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I don't put much thought to dreams or whether they have any meaning other than your own brain processing information while you sleep or recalling things from your past. However, my dreams are often far from average (judging by others' reactions when I tell them about it). I dream music with lyrics and instrumentation that I can write down after I wake up, I once dreamed a detailed story that was an illustration in my pastor's sermon the next morning, I once dreamed that Jesus appeared as I was about to sin and He showed me a book where he had all my sins listed with his signature next to every one as if he had taken the blame for them all, etc, etc.
All this to say, I try not to put much weight to dreams, but perhaps (maybe?) God actually uses them to speak to me sometimes? Maybe. Just sometimes.
Anyway, so that leads me to share a vivid dream I had a bit ago that has stuck with me. I'm curious for your reactions to it.
I dreamed that I was visiting a church that my family had attended ten years ago. We left due to a chronic neglect of the children's ministry and leaders who had their own agendas which were slowly killing the Body. In real life, this church (a very old historic building) is going up for sale because the congregation has finally all but died and they can't pay their debts anymore. It's pretty sad. They could have had an amazing ministry in that city, but they wasted the opportunity 100%...
So, in my dream, the church was preparing to sell the building and they were having a book sale to sell all the books in their old theological library, as well as historic documents from an archive room. I decided to go see if there was anything worth buying. The room where they were selling everything was in the basement of the church where I used to go to youth group meetings.
Everything was laid out on tables and as I looked through the items I found an old church bulletin and recognized my own writing and doodling on it! I opened it up, and inside was a list of people from the church I was apparently praying for, including the name of a girl I was in Sunday School with (I had forgotten all about her before this dream). I decided to keep it, since it was my own after all. Then I went to an adjoining room to look at the pricier archived books and historical church documents.
In that room I met a woman who used to lead the Sunday School programs during the time I was a kid. She told me sadly that the church had never recovered since a man in the congregation committed suicide. She said his name was Mr. Main. She thought I should remember it, but I said it was probably when my family had just begun attending there.
As I talked to her, my attention was caught by a portable coat rack in the room. It didn't have any hangers on it, and the top bar was covered in ice which was shaped into the heads of different animals. There was a giraffe, a dog, and others I don't remember. It seemed to me that the animals represented church leaders who had once hung their coats there.
I was just about to tell the lady about a suicide at my current church when suddenly she froze in place and put her ear to the wall like she heard something. Immediately, the floor began to shake and it was getting increasingly stronger. There were two little kids in the room - a boy and a girl. I grabbed the girl and the woman grabbed the boy. I hid with the little girl under a desk while the "earthquake" continued. In my mind's eye I saw a map of the US and Canada and the destruction from this earthquake was very widespread in both countries.
However, soon it went away and nothing in the room was even damaged at all, though we were still very shaken. The woman seemed panicky, though, and said "I swear I heard screaming out there just before it started!" Meaning on the other side of the wall. But we were in the basement, and on the other side was only dirt... I was beginning to feel very creepy.
Just then, we all heard a ghostly scream echo through the church! I realized that we were also suddenly the only people there when before the basement had been full of people looking at books. Rapid footsteps began coming down a stairway from the floor above as the "thing" was running toward the room we were in! I ran out into a hallway and in the opposite direction hoping to find an exit door to the outside, while the scream continued echoing behind me and was gaining ground quickly...
Then I woke up.
So maybe that's all just entertaining to you read, but any thoughts other than "How much pizza did you have before you went to bed?"
All this to say, I try not to put much weight to dreams, but perhaps (maybe?) God actually uses them to speak to me sometimes? Maybe. Just sometimes.
Anyway, so that leads me to share a vivid dream I had a bit ago that has stuck with me. I'm curious for your reactions to it.
I dreamed that I was visiting a church that my family had attended ten years ago. We left due to a chronic neglect of the children's ministry and leaders who had their own agendas which were slowly killing the Body. In real life, this church (a very old historic building) is going up for sale because the congregation has finally all but died and they can't pay their debts anymore. It's pretty sad. They could have had an amazing ministry in that city, but they wasted the opportunity 100%...
So, in my dream, the church was preparing to sell the building and they were having a book sale to sell all the books in their old theological library, as well as historic documents from an archive room. I decided to go see if there was anything worth buying. The room where they were selling everything was in the basement of the church where I used to go to youth group meetings.
Everything was laid out on tables and as I looked through the items I found an old church bulletin and recognized my own writing and doodling on it! I opened it up, and inside was a list of people from the church I was apparently praying for, including the name of a girl I was in Sunday School with (I had forgotten all about her before this dream). I decided to keep it, since it was my own after all. Then I went to an adjoining room to look at the pricier archived books and historical church documents.
In that room I met a woman who used to lead the Sunday School programs during the time I was a kid. She told me sadly that the church had never recovered since a man in the congregation committed suicide. She said his name was Mr. Main. She thought I should remember it, but I said it was probably when my family had just begun attending there.
As I talked to her, my attention was caught by a portable coat rack in the room. It didn't have any hangers on it, and the top bar was covered in ice which was shaped into the heads of different animals. There was a giraffe, a dog, and others I don't remember. It seemed to me that the animals represented church leaders who had once hung their coats there.
I was just about to tell the lady about a suicide at my current church when suddenly she froze in place and put her ear to the wall like she heard something. Immediately, the floor began to shake and it was getting increasingly stronger. There were two little kids in the room - a boy and a girl. I grabbed the girl and the woman grabbed the boy. I hid with the little girl under a desk while the "earthquake" continued. In my mind's eye I saw a map of the US and Canada and the destruction from this earthquake was very widespread in both countries.
However, soon it went away and nothing in the room was even damaged at all, though we were still very shaken. The woman seemed panicky, though, and said "I swear I heard screaming out there just before it started!" Meaning on the other side of the wall. But we were in the basement, and on the other side was only dirt... I was beginning to feel very creepy.
Just then, we all heard a ghostly scream echo through the church! I realized that we were also suddenly the only people there when before the basement had been full of people looking at books. Rapid footsteps began coming down a stairway from the floor above as the "thing" was running toward the room we were in! I ran out into a hallway and in the opposite direction hoping to find an exit door to the outside, while the scream continued echoing behind me and was gaining ground quickly...
Then I woke up.
So maybe that's all just entertaining to you read, but any thoughts other than "How much pizza did you have before you went to bed?"
