Good Ol’ Snoopy

My favorite character in the Peanuts world has to be Snoopy and as a kid I couldn’t understand why the strip wasn’t called “Snoopy” instead of “Peanuts”, I assumed that he was the main character and the rest of the cast were just supporting actors. And we all have favorite Snoopy moments and characters.  Perhaps Snoopy as Joe Cool, or a lawyer or a tennis ace, maybe it’s Snoopy as the leader of the Beagle Scouts.

The most iconic of course is Snoopy as the World War I ace gunning for the elusive Red Baron.   And that was made even more popular with the two songs “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron” and then “Snoopy’s Christmas”, both of which went to the top of the charts in 1966 and 1967. 

Snoopy decorates his doghouse for Christmas and wins, he organizes a hockey game for his pal Woodstock on his water bowl, complete with a Zamboni.   He walks on his hind legs at time and dispenses advice to those who will listen. Robert Short who wrote the book “The Gospel According to Peanuts” back in the sixties had this to say about Snoopy: “Snoopy is a typical Christian, a flawed character who is nonetheless good: He is lazy, he is a ‘chow hound’ without parallel, he is bitingly sarcastic, he is frequently a coward, but he is ‘a hound of heaven.’”

Which might explain Snoopy’s desire to write a book on Theology. Here are some highlights from Snoopy’s life. (profile video)

And everyone takes it in stride that perhaps this is normal behaviour for a dog, except of course Peppermint Patty who refers to Snoopy as “That funny looking kid”.  And at least once Charlie Brown says his wish is “To just have an ordinary dog, like other people!’’

But what fun would that be?  Snoopy shows up in the third Peanuts strip that Charles Schulz drew and through the years we discovered a few things about Snoopy.  We all know where he came from, Daisy Hill Puppy Farm.  If you paid attention to the strip than you know that we have been introduced to four brothers, a sister, both parents and a nephew.

And a little known fact, Charlie Brown was not Snoopy’s original owner.  That would be a little girl named Lila whose family adopted Snoopy but discovered their apartment was no place to raise a beagle, especially one as eccentric as Snoopy and so they returned him to Daisy Hill where Charlie Brown obtained him as a “used dog”.

The debate has raged for years over what type of dog Snoopy actually is but he was called a beagle throughout the strip and with the one exception of when he told Charlie Brown “I ain’t no stupid beagle!”, he even identified himself as a beagle.    

But the question still remains “So what?”  What is it we can learn from Snoopy? 

Well here is a shocker, Snoopy wasn’t really a famous flying ace, or a tennis pro or Joe Cool, anywhere other than his mind.  Snoopy was a dreamer.  He knew he was a dog, but those other things were what he dreamed he could be. 

In the scripture that was read earlier we discovered another dreamer.  His name was Joseph, and the Bible miniseries on the History channel skipped him completely but you really can’t understand the story of Moses without the story of Joseph. 

And when we first meet Joseph he is just a kid.  A kid who had dreams A kid who was loved by his father and a kid who was loathed by his brothers.  Perhaps you know of him?  

Joseph’s father Jacob, who would be Abraham’s grandson, had settled with his family in Canaan which is now part of what we think of as Palestine. A part of Jacob’s immense family was seventeen year old Joseph. 

Now to be real frank with you Joseph wasn’t the most popular member of that family, at least not among his siblings.  And there is good reason for that listen to how the Bible describes the relationship between Joseph and his father Jacob, Genesis 37:3 Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe.

Now sometimes we do that with our kids, now I know that we claim that we don’t play favourites but reality says that there are times that one or another of the kids is more lovable then the others.  But listen to Genesis 37:4 But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn’t say a kind word to him.

You see that was the fatal mistake that Jacob made, it wasn’t that Jacob loved Joseph more than all the other sons.  Unfortunately my friends that is a failing of the human condition, We may try to love all of our children equally but everyone knew that my parents didn’t.  I know that my parents loved my sister more than me.  It’s funny though because she knows that her parents loved me more than her.  Oh well.

The fatal mistake here was made when Jacob let everyone else including his other children know that Joseph was the favourite.  The coat of many colours may have been a neat idea for a musical but it was really dumb for fostering sibling unity.  Now Joseph didn’t help the matter when he told his brothers about the dream where they were all subservient to him.  Talk about how to win friends and influence people.  I bet it was Joseph who wrote the sequel to that book, you know the one called “How to win back the friends I’ve already influenced”  And so on that day as Joseph’s brothers saw him coming across the field toward them he was not the most popular person in their world.  As a matter of fact he probably didn’t make the list of the top 100.

Now with that in mind how do you think they welcomed him.  What tone of voice did they use.  Excitement?  Awe?  Respect?  Not.  Dollars to donuts their words were dripping with sarcasm.  But I like their words.  It says something about young Joseph, with a different tone of voice I can’t think of a greater compliment.  Genesis 37:19 “Here comes the dreamer!” they said.

