Dreamworld

I never have trusted dreams or visions, and even said on one occasion recently that God didn't communicate with me in that way, that I was just a Church of Christ guy that God couldn't use in that way. I lied to myself and that man after I thought about it later. God has communicated through a scene or a dream on several occasions. Twice I have been warned of horrendous events that would take place. On one occasion I was given a dream to tell someone else. I have several times been led to see where my efforts would lead me. So, I have learned the difference between the illusive dreams that seem to vanish as soon as I wake up or soon thereafter and the ones that stay around for me to know to analyze. I have to say that nearly all of my dreams vanish. But, on rare occasions, they sometimes have significance.

Recently, I have had a significant dream. I have not lost its details for 2 running weeks. The environment the dream was set in is not exactly one that a person would want to admit to. But, I think it is one of those that I am supposed to tell to someone else, which means that the setting of the dream is one that helps in analyzing what to tell the other person. I still don't know the direction of the details of the dream. I think it might have been as simple as a plea to fast and pray with that person. On the other hand, I think it might have been as hard as saying this person's son who has cancer is about to get worse. It could, of course, be neither of the above. It might just be an assurance that we are in league together against a common adversary. At some point, I will have to tell this person. I just trust that by that time, I will have a clearer indication of the meaning of the dream. I guess the maker of dreams will make it come clear if he wants me to deliver a message.

Well, the best thing is that the giver of dreams has not given up on me. That's a good sign for I would be devastated to think I would be out of his favor. If he trusts me with a dream, for whatever reason, he is saying that he trusts me to be a good follower of his son. For that I am thankful.

Classifications

One way to refer to what goes on in life is to call it game playing. Many events in life can be compared to playing different kinds of games. Trying to figure out what is meant by someone's actions, for example, is akin to figuring out what someone is doing with a hand of cards. When someone answers a question intelligently, (s)he is compared to being a Trivial Pursuit expert. When people pay for their actions with high stakes consequences, they have been said to have played chess because they didn't think ahead when they moved in order to anticipate the opponent's moves. If people are slow to react in a situation, they get blasted by X-box junkies because they didn't scan and kill the enemy in a split second. And if someone gets mad too easily at work or at another person, then they obviously were poor sports when they lost those beginner card games like Go Fishing.

Certainly one way to classify life's events is to compare it to games. Of course, there are all sorts of other analogies. Some people color code life or compare it to animals. Some people create dichotomies like love and war or win/lose. I don't know what life is. It seems like a nightmare at times and like an illusion at other times. Sometimes I experience ectasy and sometimes agony. The rollercoaster of life is many times applicable to the picture of my experience. Our society has 1001 ways to refer to life's events.

All I really know about life is that it ends and I want to be on the path that leads directly to the door of the next world when the path through this life comes to its end. Lead me home.

Poker

A colleague came to me today. She was asking me to play cards - symbolically. I have played Spades and Poker before, so I know a little about playing cards. She is relatively inexperienced. I don't think she spent time in college playing cards with dorm mates. So, I told her what was in the hand we were looking at and what was more than likely in the hand of our opponents. The bad news about playing cards is that sometimes you guess wrong and lose a hand. I've got about another month before the hand will be completely dealt and played. I hope that good news is the result rather than bad news, that the guess is right and we will win the stakes from the other players. In the meantime, I have my best poker face on to get that result.

Written thoughts

The written language is a contrived language in that it reflects speech, but depends on a grammar that in many instances is not the same as the spoken dialect. Punctuation is all contrived because speech does not use punctuation. So, it amazes me that ancient contact with the gods was written. Of course, the oldest material is certainly based on an oral tradition. But, as time went on, material was written as events happened, thus escaping the oral stage. Some say sacred documents are "inspired." I don't really know what that means. I guess I also wonder why a deity would want to be reduced to a contrived language instead of a vibrant living language. I intend to use language to speak of the Creator and his fabulous story of raising a son from the grave. But, to write down thoughts that rob the living language of its life and put it in a contrived form is a little short of inspired for me. Actions and talk ought to align themselves nicely. Actions and writing are not even under consideration.

