God's Dreams for your Dreams
By Rev. William Dohle
Dreams surround us...both in sleep and throughout our lives.
Dreams in our sleep occur with strange characters, family members long past, exotic locations, and eerie circumstances. They can be frightening at times. Or they can be exhillerating. In dreams we can fly to the highest heaven or travel to a distant past. Dreams can involve living toilets(like my son, Matthew, who once described to us a toilet that ate people in his dreams) or they can involve people you haven't seen in years. There are nightmares...and pleasant dreams.
Waking dreams start when we're young and continue throughout our lives. They start when that first teacher asks us: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" And throughout our lives they change and mature. These dreams we say "really do come true", as our goals are fulfilled and our desires realized. Waking dreams can involve a future career in a certain field or the ability to travel. Waking dreams can be for ourselves, or for our family. We might dream that our kids get into college or our grandson finds a spouse. They are wishes. They are hopes. They are dreams!
Now, when Joseph speaks of dreams needing interpretation, we assume he's meaning the sleeping kind. After all, all of the people whose dreams are interpreted by Joseph(Pharoah, his brothers, the cupbearer and the baker) have had sleeping dreams. And we assume that only our sleeping dreams need interpretation. We can't take them literally...but we can take our waking ones literally. Our waking dreams really do come true, at least according to Disney. Our sleeping ones...well, sometimes we hope they never come true.
But what if the interpretation of ALL our dreams belong to God. What if we can't take, even our waking dreams literally? What if God has dreams for us beyond our literal dream, dreams to fulfill our hearts desire? What if God's dreams exist beneath the surface of our literal dreams?
For example: take a dream we see on television quite a bit. The dream for success. All the American Idol contestants, and any other reality show contestant, will attest to this. "This is my dream," they tell the judges.
But is it REALLY? Is this form of success really their dream? On the surface it looks great. Plenty of money. Power to do what you want. A whole nation knowing who you are. What's better than that? But looking beyond the literal dream, I wonder if they can consider the cost? Does their dream include all the stress and worry and work necessary to achieve and sustain that success? Do they see the days and weeks they'll spend alone, away from their family, surrounded only by their touring group? Can they fathom how invasive the paparazzi will be once they are famous? Do they understand the bigger you are...the harder you fall?
Probably not. Their dreams don't include these things because their dreams are really dreams for fulfillment. They dream to be recognized for something they are good at. Maybe the dream to be the winner on American Idol is more the dream to have a good, well-paying job and be able to support their family better.
When God interprets our dreams, we are see beyond the obvious, to the desire of our hearts for the good of all. We see that our dreams don't need to be literally true in order to be fulfilled. We see that we can have what we truly long for, without the terrible price of the other.
For me, I have always wanted to be a published author, like the great writers I read. I use to write stories at home and imagine them being published throughout the world. A few years ago, that dream became reality. Contemporary Drama Service published a number of plays I had written for church. And, you know, the fulfillment I received was everything I ever imagined and more! Was I a famous published author like Stephen King? No! But did I receive the fulfillment I was longing for in that dream? Absolutely! I may publish something again, but I will always remember that first time for in it, God reminded me that He knows my heart. He knows what I long for. And He likes to surprise!
So...what have you been dreaming of lately?? And what do you think God would say about it??
Almighty God, throughout history you have spoken to your people through their dreams. Give us wisdom to interpret both our waking and our sleeping dreams that we might work together, for good, to the glory of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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