I dreamed a dream in times gone by, when hope was high and life worth living. I dreamed that love would never die. I dreamed that God would be forgiving… But the tigers come at night with their voices soft as thunder as they tear your hope apart, as they turn your dream to shame… I had a dream that life would be so different from this hell I’m living. So different now from what it seemed – now life has killed the dream I dreamed.

In the church, we are about to enter into Holy Week. Many churches and the secular culture love to focus on the pending arrival of the Easter Bunny and the empty tomb. Many would rather that we not focus on the messy bits that happen during the final days of Holy Week.

But life far more often reflects the messy bits.

This song comes from the French Revolutionary tale, Les Miserables. And it is sung by a young woman who has become destitute and turned to the oldest profession in order to care for her young child. It is heart-rending.

Her tale is far too common, even now in this world.

There are so many circumstances in this life that can tear our worlds apart and leave us weeping in the dust. And let us not forget that Jesus (God’s own self made flesh) felt alone upon the cross.

Even as new life looms quietly upon the horizon, it is so important that we honor the reality for so many in this world who feel that there is no hope, no forgiveness, no love. To sit in the muck and the mire. To never leave anyone alone.

Because we are a people who will rise like a phoenix from the ashes. And the new day will begin.

May all of us find ways to walk with one another through the long, dark nights of this life, so that we may greet the dawn together. Because tomorrow will come and life, and our dreams, will start again.