Prayer of Direction

(Last night I prayed for a dream that would give me direction in my Christian walk. But unfortunately, I don't have the gift of dream intereptation. Can someone help me figure out what this dream means to my christian walk? Forgive me, but it was quite long.)


I was a doctor, and I had a patient to help. The person I was to assist had a split personality, and I was to figure out why this was.

I was part of two buses heading a great distance across many different settings (I don't remember why). These were filled with people (classmates from real life), but even though I knew them, we interacted with each other like we were friendly strangers.

At one point, the first bus got in trouble with something (think it flipped over). Our bus driver however sharply turned and although we almost tipped over, we made the u-turn successfully. The bus driver bragged about how amazing the manuever was. We drove toward our destination again, and we passed the group from the first bus still waiting to be picked up. Later, we saw some of them in a police swat truck, having been rescued.

Another stop was my neighborhood in Washington at sunset. We had gotten off the bus to walk the rest of the way. A friend of mine was joking with the mother of another friend of mine. He was holding her around the waist, and was very uncomfortable (I forgot what that joke was about, maybe something about how to hold a lady?)

Next thing you know, we are in a pool hall. I'm not sure that this was the final destination, but we didn't seem in any hurry to leave. A female friend of mine was asked to play a game by her dad. She was embarrassed, so after a while, asked if they could stop and sit down. The crowd watching knew what she really felt and laughed and aww'ed at the fact that the girl just ditched her father. Some other female friend of mine volunteered to play with him instead to undo his hurt feelings. This made his daughter feel bad about what she did, and she buried her head in her arms in shame.


(That's all I could remember. So what do you think?)

How did you respond emotionally to each of these situations?

1. A bus of people flips over and the people obviously need assistance. You are a doctor and are called to help people. Your bus driver brags about his maneuvers and drives right past the hurting people. A bus can represent a church and the driver could be your pastor or a pastor. Is this representative of your church? Did you think to ask the bus driver to stop and to help the people?

2. A friend of yours had his arm around the waist of the mother of another friend of yours and he was joking about how to hold a lady. You saw that this made the mother uncomfortable. Did you think to ask your friend to take his hand off of her or did you think or ask about how she felt or what you could do to alleviate her discomfort?

3. A girl was asked to play a game but this embarrassed her. The crowd, seeing how she felt, laughed at her. Another girl went to the defense of the father which just made the daughter feel all the more embarrassed. Did you think about why the girl didn't want to play a game with her father? How did you respond when everyone was making fun of her and laughing at her? Did you think to try to alleviate her discomfort? Did you try to ease her pain? Did you come to her defense when people were laughing at her?

I'm not assuming your answers and you don't have to answer to me, ok? You asked God to give you a dream to show you direction for your Christian life and he told you that you were a doctor and that you had a patient to help. There were a lot of hurting people in your dream; a lot of painful and needy situations you were presented with. So, you have to ask yourself where you were in all of this, how did you feel, what was your inclination, etc. Again, you don't have to answer to me, just to yourself and to the Lord. These questions are meant to help, ok?

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

26"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
27He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
28"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
30In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'
36"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" 37The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

__________________
Sue

Acts 26:16-18: Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

I was a doctor, and I had a patient to help.
You were entrusted with leadership and healing or public support, probably for people in general (as opposed to one friend -- like a minister, missionary, counselor etc.) Think about whether you were comfortable in this position -- it seems you were.

The person I was to assist had a split personality, and I was to figure out why this was.
They might have had a tendency to be pulled in two directions, so they weren't true to themselvses or their faith. The person might have been a church or organization. There are positions of administration, like working for a denominational office, or mission board, or board of directors, where people oversee churches and ministries.

If this pertained, the a split personality would be a common problem, as churches often take two directions and divide into two separate parts.


I was part of two buses

A mode of transport in dreams usually shows the way you're getting where you hope to go, and driving shows who is in control. A bus would show a large group of people with an agenda or hopes.

heading a great distance across many different settings (I don't remember why).
If this were two connected ministries, then they might be trying to plan mission trips, or evangelize in a broader mode, and need your help.

These were filled with people (classmates from real life), but even though I knew them, we interacted with each other like we were friendly strangers.

Emotional distance when you expected a certain level of warmth... if you are administrating, for example, you would be the one initiating this distancing, and they would reinforce that with recognition that you are there as a consultant or administrator.

I'm taking a very narrow path with this interpretation, so please forgive me.

Another fitting scenario might be your work within a certain group, like aintern, a counselor, a missionary. I am keeping the religious angle only because you were praying for a dream about that.


At one point, the first bus got in trouble with something (think it flipped over). Our bus driver however sharply turned
The organization or plan had an unexpected glitch, which slowed progress and could have injured people, and even stopped the [mission] but the person assigned to be in control (a pastor for instance) made a quick decision that brought things back into the expected flow.

and although we almost tipped over, we made the u-turn successfully. The bus driver bragged about how amazing the manuever was.
His own maneuver? Okay, we all know what we think of that. How did the riders feel? Never mind.

