A Dream Last Night, From a Sister....

2/2/2014

Last night I went to bed late and listened to a couple tracks before sleeping. “Fools Disobey” and “A Flower Quickly Fading”. It's insanity to disobey…we are like a vapor in the wind…we all know how quickly LIFE can deteriorate with the least little negligence and choices and sloppiness. I've felt that. I KNOW that. Jesus, I don't want to be that kind of airhead! I've felt it…two steps away from insanity. After a few hours of troubled sleep, I woke up about 4am after this dream - a picture of that emptiness and insanity.

I walked through a desolate place

The place went on and on

It seemed to be always night

With very dim lights

Every room or storefront was dark or half-lit gray

It was a complicated place

It was an utterly lonely place

And utterly unsatisfying.

Walking through endless rooms and streets with twists and turns

I was So weary and tired

But there was no place to find rest

I was Aching

But there was no place of comfort or healing

I was Lonely

But there was no one

There were strange sights

And sounds

Nothing was interesting really

I was searching for a place to rest my head

I was searching for Home

But everything I drew close to

was plastic, brittle, fake, empty

Utterly empty

Like the set of a stage

Not real

I knew it was not Home

I searched for someone

There was a hall of mannequins

Lots and lots of them

In glass cases on either side of the path

All torsos - half-people

All dressed up in fancy suits

On display

It was like some kind of competition

Everyone looked a little different,

but they were all the same

They all wore dingy, grayish white uniforms with black trim

They had plastic faces

None were beautiful

Only Lifeless, staring, empty eyes and painted smiles

Some of them had glitzy pins attached to their lapels with the words "Lord, Lord" or "God"...like badges they claimed for themselves.

The words had no meaning for these lifeless, half-people

It was only part of their "special" decorations.

It only deepened my sadness.

I did a u-turn - that path was a deadend.

I continued to look for my people.

I passed a few "living", moving people - but they all seemed to be homeless and inebriated or sleeping lying in strange places wrapped in rags - they weren't reaching for help - only rolling over with their backs to me. They didn't care where they were.

They had nothing, but they didn't want anything else.

There was one city worker casually trying to clean up a mess, but he had a shovel with holes and really only spread the mess around more.

He was listless and never looked up, but even so, I knew I didn't know him.

The worker was in an empty auditorium - even their entertainment was dark, hollow, soundless, empty.

I left that place.

Someone asked if I was hungry

I was - Very hungry

But I realized where they directed me to find food was only a place to feed my flesh...but it was like an empty pig sty.

I left that place.

I felt my hunger only increasing.

I realized…after searching for what seemed for so long

Sleepless, weary, hungry, exhausted, so utterly lonely and empty to the core

With NOwhere in this place to find satisfaction…

This is a living hell.

This is the world.

That's when I woke up.
I knew -
This is what they feel - what I feel
When we don't KNOW
The Living Jesus,
When we don't FIND ALL SATISFACTION IN HIM.

I KNEW the only answer:
Turn to Jesus. Period.
We MUST HAVE HIM.

That's what I woke up thinking.
I wished I had found the beautiful, shining City in that place…that wasn't part of this dream. This was only what it's like without Home, without Hope, without a place of Rest and Peace and Fulfillment.

This dream was the insane place I could choose to stay in or go back to…the place I could fade to.

Or we could choose, as described in the track - to be a flower Blooming, FLOURISHING, spreading…perfect sanity, a sound mind…ever-increasing glory. Not selling yourself into insanity…but EVER-INCREASING sanity and love and forgiveness and character and substance and fruitfulness…Brighter and Brighter until the FULL DAY. And maybe we'll impact those in that dead place.

•  Don't Be Foolish