I'm thinking about dreams. And the relationship between what I think about during the day and what I dream about at night.
Joseph had dreams. Today I told my RE kids the story of Joseph's dreams about his own greatness - you know the dreams - how his brothers sheaves', and the sun, the moon and the stars all bowed down to him... I know that these dreams were God-given and prophetic, but do you think there could also have been a natural element about them? Was it that Joseph was spending a good chunk of each day stroking his own ego, thinking about how he was daddy's favourite and gloating over his brothers?
Is it that our brains are at work while we're asleep filing our thoughts? And are dreams a glimpse into those files? Maybe Joseph needed to repent of his dreams. (And maybe I need to repent of mine.)
Any thoughts?
Well, I'm left wondering if I've been thinking too much about real and metaphorical crocodiles. If you've read my blog post about our 'tourist attraction' http://laetitiabm.blogspot.com/2008/06/come-to-mackay-see-live-dinosaur.html
ReplyDeleteyou'll know that Mackay has at least one crocodile (and some say at least two) in a local waterway.
Said waterway lies between our place and our local post office and gym. I won't go through there on foot at night (hey, it got there somehow and they're more active at night) so I make sure I have the car or a lift when at the gym at night.
Anyway the other night I dreamt I was standing near the waterway when a child off to my right fell over on the bank and a crocodile came towards it. When someone helped the child up (I was stuck but I could warn that the croc was on the way) the croc turned its attentions to a large dog on the bank on my left.
The croc got out and walked in the normal croc way towards the dog but then as it attacked, it changed to have a human body and croc head.
I'm not sure what frightened me more - watching the croc attack a large dog (and ignore me) or watching it effectively turn into Sobek http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobek and attack the dog in a combined human / croc way.
I dream vividly and often I wake up and find it quite difficult to get rid of the dream-induced emotions. Usually when the dreams are something I'd not ever want to think in my conscious hours. I know for sure that my dreams are influenced by both my past sinful thoughts and actions and also my present sin and I am sure a lot of the images come from deep in my heart. So whenever I wake up from a dream like this I ask God to keep changing my heart. I apologise to him for whatever action of mine has brought these things into my dreams and I often recite 2Cor10:5. The thing I have to remember is that God has already forgiven my sin. I don't need to ask for forgiveness for that over again, just for the new thoughts which I entertain and dwell upon. You're probably right, Jacob might have been better to take those dreams as a "wake-up call" to be a little more humble in his personal relationships. Just as I need to take my dreams as a wake-up call to, for example, avoid watching crime shows and instead concentrate on whatever is pure, whatever is noble...
ReplyDelete~ Sharon