Alter-dimension

The sounds of night are very much different, or at least amplified, from the sounds of the day. At night I can't see very well with my eyes, so I depend more on my hearing. I perk up when I hear sounds that are near to me. But, I discount sounds in the distance even if they are sirens or train whistles. I can always hear crickets. Of course, they're harmless. I have noticed a change in my own way of thinking. I try to move and think more like creatures who do move in the night. I think how I can move without being seen or heard. I trust senses other than sight. During the day I don't care about such movements or sensitivities.

That leads me to think about how I might move or think if I were in another dimension. What if the dimension didn't have time? What if it didn't have movement? What if light and dark didn't alternate? What if the creatures in the other dimension didn't have bodies as we do in 3 dimensions? What if our attributes were halos over our heads like bars that show the power level of a cell phone? What if one didn't have to watch evil happen in front of his or her very eyes? What if the physics of the place were so very different? What if... ad infinitum?

I think this dimension is currently called after-life. I don't know for sure, but I will know it when I get there.

Aura of Alexander

The Discovery channel shows great reinactments of great battles. I watch them just so that I can apply their symbolic strategy to some of my work situations from time to time. Recently, the channel showed several reinactments of Alexander the Great's battles. Interesting that he thought that he was the son of Zeus. The program said he went to a temple and found out he was "the son of God."

I wonder if he would have fought as fearlessly if he had thought he was only human. Without question he was a great military strategist. He thought it was because he was Zeus' son that he was so successful. As it turned out, he was merely a mortal after being wounded in battle and later dying partly as a result of a wound. Of course, the same could be said about Jesus - that he was merely mortal and ended up dying from crucifixion. Well, there is not a resurrection story about Alexander.

How do I fight life's battles? Fearlessly? What if I thought I was the son of God? Would I lead the charge that much more often and with a reckless abandon? Would I plan ahead strategically because I would be so sure of a win, being immortal? Would people around me marvel at my success? Would I be assertive with others? Of course, I have a number of years' track record in fighting life's battles. I know how all these questions are answered. The sad part is that I have been a son of God for much longer than was Alexander a son of Zeus.

The Snake Pit

I thought that I was going to be delivered from a snake pit today. Not a literal viper pit, but a symbolic one. Deliverance was not apparent by day's end. So, I spend more time around a snake that seems to strike whenever he thinks I'm not looking. I think that beheading this snake should happen, but that is not my call. Others are in this pit with me and we are trying to watch each other's back so that we don't get bitten. Today, the strongest person in the pit had a great opportunity to behead the monster. I thought it was a sign of weakness to the snake that that didn't happen. But, the one who made snakes and regular humans directed the play by giving different stage directions from the ones I anticipated. So, as long as I have to be in the snake pit, I will continue to trust that the script writer knows what we in the pit need and will send deliverance in due time.

Numbered-Unnumbered

I don't know when a person comes to the realization that truly one's days are numbered. Youth is always characterized as invincible. Sometimes, young people feel immortal. At some point, however, realization sets in that one does not live ad infinitum. My own mortality has been brought home by a son changing his residence from here to the unseen realm where he lives with his maker. So, I see the other side already. I look forward to seeing the unseen world because I know a reunion awaits. My earthly father resides on the other side too. I will join them. I don't know when I am finished here, but until I change residences, I hope to let the maker, whom my father and son see daily, guide me to a fuller life than I had imagined before I got to this place in life. I am enjoying the guidance more and more. I have not always been comfortable being led. I wanted to do the leading. That was before realization set in about numbered days. Now I know those days are exchanged for unnumbered days.

Like Father, Like Son

I had a typical father's day. It was good. I received presents, ate barbeque, had homemade ice cream, and enjoyed the day relaxing. I don't know whehter the Creator is male or female, but I guess (s)he enjoys both mother's day and father's day if (s)he is simply the essence of I AM. I get the feeling (s)he lives in perpetual father's/mother's days for surely somewhere on the earth, everyday, someone is acknowledging the Maker with gifts and honor. Which leads me to think that I, too, receive much on a daily basis that I probably overlook - encouragement, loving remarks, concern from others, kindnesses that people go out of the way just to make. That makes everyday a father's day for me. Well, I'm rich and didn't exactly know it. Rich in Father's Days. I'm better off than I ever dreamed.

