WATCHLIST WEEK 2:

FIELD OF DREAMS

Dreams can be so strange. Have you ever had a dream about someone where, even though you know it was all in your head and wasn’t real, it affected how you thought of that person the next time you saw them? I once had a dream about someone I worked with who is the absolute sweetest person, full of kindness and generosity. But in my dream, she was mean and bullying someone, and I had to intervene in order to keep this co-worker from hurting the feelings of the person she was talking with. I have no idea where that came from or why it happened that way in the scene in my head, but when I woke up, I realized how completely differently that scene would play out in real life. In fact, the next time I saw her in person, I told her about it and we both laughed it off as “just a silly dream,” amused at how absurd the scenario was.

It's easy to dismiss dreams as just the whimsy and imagination of our brains as we sleep, but we have seen that sometimes dreams can have meaning and even tell us truths or predict outcomes in the real world. In fact, there are several stories in the Bible where dreams were prophetic (hinting at things that would eventually happen in the future) or gave warnings or prompts that led people to take action to find someone or escape from a potentially dangerous situation. So how do we know the difference? How do you know if a dream is just something random that you’ve created in your mind or if it’s a message from God to get you to take action? When we don’t know the difference between our own minds and divine prompting, this is when it’s important to be familiar with the voice of the Holy Spirit.

In the movie “Field of Dreams,” Ray hears an audible voice that gives him vague and confusing nudges to do things and go places—action steps that he would have no reason to follow otherwise. Not only is he worried that people will think he’s crazy, but he spends most of the movie having absolutely no idea where the voice is coming from or what the prompts mean. But for us, we don’t have to be like Ray. The more we learn about God through the scripture, the more we become familiar with the character and will of God, and the more we pray and listen to the voice of the Spirit, the more we can become closer in relationship and more in tune with what steps God wants us to take in any season. Whether God speaks to you through actual dreams or an audible voice, or if the Spirit uses affirmation through scripture or conversations with people you trust, I hope we can all live our lives open to what our next steps should be, surrendering with open hands and willing hearts.