essay on unfulfilled dreams

• Navigate to any page of this site.

• In the menu, scroll to Add to Home Screen and tap it.

• In the menu, scroll past any icons and tap Add to Home Screen .

Notes from an Amateur

A disciple’s life in the academy, john s. tanner, unfulfilled dreams.

John S. Tanner , Notes from an Ameteur: A Disciple’s Life in the Academy (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011), 102–4.

Late in his short life, Martin Luther King Jr. came to the tragic understanding that “life is a continual story of shattered dreams.” This remark comes from one of his last sermons, entitled “Unfulfilled Dreams.” Delivered in front of his family and friends at Ebenezer Baptist Church only a month before his assassination, the sermon provides a poignant counterpoint to “I Have a Dream.” It speaks of failed dreams, both political and personal.

King takes as his text verses in 1 Kings 8 about David’s failure to build a temple: “And it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. And the Lord said unto David my father, Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house unto my name, thou didst well that it was within thine heart” (1 Kings 8:17–18).

King hopes that God will judge well of him too, based on his desire to erect “temples of justice,” even though he will likely not live to fulfill this dream. King anticipates that he will die like Gandhi, who “died with a broken heart, because that nation that he wanted to unite ended up being divided.” This melancholy thought leads King to lament, “Life is a long, continual story of setting out to build a great temple and not being able to finish it.” Throughout the sermon King sounds this elegiac note.

The sermon strikes a confessional note as well. It speaks of shattered private dreams, dreams that remain unfulfilled owing to the “tension” between good and evil in his heart. According to his friend and biographer Vincent Harding, King was trying to confess. With his father sitting behind the pulpit and his mother at the organ, King “needed to say something to this community of love about . . . the ‘civil war’ going on in his heart, about his own troubling connection to the poet’s words: ‘I see and approve the better things of life, but the evil things I do.’ . . . He needed to confess how deeply he had failed himself and his own best possibilities.”

Hence he warned the congregation, “You don’t need to go out this morning saying that Martin Luther King is a saint. Oh, no. . . . I want you to know this morning that I am a sinner like all of God’s children. But I want to be a good man. And I want to hear a voice saying to me one day, ‘ . . . I bless you, because you try. It is well that it was within thine heart.’”

Harding explains that this “confession was not primarily to us, his friends, or to his congregation. . . . Ultimately our brother was reaching out through us, beyond us, to his God, seeking to believe that in the ultimate divine encounter he would be received with love, not as a failure but as one whose heart was right, one who carried the intention of righteousness at the center of his being.”

It has been said that there are two kinds of preachers: those who speak to the congregation for God, and those who speak for the congregation to God. The former, like Jeremiah or Amos, tend to denounce sin and injustice. This is the rhetorical posture King characteristically adopts in the pulpit. The latter, like David, tend to cry for mercy for themselves and for all us sinners. This is the posture King adopts in “Unfulfilled Dreams.” In this sermon, evil does not lie simply “out there” in the world’s social injustice but inside every human heart, including the preacher’s own. Although for me King’s confession is marred by traces of self-pity, it is poignant nonetheless.

And potentially palliative for those who regard King as a flawed national icon. For some in our community, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is tainted by King’s private life. I understand this. I too struggle with King’s infidelities, as do many of my Mormon family and friends. We are a moral, not to say moralistic, lot. But it is past time to let this go. King may have been flawed, but “he carried the intention of righteousness at the center of his being.” He hoped that God would judge him as he preached that we should judge each other, not by the “separate mistakes we make, but by the total bent of our lives.”

Harding recounts a dream suggesting that God has now so judged King. He writes: “I am convinced that Martin’s faith in the precious . . . love of God was rewarded. For it was several years after his death that I saw my friend in a dream. And it was indeed amazing: All the tension, all the dividedness that had been in his face, in his eyes, during those last months of life were now gone. . . . And in the dream, as he looked at me, and even though he did not say it, I somehow knew he was saying . . . ‘It is well with my soul.’” I hope so. I hope Martin Luther King Jr. has finally heard the voice of heavenly approbation he longed to hear, echoing the voice of a grateful nation, saying, “I bless you for the total bent of your life.”

Contact the RSC

185 Heber J. Grant Building Brigham Young University Provo, UT 84602 801-422-6975

Helpful Links

Religious Education

BYU Studies

Maxwell Institute

Articulos en español

Artigos em português

Connect with Us

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

"Unfulfilled Hopes"

Author:  King, Martin Luther, Jr.

Date:  April 5, 1959 ?

Location:  Montgomery, Ala. ?

Genre:  Sermon

Topic:  Martin Luther King, Jr. - Career in Ministry

King draws on themes from Frederick Meek's homily “Strength in Adversity.” 1 In an audio recording of the sermon, King expounds on these ideas using the story of the Apostle Paul's “blasted hopes and shattered dreams.” 2 He reflects on attending Little Rock Central High School's 1958 commencement exercises and describes the “creative” and “dynamic will” of African Americans who have overcome the challenges of slavery and racism. “Out of these black men and these black women came something that keeps the generations going,” King remarks. “If they, had turned to the first method of bitterness, it wouldn't have come. If they had withdrawn and turned to silent hate, it wouldn't have come.”

Unfulfilled Hopes, Sermon outline

Our sermon today brings us face to face with one of the most persistent realities in human experience. Very few people are priveledged to live life with all of their dreams realized and all of their hopes fulfilled. Who has not had to face the agony of blasted hopes and shattered dreams

We may turn back to the life of the Apostle Paul and find a very potent exampIe of this problem of unfullfilled hopes In the Fifteenth Chapter of his letter to the Christians at Rome, Paul writes this: “When I take my journey into Spain, I will come unto you” 3 It was one of Paul's greatest hopes to go to Spain, the edge of the then known world, [ strikeout illegible ] where he could further spread the Christian gospel. And on his way to Spain, he planned to visit Rome that vallient group of Christians in the city of Rome, the capital city of the world. He looked forward to the day that he would have personal fellowship with those people whom he greeted in his letter as “Christians in the household of Caesar.” 4 The more he thought about it, the more his heart exuded with joy. All of his attention now would be turned toward the preparation of going to carrying the gospel to the city of Rome with its many gods, and to Spain, the end of the then known world. 5

But notice what happened to this [ glowing? ] dream and this promising hope which gripped Pauls life. Paul never got to Spain did get to Rome never got to Rome in the sense that he had hoped. He got went there only as a prisoner and not as a free man. He spent his days in that ancient city in a little prison cell, held captive because of his daring faith in Jesus Christ. 6 And Paul never saw was never able to walk the dusty roads of Spain, or to see its curvasious slopes, or watch its busy coast life, because he died a mytres death in Rome before his hope could be fulfilled. 7 The story of Pauls life was the tragic story of blasted hopes and unfillfilled dreams.

This is the persistent story of life. There is hardly anyone here this morning who has not set out for some distant Spain, some momentous goal, some glorious realization, only to find that he had to settle for far less. We were never able to walk as free men through the streets of our Rome. Instead we were [ forced? ] to to live our lives in a little confining cell which circumstance had built around us. 8

What does one do under such circumstances

It is quite possible for one to seek to solve this problem by making everything and everybody atone for one's predicament. All of their frustration are distilled into a core of bitternes that expressess itsefe in hardness of attitude and a total mercilessnes. They take out their disappointment on someone else. You have seen people like that

cruel to their mate

inhuman to children

In short they are mean.

they are bitter

They are cynical

they are loveless

They find fault in everything and everybody. They always complain. They have a demonical grudge against life. 9

Some people try to deal with the problem by withdrawing completely into themselves.

The final alternative is creative. It involves the exercise of a great and creative will. 10

Unfulfilled Hopes, Sermon Delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church

Our sermon today brings us face to face with one of the most persistent realities in human experience. Very few people are privileged to live life with all of their dreams realized and all of their hopes fulfilled. Who here this morning has not had to face the agony of blasted hopes and shattered dreams?

One of the best examples of this problem is found in the life of the Apostle Paul. In the fifteenth chapter of the Book of Romans, which we read in the scripture lesson for the morning, we find Paul writing these words to the Roman Christians: “Whenever I go into Spain, I will come unto you.” In other words, “Whenever I go to Spain, I will stop by to see you.” This was one of the high hopes of Paul's life, the desire to go to Spain, the edge of the then known world, and carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to that distant land. And on his way to Spain he would stop by to see the Christians in Rome, the capital city of the world. He looked forward to the day that he would have personal fellowship with that little group of people that he referred to in the greetings of his letter as “Christians in the household of Caesar.” This was his great hope. This was his great dream. And all of his life now would be turned toward the preparation of going to Spain and carrying the gospel there and of going to Rome, the capital of the world. This was his dream. This was his hope.

