Bruuuce!!! - Springsteen was right

"Now those dreams come back to haunt me,
they haunt me like a curse,
Is a dream a lie if it dont come true,
Or is it something worse?... (from Bruce Springsteen's song The River)
This is a verse from one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite musical artists and songwriters. Bruuuuce!!! screams the crowd at his concerts. I saw a post of this song the other day on FB by a friend (Thanks Rick!!)and it took me back to when I first heard it and how it affected me then and now. The song is about a fellow who, through some decisions in his life, has his dreams changed and maybe crushed by those decisions and what we call life. Bruce was right in the song in making a point to get us to think about what are dreams are and how they play out in our life.

I believe our strongest dream/desire is to be significant. Whether its significance to the world,country,state,community,work group,small group,family or the loved one you share your life with. We want to be significant. We want to know, "Who am I?", "Why do I exist?". We start out having dreams and visions of who we want to become, as Bruce puts it in the song above. But sometimes those things that seemed important then, well mister they vanished right into the air...(another reference to the song). If you think about how he worded that and how we have felt at one point or at many points in our life, we are definitely like the seeds Jesus talks about in Matthew 13. He said when the sower went out to sow, some seed fell beside the road,some fell on rocky places, some fell among the thorns, but some fell on good soil. Too often in my case, the seed has fell beside the road and the evil one has come and snatched it away. That's usually, no wait, that's always when my dreams don't line up with what He has planned and wanted for me. The good stuff in my life (Salvation, Dedra, Noah, Chloe', family,friends,etc) have all been brought about by Him, not me. He gives every good and perfect gift and is always giving so as to draw us to Him. That draws me back into Ephesians 1:11, "In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to His plan of Him who works everything in conformity with the purpose of His will." To paraphrase, its in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for.

So, Springsteen was right in a way, when he said, "Is a dream a lie, if it don't come true, or is it something worse..." If our dreams and visions (another Boss reference in another song, look it up you might like it) don't line up with what He wants, we are just dry seeds laying by the side of the road waiting to be snatched up. God didn't create us for that, He certainly doesn't want that for us and has so much more good stuff there for us, if we plant ourselves in the good soil of Him.

Love somebody big time today, say a prayer to a big God who can do all things and find that good soil.

Thankful,
Danl