My Dream

The Dream

As I slept the other evening a dream filled my mind with vivid thoughts; I was stirred but not awakened by the gravity of the dream. I pondered the meaning of the dream over the next two days. On the third night, I was awakened from my sleep at about the fourth hour. The visions in my dream were again stirring in my head and the interpretation of it began to flow through my mind by way of the spirit in me. I felt compelled to get out of bed and write down the dream and its interpretation.

The dream was lucid and it filled me with various emotions. In my dream, I was aware that it was a dream and while I was a participant in it I was also watching it as it unfolded. I found myself in a dark building, what appeared to have been a retail store, something like an old Woolworth Store. It had a long soda counter where stools once stood and lined its front. Behind the counter area was a ledge along the wall with an old register atop. Above the ledge was a full-length mirror that filled the back wall. The mirror was clouded and smudged, making my reflection blurry and distorted.

An old woman was behind the counter, she was muttering to herself and weeping while toiling over something in her mind. I could hear her say that she had tried, but she had become weary and had let it go, for far too long; that she couldn't catch up no matter how hard she had tried. She said that she had waited too long to set things right and that when she had begun to try, they had already left; save one, her son.

Behind me stood a large cabinet covered with a black cloth, and to the right of me, up against the window, covered with heavy black cloth curtains, was a tall four-drawer file cabinet. I could not see the rest of the room from that vantage point, but I noticed that the thick dust and dirt had gathered all around and on all things.

It was then that I found myself back at the counter holding a garden hose, with which I began to hose off the dirt and dust from the counter. The mud began to gather behind the counter in large mounds and I thought to myself I would need a shovel to complete the job, but I saw none. So, I continued hosing the dirt from the counter and even the cash register. This was all to the dismay of the old woman, who was muttering even loader now. She was apparently unable to handle the amount of mud that had mounded about her feet. She began to make excuses for the build-up, but she was unable to convince or console herself with her many excuses for her neglect. Then as if frozen in time she stood hunched over in her grief, feet buried in mud, leaning on her broom, weeping. As I stood watching her, wanting to comfort her, but finding no words to ease her grief. Turning my head from her grief, I looked away and signed; believing she was too far gone for me to reach. 

My attention was then drawn again to the old cash register, now wet, and clogged with mud, looking quite inoperable. So I tried to wash it again with the hose, but the build-up of mud caked between the keys would not wash away. My eyes followed the flow of muddy water to the floor behind the counter. The build-up of mud was too thick for the water to wash away; so I decided to leave it for the moment. 

I then turned my attention to the right of me and to the four-draw file cabinet. I could see that two bottom draws were ajar, but undeterred I walked over to it and began hosing it off. I started hosing from the top of the cabinet sending muddy water flowing down the file cabinet and running into the two open bottom draws. Suddenly the old woman was behind me complaining that the water would cause mold to grow and destroy the contents of the drawers. I shrugged off her complaint and tried to explain that the dryness of the room would preserve what was needed and that there was no need to fear its destruction, She became silent and walked away, back behind the counter, and again stood still, leaning on her broom.

My attention was then turned to the rear of the building, now suddenly standing and looking at a section filled with music stands in disarray. The room seemed to have been set up for an orchestra and had been left as is from their last performance. I thought to myself that I would straighten it up, but I knew that it was too much for me to do alone. So, turning my head I was now looking at an area filled with lines of chairs, appearing to me to be a choir section with about 50 cushioned seats. The seats looked as if they had never been used; it indeed was the cleanest area section in the entire building, seemingly untouched by time.

For the first time, I was filled with emotion as I stood weeping over the silence in that room.

Gaining my composure, and wanting to continue my work, I began to wander toward the front of the room. I found myself at a sort of curb, or speed bump, a painted yellow curb,  covered in dirt. I had a rag in my hand now and I began cleaning the curb, then finding myself beside the large cabinet across, obstructing my view of the counter. The cabinet was covered in large black cloth, dusty with lint stuck all over it. I began to remove the lint and tried to shake off the dust, but I was unable to do much to clean it. I noticed a draw was open on the cabinet with a black bag protruding halfway out of the draw. I began pushing the black bag back into the drawer to close it, thinking that I would need to address its contents another day. 

I was drawn by the sound of a male voice behind me while closing the drawer on the large cabinet. Turning to see where the voice was coming from I saw a young man sitting on the only chair at a small round table. The table, like so many other things in the room, was covered in a heavy black cloth. The young man was addressing me angrily. Yelling that his mother was the woman behind the counter and was struggling and needed help, He evidently was angry with me, that I had left her to clean things up on her own. He wanted me to stop what I was doing, pity her toiling and help her, right now! While my heart went out to the old woman, seeing the anger in his voice and his threatening demeanor, I chose to stand my ground and listen without a word back to him. I thought to myself; I can't help her, that what I was doing was my priority, and thought she must find another to help her. Why not this young man? Didn't he claim to be her son?

I pondered the things I had seen; the mud behind the counter, the clogged cash register, the four-draw file cabinet with the two open draws, the orchestra area in disarray, the choir area frozen in time, the large cabinet covered in the black cloth, and now this angry young man; it was truly overwhelming, and beyond my ability to do by myself. 

Suddenly the door at the front of the building burst open and light began filling the room, along with young men and women noisily entering the building. As I looked, joy filled me and I was suddenly awake from my dream. I rose up and sat at the edge of my bed, stunned and confused by what I had seen and heard.

