Broken dreams aren’t necessarily dead dreams. Just because your dream has not been fulfilled doesn’t mean that it is to be shelved. Sometimes our dreams need time to germinate, to take root, and to develop.

Sometimes the dream is wrong. Sometimes the dream is right, but the timing is wrong. In those times, God says wait. Our culture says don’t just sit there, do something; but God often says don’t just do something, sit there. Wait. Wait on his leading. Wait on his direction. Wait on his voice. 

Psalms 27:14 paints a beautiful picture: “Wait for the Lord; Be strong, and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord” (Psa. 27:14 NIV). The word picture the Psalmist is describing is of the making of a strong, powerful rope by twisting and weaving ourselves so tightly around the Lord that our weaknesses and frail characteristics are replaced by his power and unparalleled strength. And when we are wrapped around him sufficiently, then we are ready to be sent out to accomplish our God-given dream.

We need to remember that anything worth having is worth waiting for. Or, as one man put it, “He who waits on God loses no time.”

Waiting is not fun. No one likes to wait. During those waiting times we are restless. We want to be up and doing. Yet for weeks or months and sometimes years we are prevented from fulfilling our dreams. We become impatient, we chafe, we become discouraged. And, yet one-day God’s perfect time arrives; and we are fit, we are wiser, we are prepared, we are ready to be shown what God wants to have done.

Often in the waiting, God reshapes our dreams. Such was the case in the late seventeenth century with a youth named Antonio. He loved good music and dreamed of becoming a great concert violinist. It became painfully clear to him, however, that he lacked the talent to make the beautiful music in his soul come out through the violin. What sort of cruel joke was God playing to give him such love for great music but no ability to create it?

Painstakingly, he began to create violins capable of the sounds that he, Antonio Stradivari, could not coax out of them. Over the next seventy-one years until his death at age ninety-three, he made over one thousand violins. The great musicians of Antonio’s day have long since relinquished their skills and fallen silent. But throughout the world, wherever great music is loved, some five hundred Stradivarius violins are still being played.

Broken dreams are often the stepping stones to fulfilled dreams.

Your dreams may be broken, but not shattered. Is God simply trying to change your direction? Is he giving you a new map?