Dreaming the dream

I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. (Joel 2:28)

Last week, the Daily Office readings have started the book of Daniel, which takes place during the Babylonian exile of Israel. Most of us know the story of Daniel and the lions’ den, but long before that ordeal, Daniel and three of his friends were among a group of Hebrew youths taken to Babylon to serve the king. Daniel and his friends resolve to keep as much of the Jewish law as they can, even while surrounded by the luxury and temptations of a pagan court. As a reward, God gifts them with wisdom, and to Daniel God gives skill in the interpretation of dreams.

We don’t tend to talk much about dreams in church, which is strange, given the prominent role that they play in Scripture. Joseph and Daniel both earn prominence through their divine gift of dream interpretation; Paul directs his missionary journeys in part by what he sees in his dreams. And that’s not counting the visionaries: Ezekiel, Zechariah, Moses, Isaiah, Elijah, and all the more contemporary saints who have received revelations about the nature of God in visions that haunted their lives. Scripture seems to suggest that dreams are a way that God communicates to us directly, showing us that we need to learn, but, perhaps, cannot grasp with our conscious mind.

From my own experience, dreams fall into two categories: most are just a jumble of images and experiences, fragments that vanish quickly once I awake. Proverbs refers to those who trust in such dreams as fools. But there have also been a handful of what I call “true dreams,” dreams which have a lasting power over how I think and who I have become. These feel strongly marked, even when I have just awakened; they are more coherent, and what they show me seems to be a deep truth that they help me learn in a new way. Since God so exceeds the grasp of our everyday minds, it makes sense to me that God might sometimes try to slip in the side door.

And you, what do you do with your dreams? Do you ignore them, analyze them, listen for what they might be teaching you?

At the end of days, Joel writes, everyone will dream dreams — not the feeble dreams of this life, but the dreams in which God speaks directly to our soul. Dreams of peace, of security, of plenty, of a world in which each person has enough. If we reached for those things, perhaps they would not be dreams anymore. Perhaps then the things we dream of would be real, and there would be no need for dreams anymore.