Dream Away

I never quite know what to make of dreams. Some people say they are full of symbols that mean something specific. Some say they are just thoughts left over from the day. Some say they are messages from God. I had a cenversation with a friend about a dream I had recently and wanted to share a bit about what I think God was sharing with me…

I was driving back to Iowa to visit college friends and reminisce about the "good ol' days" (odd seeing as I just left them about a month ago!!)

When I arrived, I went with a good friend of mine to help him unload some boxes of donated food at a foodbank out in the middle-of-nowhere (not hard to find in Iowa!)

We took box after box into this HUGE foodbank.
Hallways went every which direction and there were tiny rooms crowded with desks and chairs and big rooms that stood completely empty.

Soon I got lost and couldn't find my friend anywhere.

I looked and looked in these confusing rooms and hallways, but he was no where to be found.

Fianlly, I just gave up and went outside. I began talking with a lady and her daughter. However, they had no idea where my friend was either. As we sat and talked I got this giant splinter in my finger from the pinic table we sat on.

There was only a tiny piece that stuck out of my finger, but when I pulled it out it turned out to be a thick piece of wood that had been lodged in my finger.

Finally I texted my friend to see where he was, and he informed me that his band had a concert in Illinois that weekend. He had left me…alone at a huge food bank in the middle of nowhere Iowa with complete strangers and all my stuff was inside his locked car.

Through the conversation these ideas surfaced as possible meanings of this simple yet puzzling dream…

1. Iowa– I have lived in Iowa for 4 years now. As much as I hate the winter and the lack of mountains, I love the people I have met there. People I consider friends and family. I don't want to lose those people, but there is a time to move on…not to forget them but to embrace what they gave to me and move forward.

2. middle-of-nowhere– We were taking gifts of food to people we didn't know in a place we had never been.

Kind of like my real life. I have never been to Cambodia, but good friends and purposeful life events have showed me God wants me to go there. I feel like I am heading off to the middle-of-nowhere, but really I am heading straight into the middle of God's heart!

3. box after box– We took food. In the dream, it was physical cans of food. In my real life couldn't it be a spiritual, eternal food that, with God's help, my team and I will take to many people who do not know anything about Him?

4. HUGE foodbank– How overwhelmed I felt. Lost in this place that I couldn't figure out. I didn't recognize a pattern or anything familiar.

My real-life HUGE foodbank is Cambodia…I won't 'get' the culture. I won't understand. I will feel lost and overwhelmed. But I think the rooms someday will be filled with faces of women and children who I have grown to love. The rooms won't be empty forever. They're just waiting to be filled!

5. giant splinter– Don't splinters hurt? I cringe even thinking about them.

But, I will face splinters in Cambodia…tough situations, darkness, pain, sorrow, loneliness. And in the moment they will hurt. There is no way to avoid them. They may even leave a small scar. But when looking back on them, there will be a lesson learned from them. And that scar will serve as a reminder of that lesson. And God will never give me bigger splinters than He can get out…and He'll heal the wound left behind.

6. had a concert in Illinois– Well, I was beside myself that my friend left me in the parking lot of that foodbank. How could he just go on and leave me behind?

I am going to Cambodia. I cannot expect all of my friends to just stop everything they are doing, to skip all of their band concerts to read my blog and Skype me all day long. And I cannot be on Skype all day long. I must learn to find a way to appreciate my friendships while still living in the moment in which I am currently in.

It may have just been a dream, but I think God was giving me a heads up for what I may go through in the coming months. A longing to fulfill His will but a dragging of feet at giving up the past. But He will teach me the balance and He will be by my side…in the past, in the present, and in the future.

"You won't spend the rest of your life chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God." ~1 Peter 4:2