Lynn Jones: The power of a dream 

By Lynn Jones

“I am my father’s daughter/I am the product of his sacrifice./ I am the accumulation of the dreams of generations,/And their stories live in me like holy water./I am my father’s daughter.”

I like that recurring refrain in the lyrics of the song, “I Am My Father’s Daughter,” written by Dolly Parton and sung by Jewel. I like the rhyme, the tune, and the message. The line, “I am the accumulation of the dreams of generations” strikes a responsive chord in me. We all are the accumulation of the dreams of generations. 

I am the accumulation of the dreams of my grandparents, Henry and Elizabeth Goins, who lived in Peason, Louisiana during the Great Depression. They sold a cow to get enough money to enroll my mother in college. No one else from the Goins family had ever gone to college, but it was their dream that she would go, and she did. 

I am the accumulation of the dreams of my mother and father who dreamed that they could put all three of their boys through college. They did it in the 1960’s on a teacher’s salary and Social Security disability pay so that we all graduated from college without ever having to take out a student loan. 

I have been a preacher and pastor for 60 years because my mother had a dream that her son would grow up to be a committed Christian. She carried me to church and then demonstrated to me what it meant to live out what we talked about on Sunday. 

As they dreamed these dreams and passed them on to me, they gave me the freedom to tweak the dreams and become the man that I felt led to be. But I did not get where I am on my own. I stand as the recipient of their sacrifices, influences, hopes, and dreams. “I am the accumulation of the dreams of generations.”

At the beginning of anything of value, there is a dream. The beginning of the church can be traced to the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Peter stood to interpret the events of that day, and he said they were the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel. God spoke through Joel and said, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:17b). The church began with a dream.

Mother Teresa went to her superiors and said, “I have three pennies and a dream from God to build an orphanage.” They told her that she could not build an orphanage with three pennies. She replied, “I know, but with God and three pennies, I can do anything.”

Thank God for His power and the power of a dream. We all have been blessed and can bless others by daring to dream a dream!

Lynn Jones is a retired pastor who lives in Oxford. He does supply preaching for churches in his area and often serves as an interim pastor. Jones is also an author, has written two books and writes a weekly newspaper column. He may be contacted at: kljones45@yahoo.com.