August 11, 2003

DREAMS

I dream a lot. Some friends tell me they hardly ever dream. Researchers say that we all dream every night, but that some of us remember dreams after we wake up, while others don’t.

People of all cultures have always been fascinated with dreams. They are windows to a part of a person we don’t know very well. Those of us who are adventurers feel like we’re exploring a Dark Continent when we push through the jungles of our dreams. There may be something scarey around the next corner. Or there may be a pleasure paradise.

Sigmund Freud studied dreams intently. He found symbolic meanings in every nuance. Many of his conclusions have been disputed by others in the psychiatric field. Modern research focuses more on biochemical and physiological studies of brain function.

The Bible talks about dreams. Sometimes they are seen as vehicles for God’s revelations to an individual, as in the case of Pharaoh before the Exodus (interpreted by Joseph), the prophet Daniel, and Joseph, the husband of Mary before and after she gave birth to Jesus.

Sometimes, however “false dreams” can mislead people, just as false prophecies do. Dreams in the Bible can also be terrifying, disturbing to peaceful sleep. And they are often described as having the qualities of illusion, wispiness and constant change.

The truth is that dreams are neither good nor bad—they are just an expression of who we are as persons. Author Nikos Kazantzakis puts this into the mouth of one of his characters:
“Dreams are neither angels nor devils. When Lucifer started his revolt against God, dreams could not make up their mind which side to take. They remained between devils and angels, and God hurled them down into the inferno of sleep.”
(from The Last Temptation of Christ)
I have come to believe that dreams are what you make of them. I have some really scarey dreams in which faceless squiggly things with supernatural powers threaten me from every side. I may wake up with my hair standing on end. I call these “pizza dreams” because they invariably come to me after I’ve eaten pizza or one of its hard-to-digest cousins too late at night. Such dreams are always annihilated by a glass of Bromo Seltzer.

But most of my dreams are more like browsings in some unconscious pasture within me, which I can’t access when I’m awake. I never fully understand them intellectually, but they seem very logical and meaningful on a deeper spiritual/emotional level. I have come to believe God’s Spirit is doing some important rehabilitation work on me in his unique kind of dream-therapy.

One of John Steinbeck’s characters in East of Eden came to a similar conclusion:
“I believe there are techniques of the human mind whereby, in its dark deep, problems are examined, rejected or accepted. Such activities sometimes concern facets a man does not know he has. How often one goes to sleep troubled and full of pain, not knowing what causes the travail, and in the morning a whole new direction and clearness is there . . . . And again there are mornings when ecstasy bubbles in the blood, and the stomach and chest are tight and electric with joy, and nothing in the thoughts to justify it or cause it.”
In these cases, we have worked through issues in our dreams, with God’s help.

I can’t write about dreams without mentioning a Scripture that becomes more impressive to me with my every birthday:
“In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” (Acts 2:17)
Isn’t it like God to turn things upside-down? In the wisdom of this world, old age is when dreams fade. But when God’s Holy Spirit is active within a person, old age is the time when his most creative, most visionary dreams start bubbling up from within!

Our God is sure full of surprises! Sweet dreams!

–Pastor George Van Alstine