We drove toward our destination again, and we passed the group from the first bus still waiting to be picked up. Later, we saw some of them in a police swat truck, having been rescued.
The two organizations' paths were different enough that they hadn't kept tabs with each other, and there was a later awareness of who was ahead. Like the driver's bragging, possible the whole organization (bus) felt proud that they were ahead of the other group, and didn't mind trampling them a bit in their misery.

Police swat... another resource different from what you were doing. (A bank buying out a mortgage.)

Another stop was my neighborhood in Washington at sunset.
Closure, a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day, feeling at rest again close to home. You felt yourself again.

We had gotten off the bus to walk the rest of the way.
The leader was no longer in charge of y'all, and you were content to be independent even though it was a slower pace.

A friend of mine was joking with the mother of another friend of mine. He was holding her around the waist, and was very uncomfortable (I forgot what that joke was about, maybe something about how to hold a lady?)
If this pertained to an organization, the there's a reflective time after about how to handle people deftly, like taking care of a church with tenderness, instead of swerving and then bragging... not asking how people were.

Shift in the dream.
Next thing you know, we are in a pool hall. I'm not sure that this was the final destination, but we didn't seem in any hurry to leave. A female friend of mine was asked to play a game by her dad. She was embarrassed, so after a while, asked if they could stop and sit down. The crowd watching knew what she really felt and laughed and aww'ed at the fact that the girl just ditched her father. Some other female friend of mine volunteered to play with him instead to undo his hurt feelings. This made his daughter feel bad about what she did, and she buried her head in her arms in shame.

I think the shame started at the beginning of this section... a pool hall being potentially innocent and safe but also potentially risky... public judgment contrasts with defiance of public judgment, laxness mixed with savvy strategy.

In any case, the organization had let go of the leadership, and either you or they shifted to a completely different, less spiritually-driven position. Which sometimes happens when a church goes haywire, and people have to get off the bus. Clear their head out doing something completely different, even if it means bending their principles.

If the pool hall were a revised, recuperated church, then I would guess it had moved from hyperspirituality to having carts of donuts in between services. If it were a ministry organization, like a food cupboard, it might have gone secular or lost its nonprofit status.

Ditching the father might be ditching the minister or founder of the organization. People try to show respect for what he had done, even though they don't really want to involve themselves with him any more.

There... that's how I see your dream. I could be way off! But you dreamt it, so I'm sure you will fill in the blanks.

1. A bus of people flips over and the people obviously need assistance. You are a doctor and are called to help people. Your bus driver brags about his maneuvers and drives right past the hurting people. A bus can represent a church and the driver could be your pastor or a pastor. Is this representative of your church? Did you think to ask the bus driver to stop and to help the people?

(I can't even remember what happened to the first bus. I don't think I cared too much, I was more worried about our own bus that was tipping over.)

2. A friend of yours had his arm around the waist of the mother of another friend of yours and he was joking about how to hold a lady. You saw that this made the mother uncomfortable. Did you think to ask your friend to take his hand off of her or did you think or ask about how she felt or what you could do to alleviate her discomfort?

(Actually, it was the mother who asked my friend to put his arms around her, but yeah, I didn't interupt the joke at all. My friend was uncomfortable, but they were joking, so I didn't bother with it.)

3. A girl was asked to play a game but this embarrassed her. The crowd, seeing how she felt, laughed at her. Another girl went to the defense of the father which just made the daughter feel all the more embarrassed. Did you think about why the girl didn't want to play a game with her father? How did you respond when everyone was making fun of her and laughing at her? Did you think to try to alleviate her discomfort? Did you try to ease her pain? Did you come to her defense when people were laughing at her?

(I felt sorry for the dad along with the crowd. He tries to get closer to her daughter and she would rather just get away from him. Other than that, no, I was detatched from the scene, I was only a bystander, watching and not caring.)


To Heron, my church did have a split lately, but I don't know how that would do with the question I asked God to answer in my dream, asking for guidance in my christian walk. I'm not very actice in my church, and I leave for college halfway across the country in a month. If my purpose is to help with that, I have no idea how I would fulfill it.

I had a thought and I'm going to ask that you take it to the Lord in prayer because this may just be me, but I wonder if the person with the "split personality" is yourself. Even though I said you did not have to answer me on those questions, you did answer and every answer revealed apathy about situations that God would care about. Perhaps the Lord is showing you that you, not your church, are split down the middle - divided loyalties. You asked the Lord for direction and he is showing you, perhaps, that you are going two different directions. You are trying or desiring to serve him on one hand but on the other (the bus you were on) there is apathy. The Lord, if he is to use you as a "doctor" to people will need for you to do some heart examination before HIM and for you to come more in line with his purposes for your life so that you are no longer apathetic to what is going on around you and your world. I pray the Lord will direct you in this, that you will come before HIM in true heart examination and repentance and that you will make it your goal to become more sensitive to those around you and to the Holy Spirit's prompting within you to get involved in what is going on instead of remaining apathetic.