But let us notice what happened to this hope that gripped the life of Paul, to this dream that saturated his being. We will read the scripture carefully and delve into the history of Paul's life. We discover that Paul never got to Rome in the sense that he desired. He only got to Rome as a prisoner and not as a free man. He had to spend his days in Rome in a little cell because of his daring faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not only that, Paul never got to travel the dusty roads of Spain, to notice its curvaceous slopes and the busyness of its coast life, because he died a martyr's death in Rome. The story of Paul's life is the story, the tragic story, of unfulfilled hopes and shattered dreams.

But in a real sense, my friends, this is the persistent story of life. Almost everybody here this morning has started out on some distant trip to reach some distant Spain, to achieve some distant goal, to realize some distant dream, only to discover that life stopped far short of that. We never got an opportunity to walk as free men in the Romes of our lives. We ended up so often confined in a little cell that had been built up around us by the forces of circumstance. 11 This is the story of life.

This reveals to us that there is a tragic element in life. We must never overlook it. If the early Christian church didn't overlook it, we must not overlook it. The early Christians, they were bringing together the books of the Bible, did not leave out of the gospel the event that took place on Calvary Hill. That was a tragic event. It was a dark moment in history. And the universe crucified its most noble character. We must never forget that that stands at the center of the Christian gospel which reveals to us that there is an element of tragedy in life, there is a cross at the center of it. That as we face life and all of its problems, we see this element as tragic. Life is not a great symphony with all of the instruments playing harmoniously together. We will look at it long enough, we will discover that there is a jangling discord in life that has somehow thrown the symphony out of whack. The nagging, prehensile tentacles of evil are always present, taking some of the meaning out of life.

Many people have often looked at this, and they've gotten frustrated about it, and they've wondered if life had any justice in it. Long years ago the philosopher Schopenhauer looked at it. He said that life is nothing but a tragic comedy played over and over again with slight changes in costume and scenery. 12 Long time ago Shakespeare's Macbeth looked at it. He said that life has no meaning in the final analysis. Why? Because life turns out to be sound and furied in so many instances. 13 A good while ago, even in our own nation, Paul Laurence Dunbar looked at it. And all that he could come out with was saying:

A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in, A minute to smile and an hour to weep in, A pint of joy to a peck of trouble, And never a laugh that the moans come double; And that is life! 14

We've looked at this so often, and we've become frustrated, wondering if life has any justice. We look out at the stars; we find ourselves saying that these stars shine from their cold and serene and passionless height, totally indifferent to the joys and sorrows of men. We begin to ask, Is man a plaything of a callous nature, sometimes friendly and sometimes inimical? Is man thrown out as a sort of orphan in the terrifying immensities of space, with nobody to guide him on and nobody concerned about him? These are the questions we ask, and we ask them because there is an element of tragedy in life.

We come back to that point of our text and of our prophet. We come to the point of seeing in life that there are unfulfilled hopes. There are moments when our dreams are not realized. And so we discover in our lives, soon or later, that all pain is never relieved. We discover, soon or later, that all hopes are never realized. We come to the point of seeing that no matter how long we pray for them sometimes, and no matter how long we cry out for a solution to our problems, no matter how much we desire it, we don't get the answer. The only answer that we get is a fading echo of our desperate cry, of our lonely cry. So we find Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane praying that the cup would be removed from him. 15 But he has to drink it with all of its bitterness and all of its pain. We find Paul praying that the thorn would be removed from his flesh, but it is never removed, and he is forced to go all the way to the grave with it. 16 And so in this text, we find Paul wanting to go to Spain with a, for a noble purpose, to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to Spain. Paul never gets to Spain. He ends up in Rome, not as a free man but as a man in prison. This is the story of life. In so many instances, it becomes the arena of unrealized dreams and unfulfilled hopes, frustration with no immediate solution in the environment.

Now, the question that I want to try to grapple with you this, with this morning is this: what do you do when you find your dreams unrealized, your hopes unfulfilled, and you see no basic solution in your environment to the problem that you are facing? How do you deal with it?

Now, some people deal with this problem, as you well know, by getting caught up in the response of bitterness. They feel that the best way, they end up dealing with their frustration by taking out their anger with the universe, their anger with life, on other people and other things. In short, they become mean.

Have you ever seen mean people? Now, sometimes you take a good psychological analysis of that person. You look back, and you discover that that person had a distant Spain in mind that he wanted to go to, and he had a great hope and a great desire and because of the forces of circumstance something happened and he never got to that Spain. And he ended up confined in a little cell of life that had been brought up and built up around him by the very forces of circumstance. And now he lives in his cell, bitter and angry with life, and he has a sort of demonical grudge against life. This is his response. And he seeks to solve his frustration by taking all of this out on other people. And so maybe sometimes he's mean to his children, or he's mean to his wife, or she's mean to her husband, or mean to people round and about because he can't find life itself. Life is intangible in a sense; it's invisible. We, we, we don't see life; we see the manifestations of life. And you can never take life and hit life and beat up on life. And so he discovers that he can't get life itself to beat on and pay back for what the universe has done to him, so he finds people that are tangible, and he finds things that are tangible, and he takes this bitterness and this hate out on these things. And this is the solution to his problem, he thinks. The bitterness within, and the anger, he becomes angry with the universe. And he fights the universe through people and things. This is one way that people deal with this problem of unfulfilled hopes. They react with bitterness and mercilessness and meanness.

Well, there is another way that people often follow. They may withdraw completely into themselves. This is often a way that people use. They withdraw completely within themselves, and very happily they build the walls around themselves, and they don't allow anybody to penetrate. And they develop detachment into a neat and fine art. And so they look out into the world through eyes that have burned out. They end up with a cold and dead stare. They solve their problem, they feel, through the silence of hate. They are neither happy nor unhappy. They are just indifferent. 17 You've seen people like this, broken down by the storms of life, beat down by the weight of circumstance. And they are not fighting it with bitterness on the one hand, but they are fighting it with a silent hate. They withdraw from people, and they withdraw from the world. They withdraw from everything and turn totally within. This, they feel, is a solution to the problem. But that isn't it.

There is another way, which I think is a more creative way. And that is, it involves the exercise of a great and dynamic will. 18 This is the individual who stands up in his circumstances and stands up amid the problem, faces the fact that his hopes are unfulfilled. And then he says, “I have one thing left. Life has beaten it down; it has broken away from me many things, sometime my physical body. But at least it has left me with a will, and I will assert this , and I refuse to be stopped. Even if Rome and Spain are blocked off of my itinerary, I refuse to be stopped.” 19 And this is the man who stands up in the greatness of life. He discovers the power and the creativity of the human will, and he faces any circumstance with the power and the force of his will. And he has a sort of dogged determination. This is what Paul Tillich, the great philosopher and theologian of our age, means when he writes a book entitled The Courage to Be. 20 He says in that book that all around man is the threat of nonbeing. The man who has adjusted to modern life, the man who lives with creativity in the modern world, is the individual who stands amid the thrust of non being and has the courage to be, in spite of all. And this is the way that Paul faced his problem. This is the way that any great Christian faces his problem. The hopes are not fulfilled, and the dreams are not realized. He says that I have one thing left and that is the power of the will. And I refuse to be stopped. I'll stand up amid life and the circumstances of life. Every now and then it will beat me, push me to this side and to that side, but I will stand up to it. I will not be stopped.

The other day we were flying to London. 21 I remember the pilot said to us that the flight coming back from London would be four hours longer than the flight going over to London. You know, these jet planes can go from New York to London in five hours and a half, but it takes them about nine hours to get back from London to New York. He said, now, the reason it is like this is that going over to London, you, you, you have a tailwind and it helps you to get in there fast. But coming back from London to New York you have strong headwinds, and that slows you up; it makes it kind of difficult to get in. You can't go in with the same speed, to go from London to New York. But I started thinking about the fact that if, even if that plane is four hours late, it battles through that wind somehow, and it gets to New York. That's the important thing. It gets off at London earlier, and it gets to New York later, but it does get to New York because it gets in itself the power to endure and go through the wind, even when they are pushing against them.

And this, I think, we find in this a parallel to life: that often we have strong tail‐winds, and we move through life with ease, and things work in our favor, and everything is bright, and everything is happy. The sunshine of life is glowing radiantly in our eyes. These are bright and marvelous and happy days. But there will come moments when life will present headwinds before you. It seems that as you move something is blocking you. Circumstance after circumstance, disaster after disaster, stand in your path and beat up against you. And who is the man of creativity? He is the man who is determined to move on in spite of the headwinds. And who says somehow, “I might get in late, but I'm gonna get in because I have a strong and determined will in spite of the winds of circumstance that blow against me.” Now, this is what Paul did in his own life. And this is what we have to do. We must get within ourselves, cultivate within ourselves, the power of a dynamic will and have the determination to move on amid every circumstance.