My struggle to understand the meaning of my dream:

Not wanting to make much of my dream, I began to involve myself in the needs of the day. But the dream continued to wrestle for my attention, so I couldn't let it go. I even searched the used bookstore for a book on dreams and found a book called the "Dream Dictionary". 

I thought o myself I could find my answer there. So, I opened it and looked up "cleaning"; that seemed to me to be the overall context of my dream. The answer I found was satisfying to me, and so also those of the other symbols I identified in my dream. The dictionary told me that the meaning was going to be misinterpreted by someone, and twisted into something that would be a determent to understanding the meaning of my dream and that I should avoid listening to false prophets. 

Righ then I was even more determined not to take on any requests to involve myself in any envious that might present themselves to me; feeling that my investigation had yielded a correct answer to a future challenge I continued my day as normal. Unfortunately, I could not let it go; the old woman and the other elements of my dream haunted my thoughts.; could there be more of them; were they also symbols for me to investigate?; that night I decided to listen to YouTube videos about dreams and their interpretation. I listened to one after the other with little to no satisfaction, until I stumbled upon a man who was explaining how he had come to interpret dreams using Biblical references for the elements, or symbols in the dream. It was then, through his short video that I came to remember how I had once interpreted not just my dreams but my life, but had forgotten. This man helped me to remember my higher self, one bathed in the wisdom of the scriptures. He reminded me of Samuel and how the Lord woke him in the night, calling to him, and then revealing an important and timely message for Israel; the man said to wait on the Lord and that if he should awaken me in the night, at about the 4th hour to incline my ear to the Lord and he would yield me the interpretation. As I lay in my bed, now alert and ready to hear the voice of the Lord I fell asleep. It seemed no time had passed when I awoke around half past the third hour and began to pray for the Lord to reveal the meaning of my dream; the spirit instructed me to get up and to write down my dream, to be careful to include even the minor details; I did as I was instructed. As I wrote it down its meaning began to flood my mind, it was as if oil was running down from my head to my feet as I was stirred by its implication and meaning. 

Dream Symbols, I underlined them and made a list:

I began by writing down the dream and then focused my thoughts on the individual symbols, underlining each in the accounting that I had written down. I underlined each as they appeared: the empty dusty counter, the elderly old woman, the cash register, the dirty mirror, the tall four-draw file cabinet, the large cabinet covered in black cloth, the orchestra area in disarray, the well-kept choir area, the small round table with one chair and covered with a black cloth, the large cabinet with one half-opened draw with a black bag protruding from the draw, and the Angry Young Man, the son of the elderly woman, suddenly seated at the small round table filling the only chair available.

The Meanings that filled my head:

    • The Building: A Church Gathering Hall

    • The Counter: A Teaching Pulpit

    • The Elderly Woman: A Preacher, Teacher, Disciple

    • The Cash Register: Finances or Offerings

    • The Dirty Mirror: The Vision and Message from the Pulpit

    • The Tall Four Draw File Cabinet: The Storage of the History and Doctrines of the Church. 

    • The Tall Four Draw File Cabinet: The last two bottom draws left open are the foundational doctrines and teachings of the church, Genesis, and the Words of Prophets.

    • The Orchestra area is in disarray: The Psalms and the music of the church are confused and left in disarray.

    • The Choir area: The voices of the Church, no longer heard, left abandoned yet in perfect order.

    • The Curb, painted yellow, yet in the building: A stumbling block.

    • The Large Cabinet is Covered in a Black Cloth with one drawer open and a black bag protruding from it.

    • The Young Angry Man seated at the Small Round Table with One Chair; The Son of the Elderly Women: A Disciple, the last one, holding on to the Preacher as a mother or nurturer; unwilling to help her, yet defending her position.

The Interpretation of the Dream:

The Church has departed and her meeting place is in disarray. Her pulpit is filled with the filth of this world and her preachers and teachers are aware of the folly which has brought them to that state, but they no longer have the strength to do the work which has now become insurmountable to them. A thorough cleaning must be done, right down to the foundation. They have lost their footing in the mud they have accumulated behind the pulpit and they have blurred the vision and purpose of the place of gathering of the people and have made a business out of it. Other doctrines have taken center place in the church, the large cabinet covered in black cloth, and out of it protrudes confusion caused by laziness and inattention to details and closure of doctrines of demons - covered in death / black sackcloth, like the Hague in Mecca, they have perverted the Word sent from God and His final Prophet, Jesus. The angry young man as what is left of the church, making excuses for their pastors and teachers, are mad that they should be left to clean up their own mess instead of letting another wash away their guilt. While he is angry and wishes to destroy the new move of the spirit they are unable to move, fight or help to clean the church. Finally, as the gathering place is clean and put back in order young men and women, hungry for fellowship and each other fill the place and start to do what I have started and the church is restored.

What I take away from my Dream, or may it be a vision:

I, we are to serve as an example and to be unyielding as a roaring of the lion, being led by the spirit, we are to wash away the evil that has gathered among us and make ready for the next generation to fill our gatherings and to breath life back into music and to fill the seats and sing us into a new day of singing praises to our Lord, the future of the body is alive and prosperous; but we who are here must work in the field and clear the way for them to fill our gatherings once more.