If I could sum up the single most important difference between successful people and non-successful people it would have to be the ability to dream.  The ability to see things the way they should be or could be.  A couple of weeks ago I mentioned one of my favorite quotes and that was from George Bernard Shaw who said “There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”   That quote was used by Ted Kennedy when he eulogized his brother Bobby Kennedy in 1967, but the sentiment is the same no matter who said it.

I have spent the past thirty two years pastoring local churches and I’ve become more and more convinced that the secret to the success of churches is to have a dream, to dream of where we can go, how high we can fly and what we can do.  Over the past years I’ve been asked by different people to account for the growth of the churches that I pastored.  In each instance I’ve searched my ministry for some indication of what I might have done to accomplish what had been accomplished.  Was it my preaching?  Hah, I could wish.  Was it my visiting?  Hah you could wish.  But what was it?  I think I nailed it down, if I was to be asked today to account for the numerical growth of Truro Wesleyan Church, North Point Wesleyan Methodist Church and Cornerstone Wesleyan Church I would respond “A Dream”

If I could tell you the most important thing that you need to have to make it today it would be a dream.  More important than education, as important as education is.  More important than good health, as important as good health is.  More important than popularity, as important as popularity is. 

People with a great education will become failures without a dream.  People who are in splendid health will fail without a dream.  The most popular people in the world will become failures without a dream.

I would suspect as different as they might be that most everyone here today has a dream, or dreams, dreams about where you want to go, what you want to see, and the things you want to accomplish.  Don’t sell them cheap.  Don’t mortgage your dreams and don’t tie them down.  Dreams are a part of what keeps you young, you become old when you give away your dreams. 

So, why are dreams so important? 

1) Without Dreams There Can Be No Change.  If necessity is the mother of invention then dreams must be the father.  You will never see it in your hands until you first see it in your head.  It’s true with people and it’s true with churches. 

We won’t accomplish anymore at Cornerstone Wesleyan Church than what we can dream of.  In other words if we can’t see it then we can’t have it.  God knew that and so that is why he said in the book of Joel 2:28 “Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.

That particular prophecy was fulfilled in Acts 2:17 ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.

What that tells us is that the church of God cannot exist without God sent dreams.  Because dreams are indicative of the presence of the spirit.  No Spirit, no dreams.  No dreams, no spirit.  When you see a church whose only commitment is to keep the doors open.  A church where there is no vision for reaching the lost, no vision for changing the world, then you have found a church that exists without the spirit.  It’s a church in name, a church in organisation maybe even has a church building but it isn’t a church.  It’s a religious social club, nothing more, nothing less.  When churches become content to simply hold their own then they become losers.

Every church needs to ask itself the question, “What does God want us to do?”  I would suspect that the answer will be a dream, a dream that touches men and women, boys and girls.  A dream that touches those who know Jesus personally and a dream that touches those who have never ever met Jesus at all.

Reality is that every church is but one generation away from extinction.  Without a dream, without a vision for tomorrow this church will be dead in forty years, why?  Because most of us will be dead within forty years, now that’s a cheerful thought isn’t’ it?  And so unless we continue to plan and dream and hope for the future we might as well close the doors today and save ourselves forty years of grief and frustration.

It’s only as we visualize this church as continuing to win people to Jesus Christ will it actually happen.  Nothing, nothing at all has ever been accomplished that was not first dreamed of.  The realities of today are the dreams of yesterday.  And the realities of tomorrow will be the dreams of today. 

It is easy to settle in and say “We’ve got it made as a church”  But that isn’t the dream.  The dream is reaching people who are unchurched, de-churched and pre-churched?  That was that dream 18 years ago at the birth of Cornerstone and it is the dream today.  Can you dream of the day that two services won’t hold all the folks who call Cornerstone their spiritual home? A day when three services are full of people who have found a church home and found a relationship with God.  A dream of the day that we begin construction on a brand new worship centre to hold those people?  And some of you are asking “Is tht possible?” 

In the past 8 years Cornerstone has grown by 700%  and if that happens over the next eight years we would have over 2000 folks worshipping at Cornerstone, that would pretty well pack her out, don’t you think?  Can you believe in the impossible?  Can you believe the word of God, because it says in Luke 18:27 He replied, “What is impossible for people is possible with God.”

I have said before that under my leadership Cornerstone Wesleyan Church will never worship at the shrine of church growth.  But I trust that if we do what we are supposed to do then the church will grow. 

What about our personal dreams?  Have you read your old high school year book recently?  How you doing on your dreams?  Maybe they have changed over the past twenty years, there’s nothing wrong with that, unless they have died completely, and that is a tragedy.  There was a song out once that proclaimed “dreams never die, just the dreamer” but in reality dreams do die, and it’s not long after the dream is dead that the dreamer begins to die, not physically but emotionally and spiritually.  When we lose our dreams we lose, period. 

