Poem: Dreams

Just the other day I was thinking about the role that dreaming (dreams, desires, fantasies) play in the lives of men. I thought about how I am personally affected by the ambitions and dreams I have for my own life, or my family, or my church. Dreams can often carry a person away from reality and become a distraction when real problems need real attention. But without dreams, we never will go anywhere in our lives. We never will test our boundaries or set our goals higher than where we already are. Dreams keep a person going in the midst of an unsettling reality, because that person knows that things may get better in the future. And maybe they'll become more than better -- they'll become extraordinary. With these things in mind, I wrote the following poem over two lunches at Wendy's, my favorite lunchtime "think tank."


DREAMS

Close your eyes and dream with me
Of cotton sands and a turquoise sea
Where palm tress frame a place of rest

And I'm with you and you with me
Our ears are filled with the musical sea
As the sun shines down we are blest

And we dream away...

I did not think we'd have gone this far
When the waves were high and the valley dark
And emotions clouded everything we'd see

Yet we hoped that this would not be the end
For our love is constant more than the wind
And we hoped that better things were yet to be

So we dream away...

Some say dreams are but lofty notions
Meant only to distract and deceive
But I say dreams are fuel for the engine
In the heart of a man; to keep him going
When a valley is all that he can see

He's got to dream away....