为什么梦想?
为什么梦想? Was the winning question for the 2017-2018 academic year and was crafted by Yi Xuan (Josh) Ng and Dr. Eric Miller, professor of history and humanities.
In their essay, Ng and Miller explore an idea that raises a host of other questions, such as:
Authors: Yi Xuan (Josh) Ng (class of 2020) and Dr. Eric Miller, Professor of History & 人文学科
Annie Dillard writes, “We teach our children one thing only, as we were taught: to wake up.” At some point in our lives, 虽然, as we confronted some harsh reality of life, we each probably arrived at the conclusion that some dreams ought to be forgotten. It was nice while it lasted, we say to ourselves in such moments, but it is time to wake up. I wish my life was something else. 但事实就是这样. 比如温蒂 彼得·潘, we bid farewell to Neverland, leave our hidden kiss with a boy who 将 not age, and return to the “real 世界” to grow up. (Some of us 五月 leave the window open for a while.)
Curiously, 虽然, we tend not to prevent others from having their dreams. 新濠天地app甚至鼓励他们, 至少, to “give it a try” – we let Jane have her time with 彼得·潘. 毕竟, without dreams we can scarcely find the motivation to live, 学习, and love; dreams drive and direct us. It seems unlikely that humans could have stepped on the moon’s surface without having first dreamed of doing so. Nor does it seem probable that Reverend King could have had the same success with the civil rights movement without having meant the words he so boldly declared: “I have a dream today!”
But how frustrated we often are with our daydreamers! Many of them live sitting on their hands, with their heads in the clouds and their mouths open with a complaint about how terrible the 世界 is, as compared to what it could be. These people often seem blind to reality, 到此时此地, and to the people around them, their vision of life obscured by their pipe dreams.
新濠天地app不是那样的人,新濠天地app说; we see clearly, for we dream in moderation. (What was it that Jesus said about those who say, “We see”?) But such moderation is often not, 事实上, characteristic of our experience; dreams have a life of their own, and often decide for us what we want even before we understand why we want such things. 毕竟, what is a dream if it does not captivate – take captive – your mind? In which case “Why dream?“确实! You might lose yourself!
Christians have a worthy resource for confronting 这 question: it is found in the virtue of hope. 就像新濠天地app的许多梦一样, biblical hope is oriented toward a vision of the future, giving us drive and direction for living. Moreover, 虽然, biblical hope is not wishful thinking for what 五月 发生; it’s the confidence about what 将 发生. We who are assured of our position in Christ, know that a blissful eternity with God is guaranteed to us and we are called to take comfort in that final destiny. We know that when that day comes, our time here 将 seem like the blink of an eye, and much of what we 虽然t we missed out on 将 be found in Christ: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.(歌罗西书3:2)
Yet biblical hope is directed toward the ultimate end of history. 新濠天地app是 在这里,现在. Somehow it does not seem right to define patience as the complete suppression of our earthly dreams. Our future hope that “everything 将 be perfect one day” should not be used as a cookie-cutter answer to every problem we have here. 事实是, we long for things to 发生 here, whether we admit it or not; we long for love, 为正义, for beauty to be seen in 这 世界. 肯定, trying to attain things not specifically promised to us in Scripture cannot always mean that we are discontent or of small faith.
它可能, 总而言之, be worth our while as a community to consider not just the Star of Bethlehem as we gaze at the sky, 但也——转向 彼得·潘 once more – the Second Star to the Right.