WHAT AM I DREAMING?!

This past week, my sleep has been full of really strange dreams consisting of many, many people. I'm not sure what's going on, but if you think of me, please pray for undisturbed sleep. Sleeping is making me tired.

This morning, I had the weirdest dream I've had in a long time. Curiously enough, I think God had something to teach me through it. I'll try to narrate it here without confusing you - it was really quite something. (I actually feel vulnerable posting this; you might think I need therapy after reading it!)

So in my dream, a handful of friends and I were taken down in an elevator 99 floors underground. The elevator operator warned us that there were spirits in the form of snakes, looking to find people to inhabit. He told us to be careful lest we be bitten by a snake and inhabited by a demon. He also told us that the floor we were getting off at had an illusion of reality and that we should remember not to trust what we saw.

The elevator stopped and we got off. After a while, we found ourselves in a room containing different themed sections. One of my friends had this child's bedroom setting with a big bed in the middle against the wall and pictures and things surrounding it. As we tried to decipher what the operator meant by this being a place of illusions, my friend figured out that the place where the bed was was actually a fireplace with a mantle on top. The bed was an illusion. The fireplace was reality.

We were excited to discover the truth. Each of us then began to realize that our areas of the room also had been distorted somehow. Even more exciting was that as we saw the truth, we were released from the oppressive place and able to return back to above-ground reality. As we worked on unmasking the illusions, the employees there kept trying to dissuade us from our work - they kept telling us there was no reality behind the illusion and that we were wasting our efforts. We did not listen to them but kept encouraging each other to seek freedom. And for some reason, we felt a pressing sense of urgency to finish the work.

What was even more interesting was that those of us who figured out the reality of the place did not get whisked above-ground right away. We only becme invisible so that the workers could not harass us anymore. We remained in the room to encourage those who hadn't fully discovered reality yet. It wasn't until we had all seen the truth that we left that place.

Another strange thing was that the whole time we were there, not even one snake was seen.

As I reflected on this dream and asked the Lord to teach me from it, I saw the oppressive place was this earth. As we live life here, what we see is not all we get. Through Christ, we are able to see reality. As we find the Truth, we are set free from what the enemy wants us to believe. There are also those who want to discourage us from seeking truth - they discourage us and tell us that it's all a waste of time. Just as there are lies planted in our minds - rumors of snakes - that are meant to frighten us and give us anxiety. And for those of us who have seen the truth, we are shielded from harrassment from the enemy and we continue to remain on the earth so that we can encourage others to keep seeking truth. And undergirding the experience is a sense of urgency.

In a broad sense, I see this as an allegory for the work of the gospel. People need to see the truth about their lives here and the reality of eternity. There is an enemy who wants to discourage them from seeing the truth because when they find it, they will be out of his grip. He wants them to think that what they see is all there is to life. We urgently need to exhort people to keep seeking the Truth.

Personally, I think this is an allegory for my journey to unmask what's really behind the tireness and discouragement that I've been battling lately. I sense the Lord encouraging me to keep persevering and allow Him to dig deep so that He can show me my true condition and free me from my warped perspective.

You will not fear the terror of the night.
~Psalm 91:5a~

RISK

A couple weekends ago, I had the pleasure of an after-dinner hang-out with a few of my favourite people. Over some blended coffee drinks and tea, the conversation turned toward the topic of risk. The question posed was, "What are some of the biggest risks you've taken in your life?" We took turns sharing our stories.

It was my turn. As I opened my mouth to speak, I began to realize that although I've taken quite a few risks (especially in the last few years), I didn't really consider them risks. I made my decisions because I knew God was in them. To not take the risk would be the bigger risk. To obey has been the safest thing for me to do.

We had stumbled upon yet another example of the upside-down workings of the way of the Cross: what seems a big risk is really the safest thing; and what seems safe, may actually be the riskiest thing.

I'm really not that much of a risk-taker. I'm just foolishly obedient. ;)

Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
~Luke 17:33~