The world as we know it has been shaped by dreams.  All of the great achievements were once considered to be impossible.  And a man with a dream is a lot more powerful than a man with the facts.  After all, facts said that electric lights were impossible, but Edison’s dreams made them a reality.  Facts said polio was inevitable, but Jonas Salk’s dreams developed a vaccine.  Facts said that man would never fly but the Wright brother’s dreams gave them wings at Kitty Hawk.  Facts said that a man couldn’t run a mile in less than 4 minutes but Roger Bannister’s dream proved that it could be done. By the way the 4 minute mile is now the standard of all male professional middle distance runners.

Whatever your personal dreams are don’t let them go and don’t let something as trivial as facts stand in your way.  Some of you have had dreams to build your own company or to write a book or provide a safe house to get girls off the street of Brazil.  For others it has been to get more education, to raise a family and to excel at what you do.  How do you want to change your world?

2) Dreams Allow Us to Leave the Past    Time and again I discover two things which hinder us in our personal growth.   1) We waste our time dwelling on the failures of yesterday.  2) We waste our time dwelling on the successes of yesterday.  Listen up, yesterday is gone, finished, done.  In his letter to the church in Philippi Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.

You cannot relive the successes of yesterday anymore then you can change the mistakes of the past.  Remember “Yesterday ended last night.”  All you have is today and tomorrow.  It’s not that yesterday is bad or evil; sometimes we get that impression, if it is in the past then it isn’t any good and sometimes we swing to the other extreme.  It is only good if it was in the past.  Not so on either count, if it is in the past it is unchangeable and to dwell on it is to waste precious time.    It was Thomas Jefferson  who said, “I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.”  Focus your dreams on tomorrow and don’t live in yesterday. 

Don’t look back, look ahead to what you can see accomplished.  What can God do for you?  As much as you can dream, that’s how much.

Where do you want your church to be in five or ten years?  Don’t know?  Don’t care?  You’d better know because that’s where we are heading. 

The question that you need to ask yourself over and over again is this “What are my dreams?”  And when you get a grasp on your dreams then start sharing them with other people.  Why?  Because it makes you accountable for your dreams.

You should be excited about this.  You can’t do anything about yesterday, try as you might it is beyond your control, and the time spent in yesterday is wasted.  But tomorrow is yours.  Tomorrow belongs to the dreamers. 

3) Dreams Alone Are Never Enough I love the positive thinkers, and I love the possibility thinkers.  I don’t think that there are any of us who wouldn’t personally benefit from reading books by people like Norman Vincent Peale, Robert Schuler, Dennis Waitly and John Maxwell.  My only problem is that sometimes they leave you with the impression that all you have to do is dream. 

My favourite story is about a man who saw an empty lot he knew he had to have it.  It was the only break in a forest of brick and mortar and he knew it would be his own personal oasis.  And so he scraped and saved and he saved and scraped until the day came that he bought it.  Then he stood back and saw just exactly what he had bought; a small rubble strewn piece of property deep in the heart of the city.  What little green that had managed to survive amongst the garbage was the very worst kinds of weeds, sturdy and stubborn. 

The lot became his dream, his hobby and his all consuming passion.  Every spare moment he had he spent there, carting away rubble and garbage.  Levelling the hard ground and tearing up weeds.  Finally it happened.  He had achieved the first part of his dream.  The lot stood barren and flat devoid of any living thing, it was a beginning. 

As ferocious and ruthless as the man had been in getting the lot to this stage he now became a gentle nurturer.  He broke the ground by hand, tilled in fertilizer and then carefully chose the flowers, trees and bushes that would make his dream a reality. 

With the care of a mother for her children he dug each hole and placed the plant in, then gently packed the soil back with his hands.  Then he watered them and talked to them.  He kept the weeds and birds away until one day it was his, a piece of Eden standing in stark contrast to the dark and dreary man made cliffs that rose around it.  The flowers exploded in a prism of colour, providing a respite from the concrete desert surrounding them.

One day as he stood admiring his garden a stranger happened by and commented, “That sure is a beautiful garden the Lord has given you”  “Yes it sure is” replied the man, “but you should have seen it when the Lord had it by himself.”  Any dreams we have for Cornerstone no matter how good, no matter how noble, no matter how spiritual will not happen without commitment on our behalf.

If your dreams are going to come true then it will your responsibility to make them come true.  You see a dream which does not result in action is nothing much and an action which doesn’t come from a dream is nothing at all.  That old saying of the salesman may be trite but its true when they say, “If it’s going to be it’s up to me.” 

Nobody else is responsible for making your dreams into realities.  Your dreams are the beginning of your success, but a dream alone won’t guarantee success.  Without dedication to your dream, without work, without sacrifice, without commitment, that dream will never be anymore then a dream.   The man who wants to do something finds a way; the man who pretends that he wants to do something finds an excuse. 

What will you have to do to make your dream a reality?  What will we have to do to make Cornerstone’s dreams a reality? 

Listen to the  dying words of D.L. Moody to his sons, “If God be your partner make your plans big”