Dreams & Visions

Dreams and visions is a topic that comes up repeatedly here in Robbymac-world. I did some quick checking from the first few weeks after I started this blog, and discovered that even in this blog's infancy, the topic of dreams and the death of dreams was an early theme (Light the Fire Again and Blurred Vision were two such posts). Unfortunately, Haloscan doesn't archive comments, which is a shame because there were 40-50 comments per post on dreams, and many of them were heartfelt and insightful.

What DID come up repeatedly was that many people had given up on their dreams, or seen their dreams die in some way, and were trying to figure out what to do with that. For the majority, the decision (at that time) was to explain away their former dreams as immature or wishful thinking. The pain that they'd gone through as their dreams died was too much to consider going through again.

It was almost like an X-Files kind of moment: people wanted to believe that their dreams and hopes were from God, but lacking evidence, were losing hope and trying to make sense out of life -- if I may be permitted to use the dreaded "post" prefix -- post-dreams/vision.

One of my favourite Christian satirists is Steve Taylor, whose song Since I Gave Up Hope, I Feel A Lot Better speaks of soothing one's soul by shutting ones' self down.

He says, "Ideals? Uncouth! Fatalism needs youth
Eat well, floss right; Keep the hungry out of sight
Save face - nip and tuck,
Praise yourself and pass the buck
And don't forget the best advice: Everybody's got a price"

Life unwinds like a cheap sweater
But since I gave up hope, I feel a lot better
And the truth gets blurred like a wet letter
But since I gave up hope, I feel a lot better

While the world winds down to a final prayer
Nothing soothes quicker than complete despair
I predict by dinner I won't even care
Since I gave up hope, I feel a lot better

Let me be the first to admit that the approach that Steve is satirizing in this song is an approach that I have personally used in the past. I'm not pointing fingers; I'm pointing out that I've done this before, and it's possible that some other wounded dreamers have done and are doing the same thing now.

Specifically, we have given up hope in even having dreams as a kind of anesthesia to numb the pain, and to justify our non-pursuit of vision.

Dream Thief is the closing song on Trisha Robins' newest CD (I was privileged to play bass on this project), and Trisha's insightful and honest lyric poses a very different response to the death of dreams:

Like a sleep that lasts forever
So is a broken dream
That never wakens again
In the heart of a lover
Colours fade away
And all that's left is grey
That's when the eyes of the hopeless one
They begin to close

But who are you and I to say
And take the dream away?
We only have this life, this day, to give

Dream Thief is honest in its admission that dreams have died or been squashed out of people; a great many people currently in the emerging conversation -- including (maybe especially) post-charismatics -- have had their dreams and visions thoroughly trounced. We blame the church, or at least, inadequate and unChristlike models of the church. And certainly, there are people from these churches that have acted in decidedly unChristlike ways.

On the other hand, when we focus on the human element, and decide in the aftermath to explain away our need for dreams and vision, we may be missing an extremely important recognition of the spiritual component:

1. We have an Enemy. He hates us and wants us to renounce the faith or at least shut up. He comes to "steal and kill and destroy". (John 10:10)

2. We have a Savior. He loves us, and wants us to "have life, and have it to the full" (also John 10:10 hmmm...). And part of the promise that He gave at the inauguration of the Church was -- and is:

In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy. (Acts 2:17-18)

We just celebrated the Resurrection yesterday with the words, "He is Risen! He is Risen INDEED!"

I hope that this coming year brings many stories of resurrected dreams and dreamers.