weekend Broadcast

Overcoming Shattered Dreams, Part 1

From the series Unstuck

We all have dreams. Dreams for our children, dreams for our marriage, dreams for our lives. So what do you do when one of those dreams gets shattered? How do you recover and go on? Chip talks, in this message, about how to overcome the pain of a shattered dream.

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Message Transcript

Of all the things that are hard to deal with in life I think one of the most difficult things in life to deal with are shattered dreams. And we all have them. When we are little children I don’t know that we conjure up and think, “This is dreams,” I think it’s just innate.

And as little kids we have dreams, either consciously or subconsciously, of having a perfect family… that we’re going to be loved and affirmed, and known and secure, and we’re going to have a mom and a dad that care about us, and we’re going to go on vacations, and everyone is going to stay together, and we’re going to laugh at night, and tickle and throw pillows, and we’re going to celebrate birthdays, and we’re going to defend each other.

And for many in this room, your childhood wasn’t like that at all. And then you move to adulthood and the dreams actually get a little more clearly articulated and you want to find “Mr. Right” or the perfect girl and you have dreams because you’ve watched movies, like I have, and read a few novels that you’re gonna have deep talks, and long walks, and romance.

Good jobs, wonderful kids, there’ll be joy, and campouts, and little league and just all these pictures of what it would be like - we’ve been fed the American Dream - and for many, that dream got shattered.

You never dreamed, ever, ever dreamed you’d be without your mate because they died prematurely. For others, you just thought divorce was a word in a situation that could never touch you.

For others, you go to church regularly, and you’re hanging in there but the status quo is hollow, emotional relationships, private sexual frustrations, emptiness in terms of communication, kids that grew up that were supposed to really appreciate what you did, they don’t only not call very much, they don’t seem to care. And those adult dreams, and mid-life dreams, are not at all what you thought.

But by mid-life, you transfer them, and maybe the family wasn’t exactly what you’d thought or maybe you never found “Mr. Right” or “Miss Perfect” and you realize that singleness really isn’t all that bad, once you got around all those married folks.

And it’s interesting, you do pastoral counseling for twenty-five years, this is what you experience: If they’re married they want to be single and if they’re single they want to be married.

And we always, it’s wild. We always look at what the other people have and what we don’t, “Oh, you know, those single people. They have disposable income, they have freedom, they don’t have all these demands,” on and on and on.

And, “Oh, they’ve got a partner they can share life with and I’m lonely and,” you know, we all have our issues.

And in mid-life we, I think the dreams shift to by now you’re at that point where you thought, you know, the job and the career would be at a certain spot, you would have a certain level of impact or significance and financial security. You know, you poured your life into your kids, you went into all those games, you saved all that money, you went into all that debt and you wanted your kids to really turn out right.

And for some that really was neat and you got bits and pieces of it. And for others, your house is upside down, some of your kids dropped out of school, there are some real shattered dreams that the promotions and where you were at and where you thought you’d be, you know, like your life is half over and the realization that some of those things you thought you were going to do, they’re not going to happen.

And so you either push that down, and make the best of it and this ties into a lot of why we do lots of mind-numbing things. When you have deep longings that aren’t fulfilled and when dreams are shattered it just feels good to eat, or go out to eat, or go on a vacation, or charge something.

Affairs grow out of shattered dreams; pornography and eating disorders grow out of shattered dreams; self-inflicting behavior grows out of shattered dreams; legalistic, zealous, nutso religiosity grows out of shattered dreams.

In the later years, you have this picture that you’ve worked hard, you want to relax, you want to travel, want to be closer to family, you’ve really worked hard about maybe where you can stay, maybe relocate near your kids or grandkids, and pretty soon your 401k is a 101k.

Some of your kids aren’t in a position where either you want to be around them now, or they want to be around you. And it’s really hard when you find yourself saving, saving, saving and then instead of these golden years, one of you has cancer.

Or the retirement that was supposed to send you off into the sunset… actually you’re trying to figure out, “How are we going to make it? And we wish we would have bought that disability insurance that we thought only other people would need.”

And you know what? Whether you’re a kid, or an adult, or in mid-life, everybody experiences shattered dreams. And they can revolve around your career, your relationships; they can revolve around the kind of pain and dysfunctions that grow out of them.

