People nearing mid-life often come to a realization that some of their dreams didn’t come true.  We all dreamed big dreams when we were younger.  But as we move through our twenties, thirties, and forties, we eventually slam head on into the realization that some of our dreams will never be realized.

That observation throws some people into a mid-life crisis.  Maybe we didn’t make it very far with our aspirations, having already given them up somewhere along the way.  Perhaps we run into conflict that makes us weary and we settle for less.  When those things happen we are tempted to give up, and the dreams get buried somewhere deep within us.

Joseph had some big dreams.  At seventeen he dreamed his ten older brothers would bow down to him. It’s enough he dreamed that dream.  What makes it worse is that he told his brothers about it.

The older brothers already had issues with the younger son.  Their father, Jacob, favored Joseph. He had even given him a valuable, multi-colored coat.  That’s the modern-day equivalent of a parent of four teenagers giving one an iPhone and the other three a stack of quarters each for a pay phone.  The brothers banded together and tossed the dreamer in a ditch, eventually selling him into slavery at the first opportunity. The next thing Joseph knew he was waking up in Egypt.  Things were not turning out like he thought.

His life was a rollercoaster ride.  One minute he was a slave; the next in charge of an Egyptian official’s house; the next in prison falsely accused of rape; the next in charge of the prison.  Then he found himself in front of Pharaoh, called upon to interpret the leader’s dreams.  With God’s help he was able to warn Pharaoh he would have seven years of abundant crops that he should be put in storehouses in anticipation of seven years of famine.  Recognizing his wisdom, Pharaoh put Joseph second in command of all of Egypt.

And because God was at work in Joseph’s life to accomplish His purposes, Joseph was able to save his family – the same family that God was building into a nation.  Joseph was in position to bring his family to Egypt and give them the most fertile land to work.  And it was definitely fertile.  In the time they were there they were “fruitful and increased greatly” (Exodus 1:7).  God preserved the family of Jacob (Israel) through Joseph.

What others intended for evil, God used for good in Joseph’s life, actually fulfilling his dreams in an unexpected way.  Things don’t always turn out as we hope and dream, but when we let God work in our life He gives us new dreams and writes a new storyline.

If your life’s dream has stalled, look to God.  If your dream now realized is not all you thought it would be, look to God.  He can give you another dream.   A better one, not according to the world’s standard but God’s criterion.  Just like Joseph’s.  God restores shattered dreams and when He does, then we have a story to tell.