Here Comes This Dreamer
“I’m entering my healthy girl era this year.”
“I’m stopping my bad habits, starting January 1.”
“I’m completing the 75 Hard Challenge this year.”
Different goals. Different years. Same story.
It’s the story of using the new year as a fresh start for accomplishing new (and old) dreams alike. We’ve all seen this story in our own lives.
As I’ve been re-reading Joseph’s own story in Genesis, I can’t help but notice how dreams played a significant and transformative role throughout his life.
You see, Joseph had big dreams.
Great dreams.
Aspirational dreams.
The kind of dreams where he was the top man, the CEO, the boss.
If Joseph lived today, he’d be the upcoming millionaire with a small town background. The guy who would create his multi-million dollar company and go on to write a book, start a podcast, or complete some other type of project that would stream in more revenue for him.
Here’s why I picture Joseph as a boss man figure. God gave Joseph, a 17-year-old boy at the time, two dreams:
a dream where he and his family were binding sheaves in the field and his grew tall—way above everyone else’s in his family
a dream where the sun, moon, and 11 stars (aka his family) bowed down to him
Now, as an avid and vivid dreamer myself, I have some pretty wild dreams while I’m in the deep REM stages of sleep. But while some of my wildest dreams have me waking up and questioning my mental health, I doubt that any of them would be nearly as wild as Joseph’s dreams.
Why were these dreams given to Joseph by God so wild?
Because Joseph was the next-to-youngest son in a culture where being the firstborn son meant everything.
Power. Status. Authority. Control.
So to receive these two dreams from God meant something Jospeh. It showed him that God would elevate him to a great and high status one day—one surpassing his 10 older brothers and his father. One that would mean he would receive the power, status, authority, and control usually reserved for the firstborn.
That had to spark some type of dignified pride in Joseph, as well as a sense of superiority. I mean, he was basically the chosen one—not only by his father who favorited him over his older brothers, but also by God.
No wonder his brothers would look at him and, with derision and bitterness rooted in their hearts, spit out: “Here comes this dreamer” (Genesis 37:19).
God had different plans. This much Joseph knew. Cherished. Stored in his heart.
So imagine Joseph’s shock and terror when his brothers maliciously threw him in a pit to die because they despised the favoritism shown toward Joseph.
When they chose to sell him into slavery instead of killing him.
When he arrived at Egypt a slave and was bought by Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s employees.
When he was promoted to Potiphar’s trusted right hand man but is thrown into prison after Potiphar’s wife falsely accuses him of sexual harassment (when she was the one sexually harassing Joseph).
When he was promoted again to the prison guard’s right hand man and received two new inmates—Pharaoh’s own demoted and criminalized servants.
When he interpreted their dreams and asked one of them to remember Joseph when he was restored to his previous position in Pharaoh’s court.
When he was forgotten by someone he helped restore to his previous position, and continued to work in the prison he didn’t deserve to be in for two more years.
Two years.
For two years, Joseph sat in the miserable stench of his broken dreams.
I can just imagine Joseph hunched over in his cell, duties as the prison guard’s reliable right hand man complete for the day, reminiscing about his 17-year-old self. Missing his old life, feeling nostalgia settle into the hidden places of his bones, wondering if those dreams God had given him were ever going to happen.
He was supposed to be in a position of great authority one day, right? He hadn’t misinterpreted those dreams, had he?
Weren’t these the dreams given to him by God?
Why hadn’t they come true, then?
My friend, we’ve all been in Joseph’s prison cell.
We’ve all waited years for our dreams to come to life, to finally manifest. But life just doesn’t seem to line up with where we want it to go, and our dreams fall by the wayside. We fall into pits, travel down re-routed paths, are falsely accused by the guilty, are tossed into prison cells and left behind, are forgotten by those we have helped rise to higher positions than ours.
And when we look back on those dreams, they seem so distant from where we are now.
My friend, do not worry.
Because even in our pits and prisons, God sees each detail.
He knows how to bring them all together.
He knows the right time for us to be restored, lifted to the positions He needs and wants us to be in.
He knows how to send dreams to other people that will then, in a way that only He can see and enact, bring about our dreams that once were as long-lost and forgotten. Similar to how we felt while waiting.
He knows how to manifest the dreams He has given us, in His way and His timing.
Because God’s ways are better than our ways, and His thoughts are greater than our thoughts. “You know better than I,” exclaims a song by the same name in the animated movie Price of Egypt (I highly recommend watching, by the way, for a unique way to seeing Joseph’s story).
I wonder if Joseph remembered often these truths about God. If he held onto them while waiting in prison, staring at the gray walls and dirt floor and broken dreams.
His dreams weren’t broken though.
They were on their way to being restored.
So hold on tight, dear dreamer.
Believe.
Believe that God knows the dreams He has given you. Believe that He knows the right time to make those dreams happen.
In the meantime, wait.
Worship.
Pray.
Seek the God Who sees you in your prison, Who loves you through every stage, and wants the best for you.
His dream for you is coming.