That the people that you love the most, you do know, they can hurt you the most. And when you see what happens in shattered dreams what you find is that they’re like a pivot point.

Some people experience deep shattered dreams and it is what catapults them into a level of growth, and impact, and health, and relationship with God and it came because they hit rock bottom, or they they’ve realized the ladder of their focus was against the wrong wall.

And other people, they have shattered dreams and it just is:  status quo, just plowing through, you make up stuff like, “I don’t really care.”  “It doesn’t really matter.” “I didn’t want to do that anyway.” Liar, liar, pants on fire.

And we just play all kind of games, because when you have pictures in your mind of how you think life would turn out, and it really doesn’t, it’s painful. And we usually don’t face it, we usually don’t know what to do with it, and we usually don’t grow from it.

And so we’re going to talk about how do you grow? How do you respond to the shattered dreams in your life?

And I want to encourage you.  I’ve got three specific things that I think are critical, and regardless of the age… see, shattered dreams can be the greatest turning point in your life, but I’m going to suggest three things have to happen, and then I’ll develop them.

Number one, we must face our shattered dreams. Number two, we need to understand our shattered dreams. And number three, we can grow from our shattered dreams. And the third one is you have to be willing to.

So, first we must face them. No matter how painful… until you face the pain and the hurt, and the loss, and the disappointment, and the anger, and the frustration, and the resentment, you’ll never grow.

Most of us hide, compartmentalize, compensate, lash out, blame, internalize, and never grow through our shattered dreams. “It was my mom’s fault, it was my dad’s fault, it was the government’s fault, it was so-and-so’s fault, it’s that guy who introduced that, it’s that person who did that.”

And then you just shove it down, shove it down… it’s like you have this empty hole in your leg and you just take all that stuff and you just keep shoving stuff in it, shoving stuff in it, and you just don’t deal with it. That’s what we do.

Because it’s painful to face. It’s painful to say out loud, “My mom didn’t love me. If she did, she wouldn’t have abandoned our family. My dad didn’t care about me. My mate walked out on me. I thought I would be here in my career, I made some really big mistakes that I blamed everything and everyone for, but I’m here and I’m not there, and it hurts and I’m hurt and I’m angry, and I always thought it would be… and right now, there is nothing I can do about that.”

But you talk with people, I don’t, believe me, I don’t purposefully go around and eavesdrop but if you study in coffee shops, you know, there is a table here, and a table here, and a table here, and a table here, even if I can put in earphones and I’m studying sometimes… I mean, if you listen in coffee shops to what people talk about. I mean, try it sometime. I mean, in a reverent kind of way.

And almost, I mean, eighty percent of the conversations are two people talking about another person who isn’t here, who is the reason for their problem.

Or they’re talking about what’s wrong with a system somewhere, and why it’s really their fault. It was their mom, it was the government, it was the school, it was this.

And people spend their entire life… you know what they’re really doing is, they’re not owning, A:  their responsibility; or B: they’re not owning the reality of, “This is where I’m at.”

It takes courage. You know why most people don’t change? It takes courage. You never can move from where you are, until you have the courage to face, “This is where I really am. I have a problem. I’m disappointed. I have anger issues. I have an addiction. I’m in denial. Part of that marriage issue was my problem. I can’t control hers or I can’t control his but this part was mine. My kids probably don’t call me, one, because they’re insensitive and this and that but they probably don’t call me because… I need to own this part of it.”

And it’s that facing of your shattered dreams that’s painful. But now you know where you’re at. Now you’re ready to be a recipient of grace. I mean, do you ever get help until you say, “God, I need Your help.” And part of our shattered dreams, sometimes are completely out of our control but you need to get them out there where you say, “This part’s mine. And Lord…” you know?

By the way, some of us forgot one small, little thing. It’s a fallen world and you are human. You know what human beings do? They make mistakes. It’s not wrong to make a mistake. Have you ever made a bad decision? I have. I mean a bad decision like a dumb car that I bought. Right? Wrong hire. What was I thinking? Wrong job.

Now, well, it wasn’t on purpose, I just made a mistake. It’s a fallen world. Are you perfect? I’m not perfect. But when we make a mistake we act like, “Ahhh! Shock! How did that happen?” Like who do you think you are? Superman or Jesus? I mean, you’re going to make mistakes.

