What Shall Become of Your Dreams: Parable of the Sponge Ball: The harder you get knocked down, the higher you bounce back

By Gladston Cuffie

A powerfully relevant must-read for everyone from teenagers to retirees. You would want to discuss chapter-by-chapter as a family or as a group

Every person is likely to encounter at least one major personal crisis during his or her adult life. Most people experience several crises. Sometimes crises occur even before adulthood. This book

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Feb 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781637698310

Gladston Cuffie

Gladston Cuffie has a long leadership history both in the church and as a business executive. He is gifted in his insights when encouraging people to live their best lives.He earned a master's degree and has served at senior levels in large local and international corporations. He has one daughter, Glaeshel, who he describes as the best gift God has given him.For more of his inspirational wisdom, please follow Restoration Centre TT Facebook page.

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Gladston Cuffie

What Shall Become of Your Dreams

Trilogy Christian Publishers A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2022 by Gladston Cuffie

Scripture quotations marked nlt are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked tlb are taken from The Living Bible copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked kjv are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without written permission from the author. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.

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Trilogy Christian Publishing/TBN and colophon are trademarks of Trinity Broadcasting Network.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Trilogy Christian Publishing.

Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 978-1-63769-830-3

E-ISBN: 978-1-63769-831-0

Dedication

Dedicated to the memory of my wife, Shelly-Ann Cuffie.

If nobody is perfect, then Shelly-Ann got the

closest to perfection that is possible.

Introduction

One of the reasons Jesus was such an effective communicator was because He used a lot of parables. In simple terms, a parable is a story that uses a well-known principle to explain or teach a deep moral or spiritual lesson. In this book, I use the Parable of the Sponge Ball.

When a ball is knocked down, it bounces back. The harder it is knocked down, the higher it bounces back. I use this principle to represent our lives and our dreams. We will all get knocked down at some point. And when we do, we will never achieve our dreams if we do not bounce back.

When a ball is being knocked down, potential energy is converted to kinetic energy, which is the energy an object has when it is moving. The faster an object moves (or the harder it is knocked down), the higher its kinetic energy, and that energy helps it bounce back. Therefore, if your life is like a sponge ball, being knocked down gives you the kinetic energy you need to bounce back higher.

So see yourself as a sponge ball. You have dreams. Sometimes you will get knocked down and your dreams will be in danger of dying. But because you are like a sponge ball, you will bounce back; and the harder you get knocked down, the higher you bounce back. It becomes impossible to keep you down. You will get knocked down but never get knocked out.

The title of the book is inspired by Genesis Chapter 37.

Joseph’s brothers said,

"Look, the dreamer is coming, let us kill him.

And we shall see what will become of his dreams."

¹

Throughout the book, I tell a lot of true stories. In every case, the names are either disguised or omitted to protect the privacy of the individuals, most of whom, or their relatives, are still alive.

Enjoy!

---

1 Genesis 37:18-20 NLT

Chapter 1

A Dream Never Dies

You are living your best life. You feel like dancing. You break out in singing songs of praise whenever you can. You can identify with the saying, ‘I made it through the rain.’

I was only twenty-four years old. I had just completed building my dream house. It was literally the achievement of a dream because since I was a pre-teen child, I used to draw a house design in the sand of the yard at our childhood home. I would point to a nearby vacant parcel of land, and looking at the finger-drawing in the sand, I would say to my siblings, I will build this house on that land. Now as a young adult, I built the house in the same design that I used to draw in the sand on the same parcel of land to which I used to point as a child.

One afternoon an elderly man – he was much older than I was – dropped in to say hello to me and to see my just-completed house. I estimated that he was over fifty years old because he was the father of a friend with whom I had gone to school, plus he was grey-haired and balding.

He walked all around, both inside and outside the house and congratulated me on my achievement. During the conversation, he made a particular statement that I have never forgotten. He did not realize it, but it was a loaded statement. The impact of his comment only hit after he had left and I was reflecting on his visit and our conversation. He said, When I build my own house, I want to build something just like this.

Most likely you are wondering what is the big deal with that statement. This is the big deal. Here I was at twenty-four years of age talking to a man who was more than twice my age, who could have been my father, and he was saying when he builds his house. He didn’t say if I could build a house; he said when. Clearly, he had a dream. And that dream was still burning in his heart.

I was a banker at the time, and I was working in the mortgage company. My job was working with people who were applying for mortgages to build or buy their homes. I knew a little of how the process worked. So when I reflected on the gentleman’s statement, I thought, At his age, how is he going to get a mortgage? Surely, if he had the funds to finance it himself, he would have done it already. It appeared to me as if it was difficult or unlikely that his dream could come to pass.

But to him, it was still a dream. And then it hit me: a dream never dies. As long as one is alive and conscious, a dream is in the heart.

Dream

Noun

1. A mental picture of what one wants to become or

achieve. A cherished aspiration; a goal or objective.

2. Thoughts, images or experiences that seem to occur

in a person’s mind during sleep.

It is definition number one that this gentleman was experiencing. And it could be the most powerful driving force in a person’s life. To dream is to live. If one doesn’t have a dream, one is just existing – just drifting through life.

But the person with a dream wakes up every day driven to achieve something – to take an action, make a decision, or do something to get closer to the dream. The dream is at the forefront of one’s mind, pushing one to make sacrifices and expend extraordinary energy along with constant evaluation, self-reflection, and measurement to keep track of progress.

And there is where one of life’s biggest challenges occurs. Because your dream consumes you, and your whole life is built around attempts to achieve your dream, very intense emotional energy is invested in the pursuit of it. And if the dream appears to be collapsing or slipping away, it could be one of life’s most disappointing and distressing seasons. It can take a major emotional toll on one’s life. It can drive one to cynicism, frustration, or depression.

A broken dream can cause some people to become bitter and resentful; they look at the success of others and feel pain while they silently whisper to themselves, So what’s wrong with me? Why can’t I do that? Sometimes they cast blame on others who blocked their dream and feel hate and anger towards them. Some give up on a meaningful life and settle for just going through the motions of life every day. They cannot muster the emotional strength or self-confidence to fight again. They are knocked down and they feel beaten and broken.

At some point, we will all be confronted by the question, What shall become of your dreams? It is in these moments we must reflect on the parable of the sponge ball. Life may have knocked you down. Mischievous people may have undermined you. But you must say, "I may have made mistakes that set me back. Circumstances, bad judgment, or misfortune may have knocked me down. But I am a sponge ball: when I get knocked down, I bounce back. And when I get knocked down harder, I bounce back higher.

I am going to go back to my dream. I will achieve it. I am the bounce-back kid.

You see, many people have unrealistic expectations. They make the mistake of thinking that achieving a dream is smooth sailing. It hardly ever is. But God, working with your faith, your genuine efforts, your persistence, and your inner strength, will take you to your destination. Most times, what looks like a setback and what is very disappointing and painful, eventually turns out to be a steppingstone.

Your dream is likely to attract envy. Your dream is likely to attract hate. Your dream is likely to attract saboteurs. And all of these are likely to become more intense when your dream starts to visibly manifest.

The Lifecycle of a Dream

There is something I call the lifecycle of a dream.