Assertion Required

I have been around a younger person now for a while at work. I see this person not able to confront the people in her world that need confronting. I guess age and having raised children makes me less prone to put off asserting myself when circumstances require it. I have read a number of examples in the life of the Master Teacher in which he decided to assert what needed to be said. Print leaves out tone of voice, but I can't read some of his words without hearing assertion in it. So, adopting assertion based on his model, has been much healthier for me than holding back what needs to be said in a situation. I certainly spent the first 35 years of my life holding in words and emotions. Now, I think that some occasions require assertions to be made and I am sure going to make them. Situations seem to clear up when straightforward communication happens.

Learning for all

A colleague of mine and I were talking today about whether someone can be taught if (s)he is not willing to hear the lessons. We differed on that issue. I remember a Chinese proverb: when the student is ready, the teacher appears. I also see all around me the people who have learned much but at different stages in life. Learning is unevenly distributed, and seems to be associated to people's interests and motivations more than from cumulative effect from information. Well, no matter. People live within each moment. They may choose to learn in a few of those moments. May the One Who Made Us give us today the bread we need whether that includes learning or not.

Analogies for life

Life has 101 analogies. Forrest Gump made the most famous one probably. Tonight I had a conversation about life with a lady whom I know little about. But she told me about her life. It wasn't sad; it was just not how she had thought of it as a young woman. That's why we get such analogies such as "life's a bitch." I listened and thought in an analogy as she spoke. Life is such a long and winding road. oops, I copied a famous song on that one.

At one point she tried to engage me in telling my story, my life. I really didn't do that. I don't know why other than I didn't have an analogy for my life. I gave it some characteristics as I related one episode in my life. But, I didn't have a picture of what life was or was like. I think that probably allows the Maker of all to do more with us. If we have an analogy, we have put Him in a box. If we have no picture of how life should be, perhaps we can be more easily led.

Maybe that's a lie. Maybe if we have a clear picture of life, we can more easily move with His help inside that picture.

But maybe that's a lie, too. It would create expectations for life. That would certainly lead to disappointment.

All I know is that life doesn't really have a plan to it. At least not the plan we ourselves choose for it. And if we make choices along the way, I'm not sure that our Maker has anything but general plans for us. If we try to chart future plans based on past plans, the direction changes. Not knowing the picture of life keeps us humble, excited,wondering, suprised, and devastated. All in one rolled-up ball. oops, There's an analogy. I'm sure it's distorted. The one who made us has to be laughing.

Thoughts

I wonder. Sometimes fluency of thought comes without trying. It invades the mind even if I try to put barriers in its way. Sometimes deprivation of thought is the daily fare. It won't develop even if I try to compel its generation. So, I just sit and wonder how thoughts happen and whether the thought process is controlled by something physical or metaphysical. Much can be said about language and thought. But inspiration and imagination are caught up in this land within the mind. I hope that I can tell the difference between the two and let them guide me to a fuller appreciation of life and understanding.

The Neat-EST Thing

Many times our conversations start with, "I heard the neatest thing," or "I saw the neatest thing." In Greece 2 millenia ago, they had a single word for this "neatest thing" idea. It was used in the same way that we use the expression today. Usually people were pretty excited about something they wanted to announce to someone else. They wanted everyone to hear their good news. Many times, in fact, the translation of the Greek word is "good news."

But I wonder if that expression is getting the idea across in today's world. We live in a world of news, all kinds of news. We can get news from the war front with embedded reporters. That's pretty sensational. Then there are all the stories that are on one end of the spectrum or the other, sensational in one sense or another. No stories get told if they are average. Usually, good stories don't get told at all. But if they are sensational enough, they get published. So when it comes to telling someone else about "the neatest thing," we use the superlative form for "neat." Then people listen.

So, if I have a story I would like to tell or if it's not a whole story at all, but pieces of a story that I can tell over a period of time that equal a whole story, then I have just the phrase. I have this "fabulous story" to tell. In reality I do. It's a fabulous story because I become healed after the most outrageous darts are thrown at me by life. It's a fabulous story because at the heart of it is a clear message of reconciliation that I can have with others and with someone who died in my place. Fabulous, really, remarkable indeed. I think translations need to get busy clearly communicating what people in this society will listen to - something sensational, something of note, something fabulous and remarkable. It's just the neatest thing.

Credentials

I saw an article in the paper about this country's brightest and best 2 days ago. While I cannot altogether identify with that elite group of people, I have had enough academic experience that I wish I could tell them what they are headed for. Oh, they will have many compliments paid to them in life. And they will stand tall beside each sheepskin they receive. And many of them will make money, some of them hand over fist. They will be in positions of authority or in the rat race climbing ever upward. But, I wish not to tell them any of this because it is obvious and is what they strive to attain.

