To Dream is an Awfully Big Adventure

People think dreams aren’t real just because they aren’t made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes. Neil Gaiman

I had a dream last night. Well, not so much a dream as a nightmare. I am sure I experience REM sleep like everyone else, but I don’t usually remember anything that happens during those sessions. I suspect my usual dreams are so boring they simply put me to sleep. But this one was different.

It was probably a typical “preacher’s” nightmare in that I found myself, first of all, late for church. For one who grew up believing that early is on time, on time is late, and late is inexcusable, the thought of showing up after a church service has already begun was absolutely horrifying.

Worse, was that it was apparently an important service and not the usual Sunday fare. The church was packed to overflowing; the air was filled with thunderous orchestral music emanating from a grand pipe organ combined with a symphony orchestra; the congregation was abuzz with great expectations as if, perhaps, Charles Dickens was in the house. 

My hands held a bit of drivel that was supposed to be my “sermon,” which meant I was apparently scheduled to be the preacher. I was mortified. The few words I could see scrawled on the tiny piece of paper clutched in my sweaty fists were complete pabulum compared to the grand oratory the gathered crowd was no doubt expecting.

I made my way down the side aisle. It was a tight squeeze due to the overflow-nature of the congregation. I tried to work my way up the right side onto the stage, but the door was barred by the organist and his symphony. That meant I had to traverse the front of the church (not a sin, but frowned upon by strict liturgists), and while the stairs to the dais were clogged, I was able to make my way up to my assigned place. 

Then I woke up, realized it had been a dream (or nightmare), and paused for a moment to give thanks to God it wasn’t real.

Or was it?

I am no Joseph, with or without a technicolor dream coat. I’m not trained in psychology or in the interpretation of dreams. I do know and I do believe God often speaks to us in our dreams, because it is in our sleep God can finally get a word in “wedge-wise” (to quote Archie Bunker). Dreams and nightmares are often personal and particular to the dreamer. What this night-time vision specifically means to me is mostly irrelevant to everyone else, but I can share what I would consider a key point that could be applicable in a more general sense, and that is ...

… Each of us is central to our own story, but few ever feel adequate for the role they’ve been given. I don’t think I have ever met a person who, on the outside, looks like they’ve got it “all together,” who doesn’t, on the inside, feel like a bit of a fraud or charlatan. And yet, each does his or her part as best they can. They know they’re highly unlikely to ever win a Pulitzer or Nobel Prize, or a Gold (Silver, or Bronze) Olympic medal. Their row of Sunday School attendance stickers may never come close to being as complete as those of their peers. And yet …

… while we see our own inadequacies, God sees us. Not our frailties. Us. Not our inadequacies. Us. Not our performances. Us. It’s not that our presence doesn’t matter, or that our preparation doesn’t matter, or that our presentation doesn’t matter. We’re here, so we may as well do our best, to do our part. But all of that aside, what matters to God is us. 

Motivational speakers urge us to dream big, or follow our dreams, but that puts the emphasis in the wrong place. I believe God dreams bigger than we ever could. We bring what we have in hand, and do our part when the time comes. God dreams of love and justice in the world. God makes what we bring more than adequate to accomplish that here in this, our valley. So wake up, sleepy-heads. Wake up.

Keith Axberg writes on matters concerning life and faith. Author of: Who the Blazes is Jesus? Good News for a Vulgar World (available through Amazon in Print and e-book)