When we study history, when we read biography, we find it is a running commentary on this. We appreciate John Milton. We read Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained with great joy and great appreciation, but we appreciate it even more when we discover that he wrote it when he was blind. 22 We read Longfellow as he translates Dante { Alighieri ]. We think of the greatness, this poet translating the works of another great poet. Then, we appreciate Longfellow even more when even we discover that a few days before he started translating Dante, the dress of his wife accidentally caught fire. And he tried desperately to put the fire out, but he couldn't put it out. It injured her to the point that she died a few days later. Here, we see that wifeless, motherless man sitting in his lonely room, turning to the translation of Dante in order to bring meaning in life. 23 And he did it well. We see Helen Keller, and we appreciate her. We appreciate her even more when we discover that here is a person been thrown into a little cell of blindness and deafness, can't see, can't hear, but yet in spite of that she wouldn't be stopped. She was determined to be in the midst of nonbeing. She was determined to assert her will in the midst of tragic circumstances. And even though she didn't achieve the Spain of sight to see the beauties of nature, she achieved an inner sight, which all of the men and women of this world appreciate. We will but look and see these individuals. We will see them with a beauty and a power.

I remember just last year I was out to Little Rock, Arkansas, at the time of the commencement exercise at Central High School, and I had the privilege of going in that evening. 24 I think they had only about eight or ten Negroes who were able to get in because they had to have invitations; and Ernest Green, who was the only Negro graduate, extended an invitation, and I went into that commencement. There were many things there that I remember, but one of the things that I remember more than anything else is that, as they were going across the platform getting their diploma, I remember very vividly a student going up on the arms of two other students. He had been taken out of a little chair going up, and I heard noises and shouts and cheers all over the grandstand. I am sure that for no athlete that had ever played out there in that field, in that stadium, I am sure that they had never gotten cheers like this boy got. And I watched him as he went up. And here was a boy who, I understand, started out in school, and he did an excellent job, was one of the star students of his class. One day when he was in class at Central High, and he was there, and the teacher didn't know him. The teacher said, “Stand up.” And he said, “I'm sorry, I haven't stood up since I was four years old.” But that boy had something else: the power of a creative will. His body was broken. The forces of circumstance had inflicted pain upon him. The forces of circumstance had taken something away from him that he desperately longed for, I'm sure. Some Spain that would given him, would have given him a certain physical integration that he wanted, I'm sure. Yet, he didn't have it. But he had one thing left. And that was the power of a dynamic will. This is what can take you through.

I look back over the dark days of slavery. Let nobody fool you about it. We can romanticize all we want to about the beauty of slavery. There are those who would still try to romanticize about the beauty of slavery, and they, they have their minds back to those good old days. Slavery was a tragic thing. All that the Negro had to look forward to was rows of cotton, sizzling sun, the whip of the boss, and the barking of bloodhounds. This is what he faced. It is tragic to be cut off from some things, but there is nothing more tragic than to be cut off from your language, cut off from your family, cut off from your roots. 25 This is what the Negro faced—going over in ships out of Africa, huddled up in ships, not able even to talk to each other, thrown up and brought over to distant countries to work, nothing in their past to hold on to. Yet, they are thrown here, all of the Spains of their lives pulled out, caught up in a Rome of prisonous slavery. And this is where they had to live. That's enough to beat anybody down, keep them from ever becoming anything, hold them back, and keep them from ever giving to history any contribution. That's enough, isn't it?

They had something left. The little preacher who didn't know his English grammar, who had never heard of Plato or Aristotle, who could never understand Einstein's theory of relativity, he'd look at them and say to them, “Now, you ain't no nigger. You ain't no slave but you God's children.” 26 They went out, they left feeling that they were God's children, that they had a will to carry them on even amid the darkness of slavery. And sometime they would begin to walk around the field, and they knew that it was dark in their lives. They knew that they had to walk there so often in bare feet, but they pictured the day when they would lay down their burdens and they could sing, “I'm so glad that troubles don't last always.” 27 And then you could hear an echo saying, “And I know my robe going to fit me well because I tried it on at the gates of hell. By and by, by and by, I'm gonna lay down my heavy load.” 28 These people, because of their creative, dynamic will, gave to this world something to keep it going, and they have given to this world contributions that the world will always have to be proud of. What gave to America the spiritual, which is the only original and creative music in this nation, gave to this world generations of young men and young women who've made marvelous contributions. For out of the black men and women of these dark days came a Marian Anderson, a Roland Hayes, and a Paul Robeson, to sing until the very fiber of men's souls is shaken. Out of these men and women came a Ralph Bunche to stand as one of the great diplomats of the world. 29 Out of these men came a Booker T. Washington and a W. E. B. Du Bois as great educators. 30 Out of these black men and black women came Charles Drew to save us with blood plasma all over this world. 31 Out of these black men and out of these black women came an E. Franklin Frazier to interpret sociologically the trends of our age. 32 Out of these black men and these black women came a Paul Laurence Dunbar, a Countee Cullen, and a Langston Hughes to write poetry so that we can identify ourselves with reality through poetry. 33 Out of these black men and these black women came something that keeps the generations going. If they had turned to the first method of bitterness, it wouldn't have come. If they had withdrawn and turned to silent hate, it wouldn't have come. But it came because of the creativity of the will and the dynamic quality of it, and the determination to stand up, amid all of those forces, amid all of the darkness of human circumstance.

And whenever a man comes to this point, he brings reality into the very center of his existence, and he brings new meaning and delight in the universe. And you know, strangely enough when you come to this point, you don't worry about suffering. You don't die because you don't get to Spain. You come to see that suffering might make you stronger and bring you closer to the Almighty God.

The tree that never had to fight, For sun and sky and air and light, That stood out in the open plain And always got its share of rain, Never became a forest king, But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil By mind or hand in life's turmoil, But always won his share Of sky and sun and light and air, Never became a manly man, But lived and died as he began.

And never forget,

Good timber does not grow in ease. The stronger the wind, the tougher the tree. The farther sky, the greater length. The rougher the storm, the greater strength. By sun and wind, by rain and snows, In tree and men, good timber grows.

Where thickest stand the forest grows We find the patriarchs of both And they hold converse with the stars, Whose broken branches show the scars Of many winds and much of strife. This is the common law of life. 34

Discover this. Go out anew into the experiences of life. I assure you that you will meet your Spain, in the sense that you will never get there. You might get to your Rome as a prisoner, not as a free man. But if you have the power and the dynamics of a human will, nothing in all this world can stop you. Why? Because you refuse to be stopped. You have the dogged determination to exist and the courage to be. Let us pray.

Oh God, our gracious, heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the creative insights in the universe. We thank Thee for the lives of great saints and prophets in the past, who have revealed to us that we can stand up amid the problems and difficulties and trials of life and not give in. We thank Thee for our foreparents, who've given us something in the midst of the darkness of exploitation and oppression to keep going. And grant that we will go on with the proper faith and the proper determination of will, so that we will be able to make a creative contribution to this world and in our lives. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray. Amen. [ Invitation omitted ] 35

1. King wrote “Unfulfilled Hopes” on the file folder containing this outline and also wrote this title on his personal copy of Meek's sermon (Meek, “Strength in Adversity, A sermon preached in the Old South Church in Boston,” 19 April 1953). The 5 April 1959 Dexter program indicates that King preached the sermon “Unfulfilled Hopes.”

2. King would later title this sermon “Shattered Dreams” (King, Draft of Chapter X, “Shattered Dreams,” Strength to Love , July 1962-March 1963, pp. 514-527 in this volume).

3. Romans 15:24.

4. Cf. Philippians 4: 22.

5. Meek, “Strength in Adversity”: “Paul had high hopes of going to Spain, the edge of the then known world, that he might take there his word about the Christian Gospel. And on the way he planned to visit the Christian folk in Rome, the capital city of the world. Paul wanted to see that little valiant group of Christians, folk whom he saluted in his letter as ‘Christians in the household of Caesar.’ The more he thought about his planned journey, the more his heart was warmed by it. Imagine, Rome with its many gods and with its great power, subject to the Christian Gospel.”

6. Cf. Acts 28: 16-17.

7. Meek, “Strength in Adversity”: "Paul did get to Rome, but he went as a prisoner and not as a free man. Paul lived in Rome at the expense of the Roman government in a prison cell, held captive because of his faith. And Paul never saw the mountains and the plains and the coast life of Spain, because he died a martyr's death before the hope of his mission could ever be fulfilled.” Someone other than King wrote the word “martyr's” next to the misspelled word “mytres.”

8. Meek, “Strength in Adversity”: “How many of us in one way or another have dreamed our dreams of going to Spain, of fulfilling some far reaching hope, of doing valiantly for a great cause. But we never reached the Spain of our dreams. We had to settle for a far shorter journey. We were never able to wander freely about the streets of our Rome. Instead, we looked out through the little windows of some confining cell which the circumstances of life had built around us.”

