February 11, 2010- The team really had a good time with me this week. Pastor was the one who had the idea when we went to check out a building for one of our church plants earlier in the week. Here's the story. When we were walking through this building I began to see not what happens next, but what happens after what happens next. I began to see ministry possibilities. Now rest assured I wasn't the only one seeing things like this. Everyone did. But I was the one who got stuck with the label "The Dream Bug". Any time you get photo shopped it makes you uncomfortable, but this was a horrible photo. The thing is, dreaming is good. We all should be dreamers. So I found some examples of dream bugs that I want to share.
First, we find Jacob in Gen. 22:10-22. He sees angels going up and down a ladder to heaven and God gave him a huge revelation through a dream. It changed his life and the course of the world. Then we find Joseph in Gen. 37. He has a dream that his entire family would bow at his feet. Sounds arrogant but later he interprets dreams for others which leads him to a leadership position that leads to his family seeking food from none other than him. Lives changed! Then in the book of Daniel 4:19-37 Daniel interprets dreams that lead to favor, faith, and guess what? Lives changed! Then in Matt 2:12 the wise men(or Magi) were spoken to in a dream and told not to return to Herod. Dreams are everywhere, and so are dreamers.
Freud, of course, did not link dreams to the holy, which he regarded as an illusion. He worked to put dream interpretation on a scientific footing, transposing the religious dimension of dreams into a psychological reality. Dreams were taken to be disclosure of the denied part of the self particularly the self’s repressed desires.
Though he transposed dreams from religious to psychological realities, Freud nonetheless utilized an interpretive method, which involved a patient probing of multi-layered meanings and the inscrutable, enigmatic dimensions of life. Dreams, like ancient texts, require imaginative interpretation in order for us to receive what they disclose.
Freud invites us to the work of "archaeology,’ of uncovering the origins of the self in the unconscious, But Freud’s interpretation of dreams is also anticipating what the self may become. The eschatological dimension of a dream may lead to wise choices, like that of’ the wise men in Matthew, or to the choosing of an alternative future, as in the case of Jacob.
Another kind of dreamer, perhaps the greatest dreamer of the mid-2Oth century, is Martin Luther King Jr. His "I Have a Dream" speech of August 1963 represented a defiant political stance couched in religious rhetoric. It is important that the address was presented as a dream:
I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day all people, no matter what creed or color will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. . . . I have a dream that my son will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today! . . . I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
Dream interpretation, so Jewish in its imaginative attentiveness, pertains to psychological matters and the reality of repression. But it is not limited to those concerns. Dreams concern larger realities and possible futures. There are many voices in the night, not all of them noble. Among them, however, is the voice of the holy God, who "plucks up and tears down" what we have trusted, who "plants and builds" what we cannot even imagine.
In a nutshell, here it is. Within the dreamer are hidden truths that disrupt the status quo, that stretch the human capacity, and create new possibilities.
1 comment:
Scott, I read your Dream blog as well as Activate and both are very interesting and thought provoking. They made me think of something written by the great motivational speaker Og Mandino.
"You will achieve grand dream, a day at a time, so set goals for each day -- not long and difficult projects, but chores that will take you, step by step, toward your rainbow. Write them down, if you must, but limit your list so that you won't have to drag today's undone matters into tomorrow. Remember that you cannot build your pyramid in twenty-four hours. Be patient. Never allow your day to become so cluttered that you neglect your most important goal -- to do the best you can, enjoy this day, and rest satisfied with what you have accomplished."
I will keep reading and hope you continue writing.
rob
Post a Comment