__________________
Sue

Acts 26:16-18: Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

Hey, I just realized that the Lord is giving me this same message this morning that I just gave you - ouch!

Last night my husband and I met with a pastor to talk about some things and I was focused on our conversation with him and I ignored an elderly lady at another table who kept staring at me. I just kept thinking to myself, "Why is she stariing at me?" At one point my husband engaged her in conversation while I was gone for a moment and when I returned the pastor and my husband were talking with her.

She was very course, proud, blasphemous, etc. I prayed for the words to speak to her but none came and maybe it is because my heart was not in the right place. The men were talking with her and I sat further away and I would have had to interrupt to get in a word, but I think the Lord did not give me words because I had the wrong heart attitude by ignoring her in the first place. They entertained her conversation and laughed with her and did not confront her with Jesus and I ignored her and all of us were waiting for her to finish and leave so that we could finish our conversation - ouch!! That hurts to admit it!! So...

I was praying last night about our conversation with one another and about the woman we met at the coffee shop and our conversation with her and the Lord spoke to me through this song and scripture this morning:

Monk & Neagle Lyrics - The Twenty-First Time
Nowhere to live, nowhere to fall
He used to have money, but he’s wasted it all.
His face is a photograph burned in my mind,
but I pretend not to see him for the twenty-first time

He sleeps under stars, that’s all he can afford
His blanket’s an old coat he’s had since the war
He stands on the corner of Carter and Vine
But I pretend not to see him for the twenty-first time

He may be a drifter, he’s grown old and gray
But what if he’s Jesus and I walk away?
I say I’m the body and drink of the wine
but I pretend not to see him for the twenty-first time

She’s twenty-nine but she feels forty-eight
She can’t raise three kids on minimum wage
She’s cryin’ in back of the welfare line
but I pretend not to see her for the twenty-first time

She may be a stranger tryin’ to get through the day
but what if it’s Jesus and I walk away?
I say I’m the body and drink of the wine
but I pretend not to see her for the twenty-first time

This is a call for a change in my heart
I realize that I’ve not been doin’ my part
when I needed a Savior, I found it in Him
He gave to me, now I’ll give back to them

Drifter or stranger, father or son
I’ll look for Jesus in every one
’cause I am the body and drink of the wine
and I’m thankful there’s more than the twenty-first time

Matthew 12:22-37:
Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, "Could this be the Son of David?" But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, "It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons."

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

"Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house.

"He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."

__________________
Sue

Acts 26:16-18: Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

Ah, that's more clear.

I have worried about me possibly having two different lives for a while now, but I didn't think that it would be as bad as it presented itself in the dream.

I have lately been trying to become closer in my Christianity, but I've also been scared about how I might be drifting away from God with the way I deal with the world.

I, like in the dream, like to think more than act, and it's hurt me in many ways during my life. So lately, I've been trying to force myself to be more assertive, to actually do, to produce work, instead of just sitting there. But I wonder if that approach is the right way to go as well...

But thank you both for your interpetations, I have alot to study with now.

If you're moving, it would be good to get a little of that resolved in your head before you go, since putting yourself in another environment will create another bus. I feel distanced from myself even when I go on vacation for a week.

A new school will give you new people, surroundings, locations to learn, responsibilities, housing... everything changes at once and it's hard on some people. I relished the idea of going away to school, but I watched a lot of friends struggle through the switch. Life becomes safe when you plant yourself in the new place, but there can be a lot of anxieties beforehand.

What a great thing to notice! Of course you will need balance.

But seeing this in yourself is a good reminder to pick a career path that allows you to think more than act. Then you will feel more yourself on the job. Brain work isn't tangible enough to measure, but in some jobs the time spent is more important than others -- research, accounting, market analysis, translating texts, technical writing.

As for your Christian walk and the dream, you watched things overturn, you watched people scurry through things from a distance, and stayed on the bus, but didn't completely own that position. You probably made analytical observations about what was going on with them, not feeling the upset was going on with you.

When people grow up in a church (if you did), there's a tendency for them to feel like it's their parents' church, their parents' God, someone else's religion. Even though they would have friends there, it's not a proactive choice they made ... they just chug along with it.

Later in your dream, people got out and walked themselves, and it turned out to be a good choice. The pool hall seemed to be an easy way out -- maybe God showing you how not having that obligation to keep people happy by going to church at home, it would be easy to wander out of that pattern and get distracted.

Think about how people who don't grow up in the church are in a search for truth. Many of your secular friends probably explore religions and philosophies, just because it interests them and they want to learn more. Seeking enlightenment with a passion.

You have already learned someone else's truth, but it has barely been allowed to become your own. So that passion to gain and learn and grow gets dampened.
(My apologies for making assumptions.)

It sounds like going away and living more on your own will help in this realm, if you use your opportunities well.

Sorry for getting so personal. A reminder to other readers, these are my projections, not his.