Dreams and Promises

Daddy's Dream Car

I still remember the day I first laid eyes on it. My father owned a towing service & junk yard in New Jersey. Way in the back, with weeds and tall grass up to the windows, sat what would become my first big hope of connection with my dad. A 1980 Monte Carlo SS!

Like many hopes I had of getting to know and learn from my father, this one would only sit among the tall grass of my heart. Before we get there, let me share the abbreviated story of how this hope became just another weight in the already sinking ship of hopes.



My dad was a master mechanic. If it had an engine, not only could he fix it but he could build it and rebuild it. When I was sixteen, I was making an attempt to live with my dad. Having grown up without him, I was completely mechanically declined. (still am!) This car was the connection between my dreams of a father-son relationship and my dad's abilities. We pulled the car out of the junk yard, parked it in the driveway, and applied for the title. We began planning about all that we could do to the car. I remember those conversations because it was the first time I ever felt connected to my dad. We even gave the car a nickname, "Mongoose". Mongoose because back in Florida my brother-in-law had a Mustang 5.0 Cobra. My dad would jokingly say, "we will make this car so fast it will eat the cobra", hence the nickname "Mongoose". These moments of connection warmed my heart and filled me with joy. I was finally experiencing what other kids did when they connected with their fathers.

The days came and went, the car never moved. I think the farthest we got was finding an engine block for the Mongoose. There was no reason why things weren't moving along. I was making money working, the family had money, my dad had no end of resources and knowledge. The Mongoose just sat there rusting away. I held to the hopes that my dad and I would rebuild this car and finally have a connection that I could hold onto. Those dreams fizzled along with our relationship and a year & 1/2 later I boarded a plane back to Florida leaving the Mongoose, my father, my hopes, and my dreams to rust away in a field of tall grass and weeds.

 Jeremiah 29:11 (MSG)

"I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for."

The Father's plans for our hope and future is far beyond anything we can comprehend. The greatest part of His plan that I have found is, He wants me actively involved in it! Imagine that for a moment, the Almighty God, Creator of the Universe has a plan for your life and wants you to participate with Him! Like building a car, the Father wants to spend every moment "under the hood" of our lives fellowshiping together through all the dirt and grease. Elbow to Elbow, the broken and worn out parts of our lives are rejuvenated to peak performance. His plan all along.... spending time with His child!

2nd Corinthians 1:20-22 (MSG)

"Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God's Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident. God affirms us, making us a sure thing in Christ, putting his Yes within us. By his Spirit he has stamped us with his eternal pledge—a sure beginning of what he is destined to complete."

God's promises aren't like the promise of even the best intended men. So rich is the Bible in the promises of God that if we really understood it's value to our lives this world would look like a different place. When God says He is going to do something, change something, complete something it's done! This is the message we receive and the message we give.  Being "stamped" with project approval, we can stand firm knowing that He completes what He sets out to do.

Parents, there will be promises we keep and promises we can't, but the most damaging is the promises we break. Not being able to keep a promise and "breaking" a promise are different in my book. There have been promises made to me that were just unable to be kept, understandably so. Yet, a broken promise is a promise that has all the potential of being kept and isn't. The Mongoose could have been in my driveway today, instead I stare at my son's model Monte Carlo SS and the wound of a broken promise stings. Let's face it, we are not always "promise keepers", but God is! May the un-kept promises made to you be understood, may the broken promises be healed, and may the only True Promise Keeper continue to give you hope and a dream!

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