9. Thurman, Deep River , p. 37: “It is quite possible to become obsessed with the idea of making everything and everybody atone for one's predicament. All one's frustrations may be distilled into a core of bitterness and disillusionment that expresses itself in a hardness of attitude and a total mercilessness—in short, one may become mean. You have seen people like that. They seem to have a demoniacal grudge against life.” King paraphrased this text on the verso of a 12 October 1960 letter from Coretta Scott King to Velma Hall.

10. King added this final section (beginning with Roman numeral III) in a second pen.

11. Cf. Meek, “Strength in Adversity.”

12. King paraphrases segments of Arthur Schopenhauer's chapter “On History” in The World as Will and Idea , 3:224-227.

13. Shakespeare, Macbeth , act 5, sc. 5: “Life's…a tale /Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/ Signifying nothing.”

14. King quotes from Dunbar's poem “Life” (1895).

15. Matthew 26:39.

16. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

17. Thurman, Deep River , p. 38: “Or such persons may withdraw completely into themselves. Very carefully they build a wall around themselves and let no one penetrate it. They carry the technique of detachment to a highly developed art. Such people are not happy, nor are they unhappy, but are completely indifferent. They look out on life through eyes that have burned out, and nothing is left but a dead, cold stare.”

18. Thurman, Deep River , pp. 38-39: “The final alternative is creative—thought of in terms of a second wind. It involves the exercise of a great and dynamic will.”

19. Meek, “Strength in Adversity”: “We cannot, we must not, stop even though Spain and Rome are crossed off our itinerary.”

20. Paul Tillich, The Courage to Be (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1952).

21. On 3 February 1959, the Kings and SCLC historian Lawrence D. Reddick flew from New York City to London as they began a six-week trip to India and the Middle East.

22. John Milton lost his sight in 1651.

23. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published his 1867 translation of Dante's Divine Comedy after his wife Fanny Appleton burned to death in a household accident in 1861.

24. Little Rock's Central High School was the center of a national controversy in September 1957 when Governor Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas national guard to prevent the enrollment of nine black students. President Eisenhower eventually commanded the national guardsmen to uphold the Brown decision and desegregate the high school. The “Little Rock Nine” successfully entered Central High on 25 September. For King's response to the use of military troops in Little Rock, see King to Dwight D. Eisenhower, 25 September 1957, in Papers 4:278.

25. Thurman, Deep River ; p. 35: “For the slave, freedom was not on the horizon; there stretched ahead the long road down which there marched in interminable lines only the rows of cotton, the sizzling heat, the riding overseer with his rawhide whip, the auction block where families were torn asunder, the barking of the bloodhounds—all this, but not freedom. Human slavery has been greatly romanticized by the illusion of distance, the mint julep, the long Southern twilight, and the lazy sweetness of blooming magnolias. But it must be intimately remembered that slavery was a dirty, sordid, inhuman business…There is no more hapless victim than one who is cut off from family, from language, from one's roots.”

26. King may have drawn this anecdote from Thurman's Jesus and the Disinherited , p. 50.

27. King refers to the spiritual “I'm So Glad Trouble Don't Last Always.”

28. King refers to the spiritual “Bye and Bye.”

29. In 1950 Ralph J. Bunche received the Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomatic efforts on behalf of the United Nations during the 1948-1949 Arab-Israeli War. He corresponded with King during the Montgomery bus boycott (Bunche to King, 22 February 1956, and 21 November 1956, in Papers 3: 134, 436, respectively).

30. Educator Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) founded Tuskegee Institute in 1881 and was a major spokesperson for African Americans at the turn of the twentieth century. Scholar and activist W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) authored the groundbreaking book on African American life, Souls of Black Folk (1903). He was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and edited the organization's joumal Crisis until 1934. During the bus boycott he sent a poem to King (Du Bois to King. March 1956; see also King to Du Bois. 19 March 1956, in Papers 3: 180).

31. Charles Drew (1904-1950) was a surgeon who is recognized for his work with blood plasma and blood banks.

32. Sociologist E. Franklin Frazier (1894-1962) authored The Negro Family in the United States (1939). In a 28 November 1960 letter, Frazier solicited information from King on “the work which your church is doing concerning marriage and family relations.”

33. King refers to poets Dunbar, Cullen (1903-1946). and Hughes (1902-1967).

34. Cf. Douglas Malloch, “Good Timber” in Be the Best of Whatever You Are (Chicago: Scott Dowd, 1926), p. 31.

35. For an example of King's invitation to baptism, see final paragraph of “Man's Sin and God's Grace (1954-1960?), p. 391 in this volume.

Source: MLKEC-INP, Martin Luther King, Jr. Estate Collection, In Private Hands.

©  Copyright Information

• Undergraduate
• High School
• Architecture
• American History
• Asian History
• Antique Literature
• American Literature
• Asian Literature
• Classic English Literature
• World Literature
• Creative Writing
• Linguistics
• Criminal Justice
• Legal Issues
• Anthropology
• Archaeology
• Political Science
• World Affairs
• African-American Studies
• East European Studies
• Latin-American Studies
• Native-American Studies
• West European Studies
• Family and Consumer Science
• Social Issues
• Women and Gender Studies
• Social Work
• Natural Sciences
• Pharmacology
• Earth science
• Agriculture
• Agricultural Studies
• Computer Science
• IT Management
• Mathematics
• Investments
• Engineering and Technology
• Engineering
• Aeronautics
• Medicine and Health
• Alternative Medicine
• Communications and Media
• Advertising
• Communication Strategies
• Public Relations
• Educational Theories
• Teacher's Career
• Chicago/Turabian
• Company Analysis
• Education Theories
• Shakespeare
• Canadian Studies
• Food Safety
• Relation of Global Warming and Extreme Weather Condition
• Movie Review
• Admission Essay
• Annotated Bibliography
• Application Essay
• Article Critique
• Article Review
• Article Writing
• Book Review
• Business Plan
• Business Proposal
• Capstone Project
• Cover Letter
• Creative Essay
• Dissertation
• Dissertation - Abstract
• Dissertation - Conclusion
• Dissertation - Discussion
• Dissertation - Hypothesis
• Dissertation - Introduction
• Dissertation - Literature
• Dissertation - Methodology
• Dissertation - Results
• GCSE Coursework
• Grant Proposal
• Marketing Plan
• Multiple Choice Quiz
• Personal Statement
• Power Point Presentation
• Power Point Presentation With Speaker Notes
• Questionnaire
• Reaction Paper
• Research Paper
• Research Proposal
• SWOT analysis
• Thesis Paper
• Online Quiz
• Literature Review
• Movie Analysis
• Statistics problem
• Math Problem
• All papers examples
• How It Works
• Money Back Policy
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• We Are Hiring

Unfulfillment of One’s Dreams, Essay Example

Pages: 4

Words: 1220

Hire a Writer for Custom Essay

Use 10% Off Discount: "custom10" in 1 Click 👇

You are free to use it as an inspiration or a source for your own work.

How does one achieve the fulfillment of their dreams?  The answer depends on how much drive that person may or may not have.  Often people do not fully achieve their true potential whether that potential be making the best grades possible in school or perhaps achieving the best results they have desired and are capable of in life.  An individual may fail to achieve success for various reasons, whether it is laziness or just simply a lack of drive or commitment.  In literature and in reality many people do not fulfill their potential and show an unfulfillment of one’s dreams.

Teen pregnancy is a major issue of today.  Each year more and more young kids are becoming pregnant.  For many areas around the county, this could even be considered a minor epidemic.  On average seven hundred fifty thousand become pregnant each and every year and that number is unfortunately steadily rising (Livestrong.com par. 1).  Teenage pregnancy can be caused by a number of things such as low self-esteem, poverty, desire for popularity, or even a negative outlook on life.  Complications are much more prevalent with teenage pregnancy because often the teen is afraid of becoming fat or smoking and drinking during the pregnancy.  In most cases teens that become pregnant are forced to drop out of school and almost never go on to college.  All of these setbacks can cause major problems for the teen and baby’s future and often lead to an unfulfillment of dreams for the entire family.

In the novel Things Fall Apart , a man rises and a man falls.  In the beginning Okonkwo has everything going for him and seems to be living a fulfilled life but as the story progresses the complete opposite occurs.  A young boy comes to live with Okonkwo and he becomes very fond of him.  Later his tribe says the boy must be killed and that Okonkwo must do the killing.  Upon this ruling, Okonkwo spoke to himself:

“When did you become a shivering old woman, Okonkwo asked himself, you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war?  How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number?  Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed” (Achebe 56).

