In 1872, at the age of 16, Booker T. Washington
decided he wanted to go to school. For a boy, born
a slave to a plantation cook in Virginia, who had no
idea who his white father was, this was a huge step.
He decided that he would enter the Hampton Institute
in Hampton, Virginia. With nothing more than a
small satchel of clothing, he started walking from
Malden, West Virginia, 500 miles away.
Eventually he made it to Richmond, about eighty
miles from his destination. He worked there for a
few days unloading pig iron off a ship, spending his
nights on the ground under an elevated board
sidewalk. He continued his journey and finally
reached Hampton Institute. He asked the "head
teacher" for admission.
Washington later recalled, "Having been so long
without proper food, a bath, and change of clothing,
I did not make a very favorable impression upon her,
and I could see at once that there were doubts in
her mind about the wisdom of admitting me as a
student."
The teacher delayed a decision about Booker while
she admitted other students, and he waited
anxiously. Finally, she said to him, "The adjoining
recitation-room needs sweeping. Take the broom and
sweep it."
"It occurred to me at once that here was my chance,"
he wrote. "Never did I receive an order with more
delight...I swept the recitation-room three times.
Then I got a dusting-cloth and I dusted it four
times." He cleaned the walls and closets.
"I had the feeling," he continued, "that in a large
measure my future depended upon the impression I
made upon the teacher in the cleaning of that room.
When I was through, I reported to her. She was a
`Yankee' woman who knew just where to look for dirt.
She went into the room and inspected the floor and
closets: then she took her handkerchief and rubbed
it on the woodwork about the walls, and over the
table and benches. When she was unable to find one
bit of dirt on the floor, or a particle of dust on
any of the furniture, she quietly remarked, `I guess
you will do to enter this institution.'
"I was one of the happiest souls on earth. The
sweeping of that room was my college examination,
and never did any youth pass an examination for
entrance into Harvard or Yale that gave him more
genuine satisfaction. I have passed several
examinations since then, but I have always felt that
this was the best one I ever passed."
Booker T. Washington not only passed that
examination, but he kept a job as a janitor to help
pay his expenses. In June 1875, he graduated, on
the honor roll and as one of the commencement
speakers.
Booker T. Washington was a dreamer who backed up his
dreams with action. Abraham must have been a man
like that as well. We don't know how God spoke to
Abram--for that was his name before he accomplished
his dream. Could it have been an audible voice?
Perhaps. A still small voice within the heart?
Maybe. Somehow Abram knew that God was telling him
to leave his homeland and to move to land which God
would show him. There he would found a new nation--a
great nation--a nation that would be a blessing to
the world. What a dream! What a vocation! I don't
know about you but most of my dreams seem inadequate
and pathetic compared to Abram's dream.
GOD HAS CREATED US TO DREAM.
That is the first thing
we need to see. The people who make a difference in
this world are the people who dream. I want to read
a letter to you that is dated November 6, 1940, and
mailed from Santiago de Cuba.
It is addressed to Mr. Franklin Roosevelt, President of the United States. Here is what it says, "My
good friend Roosevelt: I don't know very English,
but I know as much as write to you. I like to hear
the radio, and I am very happy, because I heard in
it, that you will be President for a new (periodo).
"I am twelve years old. I am a boy but I think very
much, but I do not think that I am writing to the
President of the United States. If you like, give me
a ten dollars bill green american, in the letter,
because never, I have not seen a ten dollars bill
green american and I would like to have one of them.
"My address is: Sr. Fidel Castro, Colegio de
Dolores, Santiago de Cuba, Oriente, Cuba.
"I don't know very English but I know very much
Spanish and I suppose you don't know very Spanish
but you know very English because you are American
but I am not American. (Thank you very much) Good
by. Your friend, Fidel Castro."
The future Premier of Cuba got an acknowledgment,
but no ten bucks. Pity. Might have changed the
political profile of the Western Hemisphere.
A twelve-year-old boy dreaming great dreams. People
who influence the course of human events begin as
dreamers. Abram had a dream. A dream that came from
God.
It is not enough, however, simply to have a dream.
WE MUST STEP OUT ON FAITH AND WITH GOD'S HELP MAKE
THAT DREAM A REALITY. There is a Senegalese proverb
that says, "When God sends opportunities he does
not, for all that, wake up the sleeper."
Walter P. Chrysler said, "The reason so many people
never get anywhere in life is because when
opportunity knocks, they are out in the backyard
looking for four-leaf clovers."
