Dreams
are such funny things. Mixing up bits and pieces of our lives with outlandish
scenarios with such an immediacy of experience they seem real. I’ve had dreams
that have woken me up sobbing with grief. I’ve had dreams where the sheer
terror of what was happening woke me up. I’ve had dreams of flying, dreams of
falling, dreams of meeting the man of my dreams. Sometimes, the dreams seem to
echo a warning about someone, or something and it’s difficult to shake the
feelings of impending danger.
Like
most other things in life, some people take things to an extreme and spend a
lot of time trying to understand the dreams and the important of their
meanings. I’m somewhere in the middle for sure. I know in the Bible there were
a number of times dreams had significance. Joseph dreams first annoyed his
brothers than became true in time. Additionally Joseph interpreted dreams for
his co-prisoners, the Pharaoh and helped to gain a position of power to avert
the starving of thousands of people in time of famine including his own tribe
of Israel.
In
the New Testament, that Joseph had several dreams in which he was warned about
impending harm to the baby Jesus and after those dreams he moved his family to
safety.
But
me? Here I am in small town Oregon dreaming of impending plumbing floods and having
my home slip down the hill. Is that a warning? Well it could be since I live on
a cliff, the plumbing is already breaking and landslides happen all the time.
But in a more real sense it’s reality mixed in with worry all coming muddled up
in a Technicolor dreamscape. At the present, I can do nothing about the
plumbing. There are literally thousands of dollars of repairs needed and as of
yet, that big pot of money at the end of the rainbow hasn’t appeared at my
door.
So,
what am I doing? I’m praying about it. I need wisdom and I need direction. The
roof is leaking, the plumbing is breaking down and heaters are stopping room by
room. I know as I lean on God He will answer and hopefully I won’t wake up
slip-sliding away crashing down the cliff as the house decides to let loose of
its foundations and enjoy an exhilarating mudslide towards the creek.
A
lot of my life I’m praying about it. Living alone has it’s challenges. I have
relatives but for the most part they have busy lives, busy schedules and the
last thing they want to do is try to help me shut the garage door that right
now is catty-wompas, open at a crazy angle now that the automatic door function
is broken as a cable snapped a few weeks ago.
Does
it anger me that here I am left alone in an aging and breaking house? No,
because I can remember being their ages, busy with life, career, and family.
It’s not that I’m forgotten, it’s only that there’s just so much time and my
to-do list just keeps getting bigger the older both I and the house get and
they have their own lives.
I’m
fortunate. The upstairs bathroom stills works, the heater in the family room
and my bedroom work and I work around the plumbing issues the kitchen has. I am
grateful I have some hot water, light and heat. I think of all the homeless
people around the world and I realize I am one of the lucky ones. I have food,
I’m not sick. I have clothes, and blankets, and sooooooooooo many luxuries it
would take me a long time to count.
So,
as the New Year begins what do I do? Well I continue on with those things I
know I need to do, Bible study being one of them. If I quit reading my Bible,
things and circumstances start to become overwhelming and fear and worry grow.
For me, that’s not a good place to be and so I continue to anchor my soul as
much as possible in God. Today, I’m reading the 2nd chapter of
Philippians. Having read it through a second time, it strikes me that Paul is
calling the Philippians to a higher form of love and relationship then the
normal, day to day “love”.
For
me, learning to love God’s way is a process involving death to self, (or
selfishness), immersing myself in God-thoughts and prayer. There’s a well known
phrase, “Let go and let God”. Well, there’s certainly application for that
phrase in life, but in practice, the whole learning to love God’s way involves some
personal work.
2:1
“If there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any
fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having
the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
2:3
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit but in lowliness of
mind let each esteem others better than themselves.” Philippians
Wow,
that’s a mouthful. What I’m learning is that without a supernatural, spiritual
inward change because of Christ Jesus, this just isnt’ happening any time soon.
This goes contrary to human nature. People disagree on just about everything.
All you have to do is sit down for lunch or a class and the opinions start to
fly. Everybody I know in their own way believes they have a special insight on
how life is. We live in a culture where being ambitious is a virtue; where
trying to achieve excellence is a standard for school and business. These
values, although good, run in a counter-intuitive course against what I think
Paul is talking about here.
Paul
is talking about the yielding of our hearts, spirits and lives to the Spirit of
Christ who when allowed will infill our lives with a different nature, a
different attitude.
2:5
“let this mind be in your which was also in Christ Jesus.” Philippians
Well for me thinking in analogies helps me
understand things better. There was a time in my life when I was a much better
gardener than I am now. I wanted to get the weeds out of my lawns and flower
beds and would spend a lot of time and effort trying to dig the weed roots out.
I knew if I didn’t get every piece out I would come back in a day or week or
two and there the weed would be, fat and flourishing. I could put beautiful new
soil around my plants, use rich, nourishing fertilizers, water carefully, but
if I didn’t get the weeds out; Bam! They would chokes out my plants in a
heartbeat.
My
mind and body are filled with my Self, an entity of it’s own that in many
respects tenaciously hangs upon to it’s right to, “Do what I want.” Much like a
toddler, who wants it own way, my Self, fights against the Spirit of God and
even though I discipline myself to read the Word, go to church and pray, that
Self is like the dandelion with it’s roots deep down, entrenched that have to
be ferreted out and removed.
And
did I mention pain? Well I should have, because I am stubborn and it usually
takes a painful process for me to acknowledge there’s another facet of my life,
(Self) that needs to be worked on. Usually I will learn about something,
gently. Often there are gentle reminders from others, pastors, teachers,
friends, even enemies. As I ignore these gentle reminders, God in His love for
me allows situations to occur that by their very nature force me into
confronting the ‘weediness’ (if you will) in my soul. All this involves pain
and soul-searching and growth.
So “I press on,
forgetting those things which are behind and pressing for the high mark and
calling of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 3:13
Well, time to be up and
about getting ready for church. Take care and remember, God loves you and has a
plan for your life, and Self. Instead of Elf on the shelf, perhaps this will be
the year where I learn to put Self on the shelf. That’s one for my dumb
joke book. (Tomorrow I’ll try to remember to share more about that.)
Goodbye, and take care.
Note:
at church this morning the pastor said, “Today we want to look at Philippians
Chapter 2. Cool, not a coincident but a God- Incident! He shared a lot of the
same insights I had gained and also more; including an emphasis on being
willing to change what’s not working
to what God wants to work into our
lives.
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