But we’re so unwilling to face that, we will do all kind of mental gymnastics to rearrange the world, and how we frame everything.  Even in relationships, I just found, “Well, you know the reason I was late was because the traffic was this, and there was this, and there was this, and there was this.”

And how about this? “I left ten minutes late because I was more interested in what I was doing than our meeting. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I was selfish.”

When was the last time someone told you that? “It was really busy.” Now, see, it’s true, right? There was extra traffic. But what we do is, we tell sixty-seven percent of the truth to get ourselves off the hook, and then we live with this inability to tell the truth.  And then we learn to do that in all kind of things.

So, all I’m saying is step one, face your shattered dreams. Painful, but God… what did we learn? Psalm 34:17… “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted. He saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

I mean, every time you find Jesus in the New Testament, people that: “I got it together, I don’t need any help, I can handle this,” Pharisee. What’s he get? He gets a cold response. And then: “Have mercy on me, I’m a sinner. I’ve had five husbands, you must be a prophet. I’m wiping your feet with my tears,” and Jesus is so compassionate to people who just come and say, “I’m broken and I’m part of it, and other people were part of it, but I can just tell you, I need help,” and you will always find the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness.

Look up that phrase, and just do a search, and find out how many times that happens in the Psalms, how many times that happens when God is telling us who He is, through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. How many times the prophets will be preaching and then say, “For the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness,” right? Even when He revealed Himself to Moses, that’s what He said.

But then He’s a just God and He says, “But He will… He’s a just God. There is a recompense for sin and God is fair.

Second, we need to understand our shattered dreams. And under this I have three subsets, and I don’t want to develop this too much, but sometimes your dreams are shattered because you’re set up for failure.

In other words, dreams are built on expectations. In other words, I expect certain things. If you expect certain things that aren’t true you’re destined for disappointment.

Okay, here’s some expectations. I’ll be happy when I meet so-and-so. I’ll be happy when I earn x amount of money. I desire all of life to go my way and when it does then I’ll be happy. Expectation: Life is fair, good things will happen to good people. If I follow God I’ll be happy and everything will turn out right.

Now, you may not actually say those things. I have news for you. None of those things are true. None of those things are true. Life isn’t fair; it’s a fallen world! The apostle Paul said: “All those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus,” here’s the promise, (you want to claim one?) “will be persecuted.”

Jesus said, “In the world you will have,” what? “Trouble! Tribulation! But be of good cheer.” He doesn’t promise that things are going to go great. He promises He’ll go with you when they’re hard, and when they’re great, and when… every other time.

Life isn’t fair. There is no formula. If you obey God and you do exactly what He wants, you’ll never get cancer. A drunk driver will never go left of center. All your kids will turn out right. That’s American stuff. That’s not in the Bible.

“When I find this person…” When you find this person you will meet another fallen person just like you, that has all kind of hang-ups and sin, and will make mistakes, and it will be hard to go through life together, and you’ll have to learn to love them unconditionally, and they’ll love you, and guess what? It’s tough, it’s hard, fasten your seatbelt, love God and go through it. And you’ll wound each other.

But if your expectations are, “When I find this person, ah…” Well, then the first time they act like a human being it’s like, oh, your dreams are shattered. And then you believe this baloney and all these movies, “Well, this must not be the right person. I’ll just find the next person.” The divorce rate goes up another twenty-five or thirty percent, the pain goes on.

So they’re built on expectations. Here’s what life is: Life is hard and God is good, and justice will ultimately prevail when Jesus comes and makes everything right. Until then, welcome to the spiritual NFL.

You have a good and loving God, who is absolutely in control, and there will be pain and difficulty, no matter what you go through, and you will make mistakes and people will make mistakes, and you will experience suffering and hurt, and the God of the universe will frame you, and use you, and conform you to the image of His Son, and allow you to have intimacy with Him and others, in the midst, probably in the suffering more than any other time. Painful but true.

“For it has been granted to you not only to believe in Him but to suffer for His sake,” Philippians 1:27. “Experiencing the same conflict, which you heard to be in me and now see in me.”