Or as someone else has put it: "Don't wait for your
ship to come in; swim out to it." There are some
people who spend their lives waiting for a break, an
opportunity, a winning lottery ticket. That is not
how life works. That is not how God works. God
plants the seed of a dream in a human heart, and
then waits to see what we will happen.
Psychologist and writer Denis Waitley was
interviewed recently. He told a story about when he
was a child. His father had left home. He was nine
years old and the oldest boy in the family.
There was an army emplacement near his home during
the war. In order to befriend the children in the
area, the soldiers would give them little canteens
and army helmets and gun belts. In return the
children would do favors for the soldiers. They
would run their errands, bring them candy, get them
home cooking.
One day a soldier said to young Denis Waitley, "I
want to take you fishing in a boat." Denis had
never been fishing out in the ocean. He had always
fished off a bridge. He was so excited.
He sneaked out of his bedroom window, got his tackle
box, packed himself a lunch and put it in the
refrigerator, and at 4 a.m. he was ready to go with
his fishing pole, tackle box, and lunch. There he
was sitting on the curb, waiting. The soldier never
came.
Denis Waitley says that probably was the turning
point of his life. Instead of being either cynical
or telling his Mom and his friends that the soldier
never came, he got himself a one-man rubber life
raft. After inflating it, he went down to the bay
and pretended that he was launching this marvelous
fishing boat.
Then he went out in the bay where he dug some clams
and caught fish and had what he called the most
marvelous day of his life. That experience taught
Denis Waitley an important lesson. We can't rely on
others to make our dreams come true. If they are to
be realized, we must step out on faith and
accomplish them ourselves.
OF COURSE, THE GREATEST DREAMER OF ALL IS GOD.
There is a ridiculous story that they are telling in the
oil fields in Texas. It is about a man named Johnson
who was a powerful and successful business
executive. One day he invested in a tax shelter that
promised a five-to-one write-off.
It turned out to be a fraud, and Johnson lost
$200,000. To make things worse, his business
associates lost their respect for him, and the IRS
decided to audit his finances. Depressed, he threw
himself on the couch in his office and cried out,
"Lord, I make million-dollar decisions every day and
almost never make a mistake. Why did you make me
look like such an idiot this time?"
Suddenly there was a clap of thunder and a brilliant
light appeared in the center of the room. A loud,
powerful voice said, "Don't cry about your problems,
I had half a million invested in this deal, too."
Such a portrayal of God is absurd, of course. Still
God is a dreamer.
God dreamed of a world. A world of green trees and
blue skies and sparkling dreams. He would populate
this beautiful world with all kinds of exotic
creatures--some that would fly high in the sky,
others that would swim in the seas, others that
would ramble across the prairies and the mountains.
To oversee it all God would create a being in His
own image. Male and female he created this new
being. And God saw everything that He had made and
it was good. Because God created this new being in
His own image, however, it had a will. It could
choose. And God watched as the creature despoiled
the Creator's dream.
But God never gave up. When, finally, there appeared
no other way to save the dream and the creatures He
had grown to love so dearly, God sent His own Son.
The cross is the culmination of history's most
magnificent dream--the dream of God for this fallen
world. And you and I are part of that dream today.
This leads me to a final question.
ARE YOUR DREAMS FOR YOUR LIFE IN HARMONY WITH GOD'S DREAM FOR HIS WORLD?
That is the secret of a satisfying life. What
dream does God have for your life? Where do you fit
into the total scheme of things? Is the world a
better place because you are in it? Are you using
you gifts and your abilities to enrich the lives of
others? That is what gives life meaning--to bring
our dreams into harmony with God's dream.
AND IF THAT IS TRUE OF AN INDIVIDUAL LIFE, HOW MUCH
MORE IS IT TRUE OF A CHURCH.
What is your dream for
our church? What can we yet do to fulfill God's
dream for the children and the young people and the
adults and the community and the world for which He
has given us responsibility?
Woodrow Wilson once said, "We grow by dreams. All
big [individuals] are dreamers. They see things in
the soft haze of a spring day, or in the red fire on
a long winter's evening.
Some of us let those great dreams die, but others
nourish and protect them; nourish them through bad
days until they bring them to the sunshine and light
which comes always to those who sincerely hope that
their dreams will come true."
We all have our dreams. A man named Abram had his
dream. Go to a new land, father a new people, and
his name would be a blessing forever. His dream came
from God. Was God faithful to His promise to Abram,
or as we know him, Abraham?
Today the three great religions of the world--Islam,
Judaism, Christianity--trace their roots to this
dreamer who stepped out and put his dreams into
reality. Why was he so successful? Because his dream
was God's dream. What is God's dream for your life?
Find that dream and act on it and you will find
life!
