“I’ve got a dream!
She’s got a dream!
I’ve got a dream!
She’s got a dream!
I just want to see the floating lanterns gleam
And with every passing hour
I’m so glad I left my tower
Like all you lovely folks
I’ve got a dream!”
— Rapunzel, Tangled
Like Rapunzel and the rest of the guests in the Ugly Duckling in Disney’s Tangled, you probably have a dream. It may be big, it may simple. Maybe it’s something you’ve been thinking about for a while–maybe it’s a relatively new idea you recently thought of. But most of us, if we are honest can sing similar lyrics (or if singing’s not your thing, you could just read them).
In the movie, shortly after this big song is sung, the villain shows up and promptly does everything she can to stop these dreams from becoming reality. It’s a big part of a lot of movies and stories we experience, from Tony Stark to Pinocchio, from Harry Potter to Frodo, some of the most powerful stories we know are about people hoping to achieve something, only to be stopped by someone who does not want to see those dreams come true.
This happens in real life, too, which is why these stories are relatable. Sometimes you’ll have those moments in life when everything you are hoping for, everything you’re working and striving for and dreaming about is sidelined. You may never know why some things happen to you. You may not understand why that person stopped talking to you. You may not get why your boss decided you were wrong for the job. You may not comprehend why you were rejected by people you loved.
Neither did Joseph. His dreams got sidelined–literally. His dreams showed him as a leader, a man whose family would eventually look to him for favor. He went from favorite son to imprisoned slave in a heartbeat. From the bottom of a well, he looked up at the faces of people he’d loved and wondered, “What just happened?” As he was tied to the other slaves in the caravan heading toward Egypt, he looked back at his brothers and wondered, “What went wrong?”
He didn’t know where he was going. At that moment, he probably thought it couldn’t get worse. (Which was probably a good thing, because he didn’t know that a false accusation and a hefty prison sentence were still in his future.)
But in the end, Joseph’s long-sidelined dream became reality. In spite of all he had lost, despite how badly he’d been hurt and wronged by people he loved and trusted, it did not stay that way forever. In a pretty amazing turn of events, the prisoner is elevated to the palace, and all that he thought would happen and had hoped would happen finally did. When Joseph went from prison to palace, it’s clear that he finally realized something that I hope we can realize today, too. What others do to us–whether it’s out of spite or evil or misunderstanding or hurt feelings or something else–does not have to ruin us. Like Joseph, God may want to use that thing to put us in a different place, where He wants to use us in ways we couldn’t have understood before.
Romans 8:28 reminds us that “We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” (NLT)
You may not have reached the palace yet.
You may still be looking from inside the prison.
But don’t give up, don’t lose hope.
You may not know why these things have happened, but you can rest knowing that God can use them for your greater, incredible, most wonderful good–to bring that dream to reality, to help you achieve that goal.
So you can sing again, “I’ve got a dream!”
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Duane S. Montague 