This begins to show Okonkwo’s downfall.  His goal was to become the village leader and to rule all of Umofia.  However, this did not happen and the white man came to the village, built a church and began to gather followers.  “The white man is very clever.  He came quietly and peaceably with his religion.  We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay.  Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one.  He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (Achebe 152).  This quote is basically the overall theme of the novel and how Okonkwo’s life is a not fulfilled as he had hoped.Similarly, the novel Great Expectations has a theme that mirrors that of Things Fall Apart because both Okonkwo and Pip rise and fall.  Pip is a young boy who lives with his sister and her husband.  His sister treats him badly and brings him up “by hand.”  However, one day he goes to Miss Havisham’s home to work.  His life begins to get better as one day he learns he has a benefactor and he has been offered to move to London to become a gentleman.  The following quotation explains Pip’s reaction to leaving his home and entering a new life:

“I was to leave our village at five in the morning…and I had told Joe that I wished to walk away all alone.  I am afraid—sore afraid— that this purpose originated in my sense of the contrast there would be between me and Joe, if we went to the coach together.  I had pretended with myself that there was nothing of this taint in the arrangement; but when I went up to my little room…I felt compelled to admit that it might be done so….” (Dickens 156).

Pip is unsure if this is the truly the right thing to do but in the end his quest to become a gentleman makes him decide to accept the offer.  At the end of his learning, Pip finds out that his benefactor is a convict and that he has no real “Great Expectations.”  He is devastated and feels he is better than the convict, but Pip’s hopes of learning a great skill is shattered.  Just as Okonkwo had fallen, so too did Pip; and their lives were both unfulfilled.

Recently, during the Olympics, the country of Georgia experienced a great tragedy.  They lost a great athlete in Nadar Kumaritashvili.  Last week on a practice run, Nadar Kumaritashvili was sledding down the track at ninety-miles per hour when he lost control of his sled flew into the air hit the wall and died.  His story has been broadcasted across the world and has touched many people’s hearts.  His life was ended prematurely due to a rare, freak accident.  Nadar’s goal to compete in the Olympics was unfortunately unfulfilled and his enormous potential was taken away in an instant.  His father said that right before his death he had made a call home and had told his father “I will either win or die” (MoreThanTheGames.com.uk par. 4).  According to his father, it made him “feel a little uneasy but he dismissed it as a little childhood bravado.  He told me it was very difficult.  He was not afraid, but he told me, it is a difficult section.  He was not afraid, he was strong” (par. 6).  At the height of Nadar’s career he unfortunately lost his life.  His father said that he had been training for this moment his whole life that he was ecstatic to be competing.  This accident has raised many questions about the real safety of this event because of the dangers of traveling at around ninety-miles per hour down a treacherous track that has a horrific corner that throws many lugers off course.  At the height of his life and career he had everything taken away from him.  His tragic death is truly a devastating story for many people.  One thing is certain though, this was a freak accident and he did not fulfill his dream.

In conclusion, whether an individual is able to fulfill or not fulfill his or her dreams is an important aspect in everyday life.  People work towards their goals in all aspects.  However, it is up to you whether you fulfill your life or not.  Not everyone is able to fulfill their dreams or lives as it is clearly shown through the examples of teen pregnancy, Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart , Pip’s devastation in Great Expectations , and Nadar’s tragic story.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart: and Related Readings. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2008.

Dickens, Charles, and Linda M. Jennings. Great Expectations . New York: Puffin, 1995.

Livestrong.com. “Teen Pregnancy Rates In The USA.” livestrong.com – Health, Fitness, Lifestyle | livestrong.com . Web. 29 Mar. 2010. <http://www.livestrong.com/article/12504-teen-pregnancy-rates-usa/>.

MoreThanTheGames.co.uk. “Nodar Kumaritashvili Told Father, “I’ll Win or Die at the Olympics”” More than the Games | Sports News and Blogs from the UK Press . 15 Feb. 2010. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. <http://www.morethanthegames.co.uk/luge/158998-nodar-kumaritashvili-told-father-ill-win-or-die-olympics>.

Stuck with your Essay?

Get in touch with one of our experts for instant help!

How To Protect Yourself Before Having Sex, Essay Example

Qualitative Methods Review, Essay Example

Time is precious

don’t waste it!

Plagiarism-free guarantee

Privacy guarantee

Secure checkout

Money back guarantee

Related Essay Samples & Examples

Voting as a civic responsibility, essay example.

Pages: 1

Words: 287

Utilitarianism and Its Applications, Essay Example

Words: 356

The Age-Related Changes of the Older Person, Essay Example

Pages: 2

Words: 448

The Problems ESOL Teachers Face, Essay Example

Pages: 8

Words: 2293

Should English Be the Primary Language? Essay Example

Words: 999

The Term “Social Construction of Reality”, Essay Example

Words: 371

• Free Samples
• Premium Essays
• Editing Services Editing Proofreading Rewriting
• Extra Tools Essay Topic Generator Thesis Generator Citation Generator GPA Calculator Study Guides Donate Paper
• Essay Writing Help
• About Us About Us Testimonials FAQ

Essays on unfulfilled dreams

• Studentshare
• Unfulfilled Dreams
• TERMS & CONDITIONS
• PRIVACY POLICY
• COOKIES POLICY

In his own words: Unfulfilled Dreams

• Crusader Staff
• January 14, 2022

By Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

<This sermon excerpt is reprinted for educational purposes. Dr. King delivered these remarks on Sunday, March 3, 1968 at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta a month before his heinous murder. Copyright: Carson, Clayborne; Holloran, Peter. A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. . Grand Central Publishing.>

I want to preach this morning from the subject: “Unfulfilled Dreams.”   My text is taken from the eighth chapter of First Kings (17th verse). Sometimes it’s overlooked. It is not one of the most familiar passages in the Old Testament. But I will never forget when I first came across it. It struck me as a passage having cosmic significance because it says so much in so few words about things that we all experience in life. David, as you know, was a great king. And the one thing that was foremost in David’s mind and in his heart was to build a great temple. The building of the temple was considered to be the most significant thing facing the Hebrew people, and the king was expected to bring this into being.  

David had the desire; he started. And then we come to that passage over in the eighth chapter of First Kings, which reads, “And it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. And the Lord said unto David my father, ‘Whereas it was in thine heart to build a house unto my name, thou didst well that it was within thine heart.’”  

And that’s really what I want to talk about this morning: It is well that it was within thine heart. As if to say, “David, you will not be able to finish the temple. You will not be able to build it. But I just want to bless you, because it was within thine heart. Your dream will not be fulfilled. The majestic hopes that guided your days will not be carried out in terms of an actual temple coming into being that you were able to build. But I bless you, David, because it was within thine heart. You had the desire to do it; you had the intention to do it; you tried to do it; you started to do it. And I bless you for having the desire and the intention in your heart. It is well that it was within thine heart.”  

So many of us in life start out building temples: temples of character, temples of justice, temples of peace. And so often we don’t finish them. Because life is like Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony.” At so many points we start, we try, we set out to build our various temples. And I guess one of the great agonies of life is that we are constantly trying to finish that which is unfinishable. We are commanded to do that. And so we, like David, find ourselves in so many instances having to face the fact that our dreams are not fulfilled. Now, let us notice first that life is a continual story of shattered dreams. Mahatma Gandhi labored for years and years for the independence of his people. And through a powerful nonviolent revolution he was able to win that independence.  

For years the Indian people had been dominated politically, exploited economically, segregated and humiliated by foreign powers, and Gandhi struggled against it. He struggled to unite his own people, and nothing was greater in his mind than to have India’s one great, united country moving toward a higher destiny. This was his dream. But Gandhi had to face the fact that he was assassinated and died with a broken heart, because that nation that he wanted to unite ended up being divided between India and Pakistan as a result of the conflict between the Hindus and the Moslems.  

Life is a long, continual story of setting out to build a great temple and not being able to finish it. Woodrow Wilson dreamed a dream of a League of Nations, but he died before the promise was delivered. The Apostle Paul talked one day about wanting to go to Spain. It was Paul’s greatest dream to go to Spain, to carry the gospel there. Paul never got to Spain. He ended up in a prison cell in Rome. This is the story of life.

So many of our forebears used to sing about freedom. And they dreamed of the day that they would be able to get out of the bosom of slavery, the long night of injustice. And they used to sing little songs: “Nobody knows de trouble I seen, nobody knows but Jesus.” They thought about a better day as they dreamed their dream. And they would say, “I’m so glad the trouble don’t last always. By and by, by and by, I’m going to lay down my heavy load.”   And they used to sing it because of a powerful dream. But so many died without having the dream fulfilled. And each of you this morning in some way is building some kind of temple. The struggle is always there. It gets discouraging sometimes. It gets very disenchanting sometimes. Some of us are trying to build a temple of peace. We speak out against war, we protest, but it seems that your head is going against a concrete wall. It seems to mean nothing.  

And so often as you set out to build the temple of peace you are left lonesome; you are left discouraged; you are left bewildered. Well, that is the story of life. And the thing that makes me happy is that I can hear a voice crying through the vista of time, saying: “It may not come today or it may not come tomorrow, but it is well that it is within thine heart. It’s well that you are trying.” You may not see it. The dream   may not be fulfilled, but it’s just good that you have a desire to bring it into reality. It’s well that it’s in thine heart. Thank God this morning that we do have hearts to put something meaningful in. Life is a continual story of shattered dreams.  