I wish I could tell them, instead, that life brings so many unexpected curves, that there is only one way to make it through life with any confidence. And it's not the way of the scientific method. It's the way that is unseen, unknown. It's the way where the greatest guides are those with the greatest confidence in seeing the unseen, knowing the unknown. The greatest credential is the mercy shown from the creator for the human condition. The greatest joys are in reconciliation. The greatest day is the day one enters the portal from this world to the next.

Of course, they will all have to find this out on their own as we all do. May the one who stays home to draw us to him, find many seekers to draw to him.

Giving Candy

Giving encouragement to people is much like giving candy to kids. Some show that they needed or appreciated it while others show no emotion at all and say nothing in return. But giving encouragement falls into the bigger category of just giving. Since giving reflects the giver's willingness to connect to a higher, nobler cause, how a person receives the "candy" doesn't matter. The receiver is under a different set of expectations than the giver. It's not the giver's problem. Now that I have thought through this for the hundredth time and come up with the same answer, I just need to get more candy to give and give away.

Card Hands

Playing the cards that are dealt is tricky at best. In a real card game, a person has to know well the players he is playing against in order to win very many rounds. Playing the cards life deals is tricky too. I don't know how many rounds there are in life, but one does have to study the different environments he is in in order to win very many rounds. Now, what winning means to a person is an altogether different matter. But even if it only means walking away from a round satisfied (for whatever reason), then still playing the cards is tricky. Our self-images are tied up in winning and losing the rounds we play. Sometimes, even, just playing the round instead of folding is monumental and laudable. Well, enough said. I have to get back to my card game. I'd tell you what I'm holding, but I don't want to tip my hand. Bluffing is part of the self-image after all.

Mismeasure

The state measures how much students know about a subject. They do it once a year in most grades. I cannot figure out for the life of me what they think they are measuring. And I cannot figure out the mentality that says measuring everything is necessary. It sounds much like a control freak wanting to call all the shots just because he or she doesn't trust anyone else to call shots. One of my favorite books is called The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould. It definitely raises the question of the existence of intelligence in the first place and the question of whether or not it can be measured if it exists in the second place.

When I deal with my own inner person, I know that growth takes place over time. But, that growth has a learning curve and some failures along the way. I don't try to gauge it once a year. I sometimes go a long time without thinking that growth has or should have taken place. I sometimes start seeing growth spurts everywhere I look. But, constant measuring of something that takes place internally is probably not a good idea. Recognition of growth I support - if needed, if wanted. I hope the state never makes it its business to deal with anything other than knowledge. They have totally screwed up the knowledge business. I prefer the great delight I get when occasionally I "see" growth of some aspect or another of my inner person.

Designs

Someone challenged me tonight to think of something that happened to me that wasn't random. I do believe in the randomness of many of people's activities; my friend doesn't. He thinks everything has a purpose. We can disagree and still be friends. That's a beauty all its own. But, I also believe that not everything is random. So, I was split-second quick to recount a recent event that happened to me with crystal clear certainty that it was not a random event; it was an event that without doubt had the stamp of the Designer on it. I am thankful that the design is in place in my memory. From time to time, I see the indelible print of the Designer, but many times and for many years I have probably missed out on design. Well, I don't know if I did or not. Some designs I see are seen by mature eyes which take years to develop. Other designs are ones that just were not on the road I was traveling at the time, so they weren't available for my eyes to see. Some designs are dictated by experience, so whenever it is in life that you get that experience, you see the design. Anyway, I am suddenly grateful for the designs I get to see in life and look forward to seeing as many as I can from here on out.

Unique Philosophy

I was angry this Saturday. I created a situation, but not all by myself. I wanted to march right in to someone (who lives far away) and just have a word or two. That would have been disastrous, probably, and would have worsened the situation. So, I did not do anything, except to call one person who could say something to the person I wanted to contact. But, that person was gone for the day. So, nothing happened. I am reminded of the words to a song by Matthew West. "Here the strong survive and the rest just disappear. But your (God's) philosophy is more unique. You are only strong when I am weak." So, I guess that I need to let The Strong One handle this situation so that I can continue living in this newly defined strength according to a different philosophy than the one I tried and failed at.