Light A Candle: Those Who Dream
a words & music series for Advent
If you’re just checking out my newsletter, I’m in the middle of a words & music series on Advent. It’s a series about light breaking into the darkest little corners of our hearts. Words below. Song will be sent later this week. -Kyle
“When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.” Psalm 126:1
“I don’t dream.”
Have you ever heard anyone say that? I hate when people say that. But I used to be one of those folks. Anytime someone says “I don’t dream,” it’s almost always followed by another person saying something like:
“Well actually… scientists say you dream every night, so you maybe you just can’t remember it.”
To which the dreamless one says:
“I don’t dream.”
Is it possible not to dream? Is it possible to forget our dreams? To forget how to dream?
—
During the pandemic, lots of us started learning how to dream again. I was one of those folks. I started listening to podcasts on Jung and dream analysis, reading books on the topic, and even started keeping a dream journal. It’s amazing how much you can remember about your dreams when you write them down. Vivid details emerge.
Colors emerge too. I’ve heard some folks say that people only dream in black and white, but one of my first important dreams was of this big brick house with a golden door in one of the interior rooms. It could have even been during Advent. This golden door stood out because it was one of the few recognizable colors among an otherwise monochrome snowy mountain scene. Most of the colors were a mix of white and gray, the color of melting snow. I guess that made that golden door stand out even more.
What does the golden door mean? I’m not sure I really know. But the symbol of a golden door did fill me with joy. Dreams can evoke a host of emotions from terror to exhilaration. In that crazy time in our world, though, dreams were a gift. They were a place of solace in turbulent world. Each night I felt God was trying to tell me something. Even if I didn’t understand what that message was, even if the dream was a little scary, each dream was still a source of joy.
I would talk to my counselor about some of my dreams. He seemed less interested in the content of my dreams than in the energy that the dreams gave me. There was life there. The energy in our conversations would pick up when I described them. I was excited about new insights gathered, new images to work with, new possibilities that dreams gave me.
I even started saying a simple prayer each night: “Dreamer, dream in me.” Each dream was an answered prayer, an angel or messenger lighting a candle and showing me new passageways the waking mind never sees.
Dreams are teachers.
And yet too many of us go around saying “I don’t dream.” And if you don’t dream when you are asleep, can you really dream if you are awake? I think our great religious traditions could only be birthed from cultures who dream. It’s hard to dream of a better world yet to be if you can’t dream in the world you are already in.
It’s crazy how the Christmas stories are so full of dreams. In Matthew’s gospel, an angel appears to Joseph in a dream and even tells him what name to give to Mary’s child. The Magi are warned in a dream not return to the evil Herod. Later, when Herod orders the massacre of the innocents, Joseph in a dream is given instruction for his family to become refugees in Egypt until they can safely return to their homeland. Then again, Joseph in a dream is told his family can return to their homeland.
And you say you don’t dream?
Yeah. I used to be one of those folks too.