Now, let me bring out another point. Whenever you set out to build a creative temple, whatever it may be, you must face the fact that there is a tension at the heart of the universe between good and evil. It’s there: a tension at the heart of the universe between good and evil.   Hinduism refers to this as a struggle between illusion and reality. Platonic philosophy used to refer to it as a tension between body and soul. Zoroastrianism, a religion of old, used to refer to it as a tension between the god of light and the god of darkness. Traditional Judaism and Christianity refer to it as a tension between God and Satan. Whatever you call it, there is a struggle in the universe between good and evil.

Now, not only is that struggle structured out somewhere in the external forces of the universe, it’s structured in our own lives. Psychologists have tried to grapple with it in their way, and so they say various things. Sigmund Freud used to say that this tension is a tension between what he called the id and the superego. But you know, some of us feel that it’s a tension between God and man. And in every one of us this morning, there’s a war going on. It’s a civil war. I don’t care who you are, I don’t care where you live, there is a civil war going on in your life.   And every time you set out to be good, there’s something pulling on you, telling you to be evil. It’s going on in your life.  

Every time you set out to love, something keeps pulling on you, trying to get you to hate. Every time you set out to be kind and say nice things about people, something is pulling on you to be jealous and envious and to spread evil gossip about them. There’s a civil war going on. There is a schizophrenia, as the psychologists or the psychiatrists would call it, going on within all of us. And there are times that all of us know somehow that there is a Mr. Hyde and a Dr. Jekyll in us.

And we end up having to cry out with Ovid, the Latin poet, “I see and approve the better things of life, but the evil things I do.” We end up having to agree with Plato that the human personality is like a charioteer with two headstrong horses, each wanting to go in different directions. Or sometimes we even have to end up crying out with Saint Augustine as he said in his confessions, “Lord, make me pure, but not yet.”   We end up crying out with the Apostle Paul, “The good that I would I do not: And the evil that I would not, that I do.” Or we end up having to say with Goethe that “there’s enough stuff in me to make both a gentleman and a rogue.”  

There’s a tension at the heart of human nature. And whenever we set out to dream our dreams and to build our temples, we must be honest enough to recognize it. And this brings me to the basic point of the text. In the final analysis, God does not judge us by the separate incidents or the separate mistakes that we make, but by the total bent of our lives. In the final analysis, God knows that his children are weak and they are frail. In the final analysis, what God requires is that your heart is right.  

Salvation isn’t reaching the destination of absolute morality, but it’s being in the process and on the right road. There’s a highway called Highway 80. I’ve marched on that highway from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery. But I never will forget my first experience with Highway 80 was driving with Coretta and Ralph and Juanita Abernathy to California. We drove from Montgomery all the way to Los Angeles on Highway 80—it goes all the way out to Los Angeles. And you know, being a good man, being a good woman, does not mean that you’ve arrived in Los Angeles. It simply means that you’re on Highway 80.   Maybe you haven’t gotten as far as Selma, or maybe you haven’t gotten as far as Meridian, Mississippi, or Monroe, Louisiana—that isn’t the question. The question is whether you are on the right road. Salvation is being on the right road, not having reached a destination.  

Oh, we have to finally face the point that there is none good but the father. But if you’re on the right road, God has the power, and he has something called grace.   And he puts you where you ought to be. Now, the terrible thing in life is to be trying to get to Los Angeles on Highway 78. That’s when you are lost. That sheep was lost, not merely because he was doing something wrong in that parable, but he was on the wrong road.   And he didn’t even know where he was going; he became so involved in what he was doing, nibbling sweet grass, that he got on the wrong road. Salvation is being sure that you’re on the right road.   It is well— that’s what I like about it—that it was within thine heart.  

Some weeks ago somebody was saying something to me about a person that I have great, magnificent respect for. And they were trying to say something that didn’t sound too good about his character, something he was doing. And I said, “Number one, I don’t believe it. But number two, even if he is, he’s a good man because his heart is right.” And in the final analysis, God isn’t going to judge him by that little separate mistake that he’s making, because the bent of his life is right.

And the question I want to raise this morning with you: Is your heart right? If your heart isn’t right, fix it up today; get God to fix it up. Get somebody to be able to say about you, “He may not have reached the highest height, he may not have realized all of his dreams, but he tried.” Isn’t that a wonderful thing for somebody to say about you? “He tried to be a good man. He tried to be a just man. He tried to be an honest man.   His heart was in the right place.” And I can hear a voice saying, crying out through the eternities, “I accept you. You are a recipient of my grace because it was in your heart.   And it is so well that it was within thine heart.”   I don’t know this morning about you, but I can make a testimony. Don’t need to go out this morning saying that Martin Luther King is a saint. Oh, no. I want you to know this morning that I’m a sinner like all of God’s children. But I want to be a good man. And I want to hear a voice saying to me one day, “I take you in and I bless you, because you try. It is well that it was within thine heart.” What’s in your heart this morning? If you get your heart right …

  Oh, this morning, if I can leave anything with you, let me urge you to be sure that you have a strong boat of faith.   The winds are going to blow. The storms of disappointment are coming. The agonies and the anguishes of life are coming.   And be sure that your boat is strong, and also be very sure that you have an anchor. In times like these, you need an anchor. And be very sure that your anchor holds. It will be dark sometimes, and it will be dismal and trying, and tribulations will come. But if you have faith in the God that I’m talking about this morning, it doesn’t matter. For you can stand up amid the storms. And I say it to you out of experience this morning; yes, I’ve seen the lightning flash. I’ve heard the thunder roll. I’ve felt sin-breakers dashing, trying to conquer my soul. But I heard the voice of Jesus, saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.   No, never alone. No, never alone. He promised never to leave me. Never to leave me alone.  

And when you get this faith, you can walk with your feet solid to the ground and your head to the air, and you fear no man. And you fear nothing that comes before you. Because you know that God is even in Crete. If you ascend to the heavens, God is there. If you descend to hell, God is even there. If you take the wings of the morning and fly out to the uttermost parts of the sea, even God is there. Everywhere we turn we find him. We can never escape him. *

Recent News

4th Annual Cook County Juneteenth Illinois Celebration to Be Held June 14th and 22nd

$50M settlement approved for‘Marquette Park Four’

Is your child getting enough social interaction this summer?

WNBA opens 2024 Season with high marks for attendance and viewership

How to Revitalize Unfulfilled Goals and Lost Dreams

Ask yourself what is the "theme" of your goal and how can it be transformed.

Posted December 3, 2023 | Reviewed by Kaja Perina

• What Is Motivation?
• Find a therapist near me
• One of the challenges of life is learning to adapt to our unfulfilled goals and dreams.
• With any loss comes grief and we all handle grief differently. Some get stuck in regret and self-criticism.
• The key is learning to transform our dreams by discovering what it represents and finding new outlets.

You want to have kids but find that you physically cannot, or you decided years ago to forego kids and throw yourself into your career , but now you have regrets, and it’s too late. You were counting on that big promotion or starting your own business, but the company went bankrupt, or you didn’t have the capital to fund your project. You always wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail, but you blew out your knee, and it’s not an option.

We all have goals and dreams that we never reach despite our efforts, through no fault of our own. Some of us have made decisions we wish we could undo, but the opportunity has passed us by. All of us, at some point, have to deal with the natural limitations that come with aging. This is one of life’s challenges—learning to adjust to life’s disappointments, the loss of our dreams.

With loss comes some feeling of grief . What we hoped for and worked towards is, like a death, gone, and we each respond in our own ways. Some grieve for a while and manage to move on; some don’t grieve and march ahead as though nothing happened, only to find those feelings seeping back into their lives later. And some get stuck, steeped in regret about what could have been. They don’t move forward but ruminate about the past, the failure, and cannot enjoy the present or envision a positive future.

The challenge is to adapt to loss. The key to adapting is transforming.

It’s not the dream itself that’s important but what it represents.

Goals and dreams are distilled representations of your deep needs, present priorities, and your core personality . Somewhere below the first several layers of any goal is a deeper motivation , a specific need. Wanting to have a baby, for example, is undoubtedly about being a mother or father or creating your vision of family life, but beneath those needs may be others—a strong desire to be a caretaker or to be able to pass on your wisdom , or even repair your past. The job promotion may be about money but perhaps more importantly about having the license to be creative or feel powerful, just as starting a business may be really about having freedom. Hiking the trail may be about nature or a once-in-a-lifetime experience with friends, but at a deeper level, it is about meeting a new challenge for a personality that thrives on challenge.

Successfully dealing with life’s disappointments or eventual limitations is not just about “moving on” or “making the best of it” but drilling down, discovering what that goal or dream meant, what core of your personality it represented, and then transforming it—carry that need, that core forward in a new way.

