment? If all the answers are in the affirmative, proceed with confidence. But if not, back off and take another look. Take another look at life’s dreams when you have no sense of divine call about them. Take another look when those whom you trust give no affirmation. Take another look when they are not clearly about love. Take another look when you have no internal peace about them. Take another look when the obstacles you face feel like goads of divine judgment. It just may be that you are fighting a war that no longer exists. It may be that you are at odds with God himself. It may be that you are wasting your energies on misplaced dreams.

And if that turns out to be the case, do what Paul did. Abandon those misplaced dreams, and turn in repentant faith to the Lord who will set you free and redirect all of your energies into that which is noble and good.

PRAYER 

I invite you to join me in prayer:

Gracious Lord, you who know all thins, guard us against misplaced dreams that divert us from being and doing what you call us to be and do. To the degree that we are inspired by misplaced dreams, stop us in our tracks so that, like Paul of ancient times, we, too, may be converted to you and serve your purposes. Grant us the grace to change when it is clear that our dreams have nothing to do with your will and purpose. We pray this in the name of Christ, our Lord. Amen.

[i] i Herald Bulletin (Anderson, Indiana), May 25, 1996, p. A3
[ii]ii New Revised Standard Version used here and throughout.

Script 2594 (GWS)
September 15, 1996
SERIES: LIFE’S DREAMS
3. Misplaced Dreams
Scripture: Acts 26:9-14