Carry On Wayward Son

So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. "Here comes that dreamer!" they said to each other. "Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams." (Genesis 37:17-20)

The most difficult step toward any dream is the first one. The initial leap into God’s dangerous, murky and relentless Will is the most daring of all. To follow God without condition, care or comfort is a fearful thing. It’s how dreams become nightmares.

Would Joseph have left the comfortable surroundings of his doting dad if he knew the next chapter in his life was a pit? Would he follow his dream to the palace if he knew it meant years in prison first? I think we often miss a character flaw about Joseph. He had a wrinkle in his personality that God needed to iron out. Like many dreamers, there’s a danger of pride. You’re something special. You’ve got the blessing. You’re the answer to everyone’s problems.

Proverbs 16:18 says pride comes before a fall. It’s a tragic reality play, but often the “coat” that appoints and anoints is the same fabric from which we falter and fail. Was Joseph so optimistic and innocent that he couldn’t hear his own brothers plotting to kill him? Was his head so in the clouds that the rest of him missed the obvious? A brother doesn’t kill his own kin without reason. Nor do your siblings plot an assassination without cause. Maybe it was Joseph’s pride that drove him into the desert near Dothan to find his brothers? Common sense would have kept him near daddy’s side. Surely he had an idea what his brothers thought of him and his dream.

The difference between confidence and pride is a thin line. The real question is in whom does your confidence reside? God or man? God or yourself? For Joseph, his dreams are about to explode. Fortunately, we know when life grows dark and dank, the boy in the coat of colors will faithfully follow God through pit and prison. Joseph doesn't allow his circumstances to circumvent his calling.

A lyric for one of my favorite classic rock songs comforts the dreamers among us: “Carry on my wayward son, there’ll be peace when you are done. Lay your weary head to rest. Don’t you cry no more.” (Kansas, “Carry On My Wayward Son”)

Carry on, dreamer, carry on. And watch God work. You will surely inherit dark times ahead. Carry on anyway. Critics will try to kill your dream. Carry on nevertheless. Let God make you into something greater than your dream. Even if it means knocking off a few chips first.


NOTABLE QUOTABLES ON DREAMS:

I have had dreams, and I have had nightmares. I overcame the nightmares because of my dreams. (Jonas Salk)

As soon as you start to pursue a dream, your life wakes up and everything has meaning. (Barbara Sher)

The problems of this world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were. (John F. Kennedy)

We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true. (Woodrow Wilson)

Father, you know our dreams. Some are selfish. Some are divine. Some are silly. Some are great. Regardless of the vision that fires my heart and captures my mind, I ask simply that my confidence lies alone in You. Forgive my pride. Overlook my selfish desires. If it be Your Will, let my dream come true. Not for my glory, but for Yours alone. Amen.


Carry On Wayward Son
(lyrics by Kerry Livgren of Kansas, Leftoverture, 1976)

Once I rose above the noise and confusion
Just to get a glimpse beyond the illusion
I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high
Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man
Though my mind could think I still was a mad man
I hear the voices when I'm dreamin',
I can hear them say

(Chorus)
Carry on my wayward son, For there'll be peace when you are done Lay your weary head to rest Now don't you cry no more

Masquerading as a man with a reason
My charade is the event of the season
And if I claim to be a wise man, it surely
means that I don't know
On a stormy sea of moving emotion
Tossed about I'm like a ship on the ocean
I set a course for winds of fortune, but
I hear the voices say

Carry on, you will always remember
Carry on, nothing equals the splendor
Now your life's no longer empty
Surely heaven waits for you