If you’re struggling with disappointment or loss, this may be a good time to reflect and figure out what you need to carry forward. If, for example, having a child was about caretaking , consider other ways of bringing that need into your life—having foster children simply being more sensitive to those you interact with? If it’s about being more creative, can you explore other creative outlets? If you feel less restrained and need more freedom, are there ways of bringing this into your life? If it is about challenges, can you create another challenge—downsize and find something less physical but just as challenging or explore a different medium—learning a language or playing an instrument?

Will this new goal or dream erase the disappointment and sense of loss from the past? No. Depending on the size of the wound, twitches of grief will likely remain and ride up and down on what happens as you move forward. Will the new goal be as fulfilling as the one you lost? Probably not, because it is still tinged with old grief, but it will help if you take pride in the new.

Find your core.

Finally, look for the theme of your goals. What is it about you that is essential to being you? It may be about being a curious person, a learner who always needs to learn. Great—this is something you can transform and do for the rest of your life. Maybe it’s about being creative—explore and find new ones. Ditto for challenges—brainstorm experiences that, even if seemingly small, arouse your passion and give you that same dopamine rush.

Take stock of goals, dreams, and disappointments. What do you need to carry forward and transform?

Bob Taibbi, L.C.S.W., has 49 years of clinical experience. He is the author of 13 books and over 300 articles and provides training nationally and internationally.

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Psychiatrist
• Find a Support Group
• Find Online Therapy
• United States
• Brooklyn, NY
• Chicago, IL
• Houston, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington, DC
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Relationships
• Child Development
• Self Tests NEW
• Therapy Center
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

At any moment, someone’s aggravating behavior or our own bad luck can set us off on an emotional spiral that threatens to derail our entire day. Here’s how we can face our triggers with less reactivity so that we can get on with our lives.

• Emotional Intelligence
• Gaslighting
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

Unfulfilled Dreams

By: Steve   •  Essay  •  1,481 Words  •  March 16, 2010  •  1,177 Views

Everyone has dreams of being successful in life. When the word American comes to mind one often thinks of the land of opportunity. This dream was apparent with the first settlers, and it is apparent in today’s society. In F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925), he illustrates the challenges and tragedies associated with the American dream. By examining Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, and Myrtle Wilson through the narrator Nick Carraway, I understand the complex nature of the American dream. Jay Gatsby represents the cost complex of them all.

Gatsby overcame many obstacles in order to accomplish is dream. Born to shiftless and unsuccessful farmers (104), determined to make something of himself he legally changes his name from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby. In his youth he worked along the shores of Lake Superior, as a fisherman. There he meets Don Cody a self made millionaire. Cody made Gatsby his personal assistant and together they made several voyages. When Cody dies Gatsby inherits $25,000 however, he is unable to claim it, due to legal issues and Cody’s wife Ella.

Gatsby and Daisy meet when he was in the army. Although the love they had for each other is strong, they did not marry due to his financial status. He goes overseas and she later marries Tom Buchanan. Throughout the years he never stops dreaming about Daisy, he knows wealth and status means everything to her. Gatsby leaves college because he finds his job as a janitor degrading.

Gatsby’s dream is to win the heart of Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby is a handsome, youthful man, who lives in West Egg. West Egg represents “new money”, those who recently became rich but, lack an established social position. His mansion sits on “more than forty acres of lawn and garden”; he drives a yellow car of enormous length. This location was intentionally chosen in order to be closer to Daisy who lives in East Egg. He reinvents himself as a millionaire, only to win her heart. Gatsby is well known for his elaborate parties; where there is an abundance of food, live Jazz musicians and unlimited liquor. Gatsby never attends his parties. He is merely and absorber; watching instead of taking part. They are thrown with one purpose, to attract Daisy. Those who attend his parties never really know who he was. Their sole purpose was for attending is the abundance of liquor; which was prohibited during this era (1920’s). This is significant evidence that Gatsby is involved in bootlegging, one of the many rumors about the mysterious host. Nicks first sees Gatsby reaching towards the mysterious green light, which he later realizes is the light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He calls himself an Oxford man, and speaks with a visible fake English accent. Gatsby befriends his neighbor Nick with the sole purpose of using him in order to get closer to daisy. With Nick and Jordan’s help, the two are reunited on a rainy afternoon in Nick’s house. Blindly in love, Gatsby acts like a foolish little boy, knocking down Nick’s clock. The long awaited reunion is later moved to Gatsby’s mansion. There he displays his wealth to Daisy. When he exhibits his imported shirts “suddenly with a strained sound Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily” (98). Daisy’s tears are not because the shirts were beautiful; her tears signify her obsession for wealth and money, which is all she cares about.

In understanding the complex nature of the American Dream, Tom is the most egotistical of them all. His family has enormous wealth. Tom represents “old money” and the intergeneration transfer of wealth; which he offensively exploits. He lives in East Egg where the old aristocrats live. Tom is also a hypocrite, and his constant use of racist comments towards other ethnic groups and those less fortunate than himself indicate to me the reader that he feels he is superior.

His wife Daisy describes him as “a brute of a man, a great big hulking physical specimen of a ___” (16). He uses his size to dominate others. This behavior is clearly exhibited in his attitude towards Daisy, and his mistress Myrtle. One night while drinking Myrtle felt she had a right to mention Daisy’s name; this notion was quickly dismissed when “making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand” (41). His racism and hatred towards those he considers inferior to him is also clear. At a dinner party at his home, where Nick, Jordan Baker a professional golfer, and his wife were in attendance he dominates the conversation. By speaking about a book called “The Rise of the colored Empires”, which encourages white supremacist ideas. This racism is also evident when he finds our Gatsby’s occupation he says “I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him and I wasn’t far wrong” (141).

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer

Daily Times

Your right to know Saturday, June 15, 2024

Life, an unfulfilled dream

Ali Jan Mehr

May 3, 2018

Every individual living life in the world has some wishes. Some wish to get wealth, while others wish to make people happy. Some simple wishes make us forget the people who are with us in a long journey of life. Wishes even occasionally compel people to hurt their beloved parents. They consider money everything to them, even superior than their families. But at the end, it is again relations which defeat the money and bring happiness to one’s life.

If we see the doctors, they often quote their fees first and then the treatment. If you have money, you’re welcome, otherwise let the other patients come. They don’t even care about the background of the patient and ask for such big amounts that people give up on the treatment the moment they hear the cost. Why do people forget that while money is important in life, it isn’t more important than the life itself? It kills one’s hopes even to think of quitting education and start working at some workshop.

Everyone is running behind his/her dreams but what dream itself is? No one seems to care. According to Dr. Abdul Kalam, “Dream is not that which you see while sleeping it is something that does not let you sleep.”

People say it is their dream to become pilot or engineer or doctor or politician etc and start working on it. They often fail in following such dreams and after they fail, they get disappointed. Some have the power to control themselves but many of them get fed up with their lives and some even go as far as committing suicide.

Thus, again, life is a platform where everyone has to play their role. Now it depends on their thoughts and commitment how they see their lives. It is surely a dream which can’t be fulfilled. One can achieve anything in life but only if they are truly willing to give up everything that could prove an obstacle in the pursuit of their dream.

Submit a Comment

Home Lead Stories Latest News Editor’s Picks

Culture Life & Style Featured Videos

Editorials OP-EDS Commentary Advertise

Cartoons Letters Blogs Privacy Policy

Contact Company’s Financials Investor Information Terms & Conditions

Request another

Follow class ace :.

A new American Dream? With home prices out of reach, 'build-to-rent' communities take off

• Build-to-rent communities have taken off as more Americans find themselves unable to afford a down payment on a home.
• An estimated 97,000 residential homes built to rent were completed in 2023, up 45% from the year prior.
• Build-to-rent remains relatively niche, making up an estimated 7.9% of all single-family housing starts in 2023.

Richard Belote's new home checks nearly every box on his wish list.

He shares a spacious four-bedroom, 3½-bath house in Montgomery, Texas, with his fiancee and their two huskies, Leto and Ryder. Their appliances are new, the neighborhood is friendly, and he loves watching the wildlife at the local lake. 

The only thing missing? He rents the home instead of owning it.

Belote, 46 , is part of a growing subset of Americans living in “build-to-rent” communities – neighborhoods designed for renters.

Though leasing may not fulfill the typical "American Dream" of homeownership, experts say these communities could help address an acute housing shortage that has contributed to an estimated two-thirds of Americans struggling to find affordable housing in their area, according to a YouGov survey in July of 1,000 U.S. citizens.

The home Belote moved into last November is “a fantastic stopgap," he told USA TODAY. "This is a space between where I want to be and where I have to be.”

A new American dream?

Build-to-rent communities have served senior populations for decades. In recent years, though, developers have targeted these projects for younger tenants who cannot afford to own yet but want to upgrade from apartments.

