Gregory has discovered a way to wake up when his dream is not to his taste. He says he figured this out one night when he was riding a motorcycle extremely slowly back and forth until he was so bored that he looked for a ravine to plunge into so that he would wake up and quit the dumb dream. I thought it was a good idea, right up there with how I figured out as a child that if I wanted to keep on with a good dream, I could concentrate really hard on falling asleep again and make it play out how I wanted it. 🙂
Last week I had a nightmare that haunted me for a long time. I don’t usually pay much attention to my dreams, because I have so many of them, and they are mainly bizarre. But this one was so real that I woke up exhausted, like I had been fighting all night instead of sleeping. It seemed, in my dream, that I was fleeing through hostile territory with my children. My husband had died and we were alone, without a safe place to hide. Over and over evil men would approach us and try to snatch one of the children. I cried out repeatedly for help in Jesus’ name, and we would be left alone for a while in our endless wandering. If I could have found a ravine to drive into to make it stop, I would have. In the end we were all chucked over Niagara Falls because we wouldn’t deny our faith.
I struggle to make sense of this sort of thing. Without over-spiritualizing things, I felt like God was saying, “This is really how life is, and this is the fight you put up for your children against evil principalities and powers. You don’t need to be afraid, because you have the power of Jesus, but you need to be aware.”
A few days later I read an article about the struggle and privations that Syrian women refugees endure in their enforced homelessness in Turkey. It was like someone described my nightmare, complete with husbandlessness and evil men snatching the children. Maybe it was a dream to give me empathy so that I pray more. A few days after that I started a book set during the Spanish Inquisition. I am having a major case of story grip. But what is with this sense of deja vu?
Do you take dreams seriously?
Maybe you can tell me about that Niagara Falls bit? 🙂
wocket in my pocket 
I don’t usually remember my dreams. But it’s amazing how real they can seem. Did you ever wake up spitting mad at someone because of something they did to you in a dream? It can take a long time to get over.
Yes, and I have wasted a lot of time thinking of clever things to say to the dream “enemy”.
Just on Sunday evening we attended a presentation by Plain Compassion about the work they’re doing among the refugees. One slide I remember was 8 widows with a caboodle of children who all live together in one house. Your dream is their reality. http://plaincompassion.org/
Yes, Linda. I cried tears of frustrated helplessness when I read their stories in NG. Plain Compassion needs seamstresses to reach them sewing skills… Not the right season for me, but it is always the right season to be aware. I believe that carrying a burden on my side of the world and lifting it up to God can lighten a burden on their side of the world.
No. I don’t take dreams seriously unless it’s a dream that I know must be taken seriously. Does that make sense? There is always something very different about a dream that must be taken seriously and the reason is almost always very clear nothing mystical about it. Dreams sometimes make me very aware of things like your dream did. Your dream gives me chills, the fact that your dream is reality for some mothers fills me with overwhelming compassion.
Some dreams take hard work to forget, others with recurring themes show me where my heart is at the wrong place, a series of dreams a while ago encouraged me that God can do in my life what I felt at the time was impossible, and a dream last week was so spot-on in describing the way my husband feels in this season that even he, who gives dreams no time of day, said “thanks for telling me your dream.” I agree, some dreams are meant to be listened to, and we usually know which they are. Yours feels like one of those – sit up and take notice – kind.
I enjoy reading your posts, although I never comment (till now! :)) I don’t know you but your friend Leroy who passed a while ago is my dad’s cousin so I feel like I have a faint connection with your area of the world.
It’s true! God does speak through dreams. There are a lot of bizarre dreams that I don’t pay much attention to, but sometimes they come with a distinct God awareness and you know it. Just the other week, Jeremy had another one of those; which we don’t know the interpretation yet. Last week I had a different experience with a negative one. Some man was chasing me, I fled and hid in another building. Within moments he was there and I didn’t know if I should freeze, fight or take flight. That’s when I woke up, and lay there awake with my heart still pounding. Suddenly I became aware of an evil, bat like creature by my bed….I could clearly see his eyes and the teeth in the semi darkness, I think it was grinning. I prayed against it, went back to sleep and awoke with another dream but couldn’t remember it. I begged not to see it again. Later when I told Jeremy about it, as he prayed against it, he could hardly breath. Clearly a spiritual warfare. It was rather unnerving to think that was in our room, but I believe God let me see into the spiritual realm. I had just been doing a lot of spiritual warfare in my own life. I’m open to what all else God reveals yet. We did some more “housecleaning” and got rid of my willow trees, any peace symbol items, etc. and more praying over our lives and house. As for your dream, I like your interpretation and believe God allows them to make us more aware. Your dream sounds like one of those. I know the struggle to make sense of them when there is “something”about them and He may yet reveal some more. I like how the dream came first and then hearing about others in similar situations. I hope you get to experience a BEAUTIFUL God dream the next time. 😊
First of all, I am laughing at Gregory’s solution to unpleasant dreams; I have a seven year old who does the same thing. She says she always looks for something to jump off of in order to make her dream stop!
But what about dreams, eh? I dream a lot here, much more than I do in the USA, I discovered. Most of them are meaningless, but there is no doubt that God has also spoken to me very distinctly through dreams. I always know, sometimes even before I am fully awake, whether a dream was significant or not. Even on the rare occasions that it is something important, I usually need my hubby to help me interpret it. We have noticed that God frequently speaks to the people here through dreams, and I tend to think it is because they have a more clear perception of the spiritual world than most North Americans do. 🙂