January 1

Historical Context

Lewis wrote and spoke during one of history’s most disorienting eras — the collapse of European confidence after two World Wars, the rise of secularism, and the quiet erosion of faith in public life. His famous Inklings group — which included J.R.R. Tolkien — met weekly at an Oxford pub to read manuscripts aloud, challenge one another, and refuse the idea that meaning had gone out of the world. These were middle-aged men, many scarred by war, who kept dreaming. Lewis himself began The Chronicles of Narnia series at age fifty. He never stopped starting.

Scripture Cross-Links

Isaiah 40:31 — “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Ether 12:4 — “Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world… which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men.”
Doctrine and Covenants 58:27–28 — “Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will… For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves.”
Moses 1:39 — “For behold, this is my work and my glory — to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”
Reflection
There is a quiet lie that whispers to us as we age — that the season for dreaming has passed. That dreams belong to the young, to those with unspent years and uncalloused hands.
To set a goal is an act of faith. It says: I believe the future is real, and that I have a role in it. To dream a new dream is an act of hope — perhaps the purest kind, because it asks nothing of the past. It only asks: What is still possible?
You are never too old. You are never too broken. You are never too late. Begin again.
Grandfather’s Counsel
I have watched people stop dreaming long before they stopped living — and I have watched the light go out of them when they did. Do not let that happen to you. You are never finished. There is always a next chapter, a new horizon, something worth reaching for. The day you decide the dreaming is over is the day you begin to diminish.
I am still dreaming. I hope you always will be.