Dreams

Friday night was opening night for the Rome Little Theater production of “The Sound of Music.” For a small town like Rome, Georgia, our Little Theater does a great job with their productions. I am a little prejudiced as Allison played the role of Maria—of course she was the best in the show.

Allison has her coffee shop to run and a wedding to plan, but she chose to try out for the Sound of Music knowing the productions would be a couple weeks before her wedding. Why? Not just to be in the theater as she is a regular performer in the troupe here in Rome. A lifelong dream of hers has been to be Maria in a musical production of “The Sound of Music.” When we were living in West Africa and Cheryl would crank up the generator to wash clothes, Allison begged to turn on the VHS and watch “The Sound of Music” tape. We have worn out several video tapes and DVDs through the years as the grandchildren are now hooked on it also.

Whether it’s a child dreaming about what she wants to be when she grows up or an adult who is dreaming about achieving something spectacular or a villager dreaming about being able to purchase something that is not possible in his economic status, dreams are important. There is an anonymous quote that says, “A civilization is as great as its dreams.”

When we were living in Clinton, Mississippi, and I was working at Mississippi College some friends asked if they could come by for a visit. It turned out that their intention was not to visit and have fun with us, but to convince us to sell Amway. Now they definitely did not come to the point quickly. They had been trained to make their pitch first and then come in with a great solution for us.

Here’s the way they worked. They asked us to write down five things that we had been dreaming about purchasing, but that had not been possible because of our financial limitations. Now first off, these friends did not know us very well. I think they only saw us as potential clients for their pyramid. If they had known us well they would have known that we had only recently arrived from 11 years of living in the bush of West Africa where we used a kerosene refrigerator, raised our own vegetables and fruits and bought most of our meat from the back of a bicycle of a villager who had just slaughtered a cow, pig, or goat. Luxury to us was a visit to the capital city of Ouagadougou every four to six weeks where we would stay in the air conditioned guest house and go swimming in the American Club pool.

The problem was that Cheryl and I could not list any “dreams” as our friends described. So, they started teasing us asking, “How would you like to have house on the lake?” “How about a ski boat or a recreational vehicle?” We were not really interested in a bigger house or a second house or a big boat. Then they started playing on our conscience: “Don’t you want your children to go to the finest colleges and to have big weddings?” That did not work either, so they wrote down some “things” that they thought every American family would dream about having one day. That helped them to complete their pitch and try to get us on board.

Cheryl and I have not been much on dreaming about buying things. It is not because we are so different or so much better than anyone else. We are SO human and SUCH sinners, but our DNA has just been to walk with the Lord as best we can and wait on Him. When a need arose, He provided according to His will. Sounds simple, but it is profound and has been a part of the foundation of our lives together for the past 43 years.  

“The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.” Lamentations 3:25 (ESV)