"Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamer,
Bring me all your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world."
-Langston Hughes
After four summers at the Sanctuary on 8th Street (safe place for kids in
the Springfield neighborhood; the purplest building downtown; a place where
"hope has happened" for 20 years), I still can't tell you my job
title.
Some days I call myself a Band-Aid-Put-Onner.
Other days I have to be a Tear-Dryer.
Or a Girl-Drama-Diffuser.
I even make a fabulous Tickle Monster.
(Other less savory titles relate to a rat and an upset tummy. Miss Mary
remembers. :) )
But those are the easy parts of my job. It doesn't take immense talent to
wash off a cut or rustle up some Kleenex. What's harder-- and much more
important-- is being a Dream Keeper.
Every little kid has dreams. Getting a new football. Playing football. Being
like her mom. Being a mom. Meeting someone famous. Being someone famous.
Reading books. Writing books.
Some of these are surface-level. But some, the "heart melodies,"
go right to the core of who we are as humans. Being loved. Feeling valuable.
Having the power to make decisions.
Our heart melodies were composed to bring loud and lovely praise to the
Father. He created us with needs that only He could satisfy. And as He
fulfilled those needs, He received astounding glory, glory beyond measure. But
then the Fall happened. Since then, there have been two problems.
1) Some of our heart melodies are out of tune. We desire and dream of things
outside of what God wants for us. When our dreams are wrong, they show that our
own hearts are broken.
2) Sometimes no one listens when we sing. Our dreams can be stunning, really
something beautiful, but they go unfulfilled because the people and systems
around us are broken.
So we have to take our heart melodies to the cross. All of them. Our
off-pitch notes, our pretty tunes, and the ones we're not sure about. In light
of the Son's perfect obedience, we have to examine our desires and leave the wrong
ones to die with Jesus. The other ones, the dreams that line up with His will,
He holds for us "away from the too-rough fingers of the world." And
just as certainly as Jesus rose from the dead, we will see these dreams come
true. Today, tomorrow, or in Heaven.
So as a camp counselor, as the kids share with me their dreams and as I hear
their heart melodies, I invite them to the cross. I lead them to lay down some
of their dreams. Popularity. Having lots of money to spend on themselves.
Drinking and partying to have a good time. As for the other dreams, the ones
about love and value and power, I urge my campers to dig in their heels and
hold on to them. When the kids are too weak, by God's grace I can stand in the
gap and help them fight with the truth of God's Word. We trust God to show us
His love, give us our value, and fill us with power. And He, our holy Dream
Keeper, "is able to guard what we have entrusted to him
until the day of his return" (2 Timothy 1:12).