In 2023, builders completed an estimated 97,000 build-to-rent residential homes ‒ including those outside build-to-rent communities ‒ an increase of 45% from the year before and a record for the sector, according to estimates from John Burns Research and Consulting, which provides independent research on the U.S. housing industry.

The properties remain a relatively niche sector of the housing market, making up a record 7.9% of all single-family housing starts in 2023, according to Arbor Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust company. Even so, some experts view any addition to the housing supply ‒ including more rental properties ‒ as positive, especially when homeownership remains out of reach for many.

Renting is now more affordable than owning a home in nearly 90% of U.S. counties , according to a report in January by the research firm ATTOM Data Solutions . Factors that put buying out of reach? A 30-year mortgage rate holding steady at around 7% and soaring home prices. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index showed a 6.5% rise in March from the year before ‒ the index's sixth record high within the past 12 months.

"For many, renting is just the only affordable option," said Susan Wachter , a real estate professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Why choose build-to-rent?

Build-to-rent communities give renters more living options and offer upgraded appliances, community events and amenities like dog parks and walking trails. Renting may not allow them to build equity, but some renters view it as a stepping stone to a down payment on a home.

“The goal was to get in here ... get all of our ducks in a row, and then spend the year ... trying to get into a house,” Belote said. “We’ll cross our fingers that interest rates drop down to something a little more manageable.”

Build-to-rent is also appealing to the institutional investors and builders who own and maintain these communities.

Institutional investors have taken to purchasing individual single-family homes to rent out, initially targeting foreclosed and other distressed sales in the aftermath of the Great Recession. But that practice has become more difficult amid rising competition from potential buyers and backlash from lawmakers, who want to stop investors from outbidding everyday Americans.

Many communities target young families looking for additional space for pets or kids, offering large yards, more square footage, and perks like on-site maintenance.

The build-to-rent community where Belote lives, located about an hour outside of Houston, is building a dog park, walking trails, a playground and a pool for its members, according to its website. Monthly rents posted on the site start at under $2,000 for a detached three-bedroom compared with the median monthly housing payment of roughly $2,500 in metro Houston, according to the real estate platform RedFin.

Alessandra Warren, a build-to-rent tenant in Atascocita, Texas, moved from a three-bedroom home owned by her brother to a four-bedroom build-to-rent townhome last year. She now pays about $2,500 in rent, an extra $800 a month compared with her previous home, but she said the extra amenities are worth the money.

"It's very family-oriented," she said. "The lagoon alone is something that I definitely enjoy very much."

While some build-to-rent communities market to middle-class renters who are stuck renting ‒ the Urban Institute in 2022 said households earning median incomes or less could afford just 20% of homes on the market ‒ others target high-income households choosing to rent.

Developer Seneca , a division of Christopher Homes, recently opened its first luxury build-to-rent community, Seneca at Southern Highlands, 15 minutes from the Las Vegas Strip. The community is designed for high-income tenants who might not want to tie themselves to one area by buying a home, or who are attracted to the low-maintenance lifestyle that comes with renting. The homes cost anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 a month.

Seneca co-founder and president Michael Stuhmer said residents enjoy the perks that come with the community, like the community garden, maintenance-free private backyards and Tesla-powered solar panels on every home. Demand has been high, according to Stuhmer, and Seneca is already planning two more build-to-rent communities farther south in Henderson, Nevada.

“The dream is to live in a home. It might not be to own it anymore,” he told USA TODAY. “It takes out all of the headache of homeownership.”

Concerns around build-to-rent

There have been concerns about the build-to-rent trend. Some worry it is replacing entry-level homes with rentals , as reported by The Washington Post in 2022.

Others say more homes is never a bad thing, and point out that the trend allows investors to build their own properties to rent instead of competing with potential residents for homes on the market.

“It actually helps moderate home prices,” said Laurie Goodman , founder of the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute and co-author of a report on the build-to-rent sector . “ It’s contributing additional supply, and it's keeping home prices from going up more than they otherwise would have.”

With the U.S. estimated to be short anywhere between 1 million and 7 million single-family homes , depending on the source, “more housing is always better,” according to Albert Saiz , associate professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. 

The Urban Institute report notes that homebuilders can more easily build during times of economic uncertainty, when potential homeowners are more likely to pull back from the market, if they know they can rent out the properties or sell them to an institutional investor.

“If you did not have this built-to-rent outlet for development, you wouldn't have these developments happen. They just don’t pencil,” Saiz said. 

Map: How does 'the least affordable housing market in recent memory' look in your area?

Will build-to-rent keep growing?

Though the build-to-rent trend has been booming, new builds may slow in the coming years.

Higher interest rates already have slowed construction by making it more difficult for developers to borrow. Residential construction starts hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.36 million in April, according to U.S. Census Bureau data . That's up 6% from March but down roughly 25% from April 2022 ‒ one month after the Federal Reserve started raising interest rates.

John Burns Research and Consulting expects high completion rates to continue this year as current projects wrap up but says the slowdown in housing starts means new built-to-rent completions should dampen by 2025. 

"I'm not sure that the share of built rent as a percent of the total goes down, but you'll probably see less overall construction," the Urban Institute's Goodman said.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Guest Essay

The Unabomber, Me and the Poisoned Myth of the American West

By Maxim Loskutoff

Mr. Loskutoff is a fiction writer whose novel “Old King” is about Ted Kaczynski and the American West.

On June 10 of last year, Ted Kaczynski, the homegrown terrorist known as the Unabomber, was found dead in his cell in Butner, N.C. Mr. Kaczynski, who had spent 25 years in federal prison for murdering three people and injuring 23 others with mail bombs, had reportedly died by suicide.

The news jarred me. I was writing a novel about Mr. Kaczynski.

One year later, the book is finished and the news has faded, but I’m still untangling the mythologies that surrounded the Unabomber’s life — of the tortured outcast who sought refuge in the American West — from the ones that influenced my own.

I grew up in Missoula, about 80 miles from the Unabomber’s shack in the Montana wilderness and was 11 at the time of his capture. What I remember most from those days is a sense of disturbance. I saw helicopters in the sky and heard the hushed anxiety in my parents’ voices. I didn’t know who the Unabomber was or what he had done, but I could tell it was important — and dark. So much so that my home state was suddenly the center of national attention.

Until then I’d felt about as far from the center as a kid could be. Western Montana in the 1990s was not a place that made the national news, save for an occasional environmental disaster and the annual Testicle Festival — a days-long debauch of fried steer genitals that attracted seedier press. To me, home meant the patchy fields behind the hospital where my soccer team practiced in the spring, the green rattletrap chairlift at the three-run ski hill the school bus brought us to every Friday afternoon, the dismal mall my friends and I wandered in endless loops.

At first I was confused about who the Unabomber actually was. Was he an environmental avenger striking back at timber companies, or a madman blowing up computer rental stores? People seemed to think he was smart. He’d gone to Harvard. I knew what that was. Then I saw his shack. Why would a smart person live that way? And why here ?

The sudden media attention hinted at the answers. I heard the words “cabin,” “remote” and “wilderness” repeated on the evening news with an increasingly romantic luster . I began to see how people on the coasts viewed my home state: as a wilderness of possibility. A refuge for ruffians, seekers, dropouts, dreamers and the occasional psychopath. Someplace you could go if things didn’t work out. T-shirts and coffee mugs bearing the slogan “The Last Best Place to Hide” popped up in local souvenir stores.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Langston Hughes — The Theme of Dreams and Frustration in Langston Hughes’ Poem “Harlem”

The Theme of Dreams and Frustration in Langston Hughes' Poem "Harlem"

• Categories: Langston Hughes

About this sample

Words: 669 |

Published: Mar 6, 2024

Words: 669 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Table of contents

The structure and flow of the poem, imagery and symbolism, the language and tone.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr Jacklynne

Verified writer

• Expert in: Literature

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

2 pages / 768 words

4 pages / 1629 words

2 pages / 1093 words

3.5 pages / 1498 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes is widely regarded as one of the most influential African American poets and writers of the 20th century. Throughout his life, he faced numerous struggles and challenges that shaped his work and contributed to [...]

Langston Hughes, a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance, revolutionized American literature with his distinctive poetic style. His works, deeply embedded in African American culture, stand as a testament to his commitment [...]

Langston Hughes’ short story “Salvation” is a poignant narrative that delves into the spiritual crisis experienced by a young boy. This essay seeks to provide a comprehensive analysis of this thought-provoking piece of [...]

Langston Hughes, often hailed as a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, made significant contributions to American literature and culture through his poetry, essays, and plays. His works captured the African American [...]

Born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri, Langston Hughes embodied the subtle status of African-American culture during his career as a novelist, poet, and scholar. Hughes was a unique poet, in that he sought to communicate the voices [...]

Langston Hughes's poem ‘Harlem’ sometimes called A Dream Deferred, explores the consequences of allowing a dream to go unfulfilled. The title of the poem, 'Harlem', implies that the dream is one that has been kept from the [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free