See, when you go to China, when you go to different places where it is illegal to be a Christian, when you go to Saudi Arabia, when you meet with leaders from Iran and pastors from Iraq, I got news for you. All those verses about suffering, and enduring, and persevering, that’s their hope! They laugh at some of the stuff that we believe.

Love Jesus and everything is going to go okay? No! Love Jesus, you’ll probably die. And it’s worth it! And it’s a holy privilege to get to suffer for Him. I don’t get that in my Bible studies. Do you see how expectations frame your dreams?

The second way our dreams are framed, they flow from what I call “Universal longings.” If we had time to develop it, these three things all come from Genesis chapter 1 and 2. Before there is sin in the world God makes Adam, He makes Eve, He makes mankind, He says certain things like, “Multiply, it’s not good for a man to be alone.” So God knows relational connection.

He says to them, “I want you to have domain, treat the earth well, but I want you to be a co-creator, I want you to make a difference, I want you to make impact.” And so these three longings are in your heart.

It’s the longing to be intimately known and loved. You don’t have to teach a kid that. A baby cries; baby doesn’t know anything. You take that baby, they cut that umbilical cord, and you drop that baby on a mommy’s chest, and every one of us until the day we take our last breath have a deep, abiding longing to be loved and to be known just for who we are.

That’s not wrong. God made you that way. But I want to tell you, in a fallen world, you need to find someone who will love you that way all the time and never let you down. And there is only one person who will do that, and they’re not a person of flesh. So, if your expectations are there is going to be a person that will do that, you’re kind of set up for a shattered dream.

The second is the longing for a better tomorrow -that there is hope. “Be fruitful and multiply!” There is no sin in the world and God said, “I placed you here, make a difference! Multiply! There is a better tomorrow, there is going to be more of you.”

I mean no one gets up and thinks, “Okay, I’m six years old, I’m going to go through twelve years of school, I hope I get all Fs. I mean, all Fs. And then I’m going to get a job and I hope I get fired.”

I mean, all of us live with a sense that every single day, wherever your life is, wherever your job is, wherever your marriage is, wherever you are with your kids, there is the sense of what makes life… that tomorrow can be better. It’s called hope.

Someone rightly said, “Hope is the oxygen of the soul.” You lose hope, it’s like… that’s built in.

The third longing that we all have is the longing to leave a legacy, you want to make a difference. Everyone wants to make a difference. You want your kids… My dad wasn’t a Christian until he was in his fifties. But I will tell you, I left the house a few times, and this is my Marine dad, “Chip!” “Yes, sir?” “What are you doing tonight?” “Well, I’m going to do, do, do, do, do this and this and this.” And I think he could read between the lines. “Young man, don’t you forget your last name is Ingram. And don’t mess that name up.”

If you knew my dad, all that stuff about not being afraid of your parents, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” and the fear of my father was the beginning of wisdom for our house.

Now, he cared and he loved me, but you know what? There was something… it’s good to have a holy fear about certain things. But you know what? There was a legacy. Our last name mattered. Tell you what, Jesus’ name matters. Your name matters.

There is something in you, you want to see, if you have kids or people in your job you want a legacy, you want to make a difference. It’s built in. So all I’m saying is that you need to understand shattered dreams, one, get your expectations clear. Realize there is universal longings that are going to move you toward fulfilling those and if they don’t get fulfilled what you and I will do is we’ll try and fulfill those in unhealthy ways.

And the final thing is that dreams are built around imperfect people, in an imperfect world, that we can’t control so they almost always shatter. See, when I started talking about some of those early dreams when you were kid, and when you were an adult, and mid-life, and older, your body language, I could almost go around and say, “Ooh, mid-life situation, hmm, early adulthood situation, ooh, your retirement didn’t work out for you.” Okay? One of your kids…

Shattered dreams are not a high possibility. Did you ever think of that? So instead of, “What’s happened to me and how unfair and I can’t believe it and this is…” In an imperfect world, with imperfect people, you are going to have shattered dreams.

And some, it doesn’t mean your dreams were wrong, it doesn’t mean they’re bad, but it means that in a fallen world here’s what I want you to get: God wants to use your shattered dreams, and my shattered dreams, to be an agent of growth, an agent of meeting Him in a way that we never would, because when our dreams are shattered, where our hope is and what we wanted to happen, there is a vulnerability in our soul, where God can fill us and meet us in ways like never before.