Friday, January 13, 2012
Living The Dream (part 1)
In First
Samuel, chapter 1, we can read the story of Hannah and her prayer for a son. To
recap her story, Hannah was one of two wives to Elkanah. Hannah had no
children. Verse five tells us that for whatever reason, the Lord had closed her
womb. Penninah, Elkanah's other wife, had children and chose to provoke Hannah,
pick at her and put her down because of her barren state. In fact, Penninah was
so vicious in her attack, that it drove Hannah to weep and not eat. You can
imagine the heartache Hannah experienced. Elkhanah tried to console her. He
obviously loved her we can see that in his attempt to take care of Hannah. The
chapter is specific to tell us that Elkanah cared for Hannah, even giving her a
double portion of meat to sacrifice. But Hannah wanted more. She had a dream,
an ardent desire, a true longing of the heart to have a child.
I think most of us can relate to Hannah. We might not grieve to have children, but we all have dreams. We all have that one pressing heartache for something to come true for us. In our day and age, we live in a society that encourages us to follow our dreams, chase them at all costs and run after them, work for them, don't give up on them or let them die. Although these are all very positive aspirations and sentiments, I think Hannah's story and her example tells us to go about out dreams in a different way. Hannah's story teaches us to lay our dreams down, to let them die, in order for God to resurrect them in His way and in His timing.
In verses 10-12, Hannah desperately prays and pleads for a son. She is found in the temple praying and Eli, the priest, sees her and Hannah tells him that she was praying out of great anguish and grief. Hannah was so overcome by her praying that Eli thought she was talking to herself and accused her of being drunk! Again, this dream was extremely important to Hannah. You have to assume that Hannah had this dream for awhile. And I would guess that this wasn't her first time to pray about it. But for some reason this prayer was different. It was different enough to be recorded in scripture and different enough to get God's attention. I think what makes this prayer so special is in the vow that Hannah made to lay down and give her son back to God.
The dream for Hannah would have probably been to have a son, raise him, care for him, watch him grow and mature, have his own family and possible Hannah would live with him when Elkanah died. But Hannah gave up that dream and said, "OK, God. I give my son, who I don't even have yet, back to you and trust that you'll fulfill my hearts desire your way." And if you continue reading in 1 Samuel, you'll see that God did just that.
So the first thing we learn from Hannah is we need to let go, in honest prayer, lay down our dreams and trust that if God chooses, and that dream really is from Him, He'll raise it up from the ashes in His way and in His time. For me, this is a hard lesson. I have the tendency to get so excited when I envision a possibility that I am quick to run ahead of God and try to fashion all the pieces together on my own. I have had to learn the hard way that when I work, God doesn't. I've had to learn how to take my hands off and let God have it. I've had to go around the block many times to get a grip on patience; to let God go about making the dream come to fruition in a way that glorifies Him and His doing. On my own, I eventually run face first into a brick wall of frustration when I can't force the pieces together. I stomp my foot and declare that nothing is going to keep me from making this dream happen. But Hannah didn't go about it that way. In fact, I would say that in the past I have operated more like Sarai when she decided to take her dream into her own hands. In Genesis, chapter 16, you can read the story. But in a nut shell, Sarai's story was a lot like Hannah's. Sarai wanted a child, she wasn't able to conceive. Instead of letting God orchestrate a miracle for her, Sarai decided to take matters into her own hands. She decided to have her servant, Hagar, sleep with Abram, Sarai's husband. At least in this situation Sarai would have a child, although not in a traditional manner, but that didn't seem to bother Sarai......until Hagar was pregnant and Sarai was in a mess of insecurity, jealousy and paranoia. The story goes on to get pretty sticky. It reads almost like an episode of Jerry Springer.
I hate to admit it, but I have been more like Sarai than like Hannah when it comes to my dreams and goals. Of course, just like Sarai, this has cost me a great deal and taken me down roads of repentance and consequences. But the story for Sarai, Hannah and for myself doesn't end here! Tomorrow I'll share some other lessons I have learned from Hannah and how that has shaped my new idea on dreams and goals.
I think most of us can relate to Hannah. We might not grieve to have children, but we all have dreams. We all have that one pressing heartache for something to come true for us. In our day and age, we live in a society that encourages us to follow our dreams, chase them at all costs and run after them, work for them, don't give up on them or let them die. Although these are all very positive aspirations and sentiments, I think Hannah's story and her example tells us to go about out dreams in a different way. Hannah's story teaches us to lay our dreams down, to let them die, in order for God to resurrect them in His way and in His timing.
In verses 10-12, Hannah desperately prays and pleads for a son. She is found in the temple praying and Eli, the priest, sees her and Hannah tells him that she was praying out of great anguish and grief. Hannah was so overcome by her praying that Eli thought she was talking to herself and accused her of being drunk! Again, this dream was extremely important to Hannah. You have to assume that Hannah had this dream for awhile. And I would guess that this wasn't her first time to pray about it. But for some reason this prayer was different. It was different enough to be recorded in scripture and different enough to get God's attention. I think what makes this prayer so special is in the vow that Hannah made to lay down and give her son back to God.
The dream for Hannah would have probably been to have a son, raise him, care for him, watch him grow and mature, have his own family and possible Hannah would live with him when Elkanah died. But Hannah gave up that dream and said, "OK, God. I give my son, who I don't even have yet, back to you and trust that you'll fulfill my hearts desire your way." And if you continue reading in 1 Samuel, you'll see that God did just that.
So the first thing we learn from Hannah is we need to let go, in honest prayer, lay down our dreams and trust that if God chooses, and that dream really is from Him, He'll raise it up from the ashes in His way and in His time. For me, this is a hard lesson. I have the tendency to get so excited when I envision a possibility that I am quick to run ahead of God and try to fashion all the pieces together on my own. I have had to learn the hard way that when I work, God doesn't. I've had to learn how to take my hands off and let God have it. I've had to go around the block many times to get a grip on patience; to let God go about making the dream come to fruition in a way that glorifies Him and His doing. On my own, I eventually run face first into a brick wall of frustration when I can't force the pieces together. I stomp my foot and declare that nothing is going to keep me from making this dream happen. But Hannah didn't go about it that way. In fact, I would say that in the past I have operated more like Sarai when she decided to take her dream into her own hands. In Genesis, chapter 16, you can read the story. But in a nut shell, Sarai's story was a lot like Hannah's. Sarai wanted a child, she wasn't able to conceive. Instead of letting God orchestrate a miracle for her, Sarai decided to take matters into her own hands. She decided to have her servant, Hagar, sleep with Abram, Sarai's husband. At least in this situation Sarai would have a child, although not in a traditional manner, but that didn't seem to bother Sarai......until Hagar was pregnant and Sarai was in a mess of insecurity, jealousy and paranoia. The story goes on to get pretty sticky. It reads almost like an episode of Jerry Springer.
I hate to admit it, but I have been more like Sarai than like Hannah when it comes to my dreams and goals. Of course, just like Sarai, this has cost me a great deal and taken me down roads of repentance and consequences. But the story for Sarai, Hannah and for myself doesn't end here! Tomorrow I'll share some other lessons I have learned from Hannah and how that has shaped my new idea on dreams and goals.
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