I had a dream:
There is a huge waterfall. I am looking up at the oceans of water coming over the edge of the cliff. The water explodes at the bottom, the impact of which creates all kinds of noise, mist and turbulence. The water spreads over the landscape, completely covering everything. Then I heard a voice say:
This waterfall is a picture of God. You cannot see above the edge of the cliff. The Source is there but you cannot perceive it. It is infinite and therefore beyond the finite mind to grasp. The water falling and hitting the earth is the Incarnation. God emptied himself and became one with all flesh. The water spreading out over the landscape and covering all things is the Spirit, that has accomplished the purpose of the Incarnation.
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I had a nap and had a dream. I am in a huge library… the kind with ladders and balconies. There are shelves of books… thousands of books. The shelves are assembled like a pyramid. Way up on the top shelf there is only one book. I am so curious that I make every effort to get to it because I know it is the most important book of all books. All the other books are subservient to that book. I must see it and learn what it has to say. After much effort, I reach the top shelf, get the book and open it. All the pages are blank save one. On that page is written in very simple letters, “LOVE”. It is not a syrupy, sentimental type of thing, but serious, sober and filled with deep mystery.
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Morning everyone. The winner of the last contest is Michelle over at Abundant Blessings in Texas. Congrats! Thanks everyone for commenting.
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So I started a contest on Wednesday. All you have to do is go to this post on DREAMS and make a comment. The prize is one of my original watercolor paintings. Contest ends midnight today! Good luck and have fun. I’m posting regularly today, so stay tuned.
So I started a contest yesterday. All you have to do is go to this post on DREAMS and make a comment. The prize is one of my minimalistic paintings. Contest ends tomorrow midnight. Good luck and have fun. I’m posting regularly today, so stay tuned.
I’m putting my original watercolor and ink painting, “Solitary Tree”(2.5″x3.5″), up for a prize in this contest. All you have to do is comment on this post and your name will be entered into the draw. The contest closes Friday midnight Atlantic time and the winner will be announced Saturday. You can comment as much as you like, but your name will only be entered once. Good luck, and have fun!
I do not presume to be an expert on dreams or dream analysis. But I have been studying dreams for over 20 years. In 1985, one of my professors strongly urged me to attend the Jungian Institute in Switzerland. It never came to be, but it encouraged me to take dreams seriously, to study the science of dreams, and to develop the art of analyzing them. I have found understanding my own dreams indispensable in my own life, and I have helped many people understand their own. Having said that, you can take or leave what I’ve written here. But I hope it helps, and if you haven’t taken dreams seriously before, I hope this might encourage you to do so starting today. Here are 10 basic steps to help you understand your dreams:
- Write the dream as completely as possible in present tense. Some people keep three columns: one for the dream; the middle one to list the symbols; the third to write some interpretations of the symbols and the general meaning. Some people tell me that they don’t have dreams. Not true. Everybody dreams. Others say that they don’t remember their dreams. That can change. You will be surprised, once you start becoming more intentional about your dreams, just how many you will have and remember in a night. Be as detailed and accurate as possible. Sometimes the smallest detail in a dream can be the most important. Writing in the present tense helps keep it fresh and alive. Keep a journal handy. Sometimes I’ll wake up in the middle of the night from a dream. If I want to pay attention to this particular one, I’ll write it into my journal right away. Read More
Comment on this post and I’ll enter your name in a draw to win my original watercolor painting, 4″x6″, called “Green Field Fence”. The contest ends Sunday night midnight Atlantic Time. I’m doing it differently this time: I’m not sending out a general email invitation to enter the contest. Whoever comments, comments. If you find this contest, go for it! Good luck!
Here goes: I’m not sure what’s going on with me. A friend of mine who has a prophetic gift (yes, I believe in this) called me the other day. He said, “You are heading into a time when you are going to be taken deeper. Very deep. The restrictions and boundaries that have been placed on your mind, heart and soul are going to be removed.” My experience in the past has been that times of going deeper have not been all that pleasant. Painful, in fact. So I feel a bit of fear and trepidation. I’m feeling at once sad and anticipatory. I’m trying not to be anxious, but trying to let this current take me. Lisa tried to encourage me this morning by reminding me that the accumulation of sorrow is probably contributing to my sadness, so take that into consideration. I know she’s right. But I am being pulled. I’m being pulled down. I do feel the restrictions and boundaries on my mind are being strained against, and that they are going to give. I hear the fence creaking. Last night, as I was going to sleep, I sensed the Spirit saying that I am going to have to finally, finally let go of my anthropomorphic ideas of God and even Jesus, because these are not them. We no longer know Christ according to the flesh. Also, all I want is community. That’s it. But the cultural and religious idea of what a church is pressures on us incredibly. If you fall into that trap, the teeth are deadly. I just don’t want to go there, which may mean certain failure as a church according to this world’s standards. I am on the brink of something terrible. May praise abound!
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Jung, in his captivating autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, writes about a dream he had early in his life in which he sees a big turd fall out of heaven and crash through the roof of a church, totally demolishing it. He didn’t fully understand the meaning of this crude dream. Later though, he writes about his father, who was a clergyman:
Once I heard him praying. He struggled desperately to keep his faith. I was shaken and outraged at once, because I saw how hopelessly he was entrapped by the Church and its theological thinking. They had blocked all avenues by which he might have reached God directly, and then faithlessly abandoned him. Now I understand the deepest meaning of my earlier experience: God Himself had disavowed theology and the Church founded upon it…
He even noticed the parishioners, even as early as when he took his first communion. He noticed that when people left after the final prayer they were neither depressed nor moved by joy, but had the look on their face, “So that’s that!” He realized that they clung desperately to the God of love out of fear of facing the darker side of God. Jung got tired of the religious community:
The phrase meant nothing to me at all, for the habitual church goers struck me as being far less community than the ‘worldly’ folk. The latter may have been less virtuous, but on the other hand they were much nicer people, with natural emotions, more sociable and cheerful, warmer-hearted and more sincere.
He writes about another theologian:
Whenever there is a reaching down into innermost experience, into the nucleus of personality, most people are overcome by fright, and many run away. Such was the case with this theologian. I am aware of course that theologians are in a more difficult situation than others. On the one hand they are closer to religion, but on the other hand they are more bound by church and dogma. The risk of inner experience, the adventure of the spirit, is in any case alien to most human beings.
I read this book first back in 1989 and wrote notes from it in my journal. They left a lasting impression on me. I know, I feel what Jung means. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to blaze my own trail, trying to discover how to pastor a community of people that is authentic, courageous, genuine, real, and not afraid of direct experience.
The dream-like photograph is a creation of my friend, Amaris, and is titled, “On Guard”.
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David Hayward is an artist trapped in a pastor's body, stripping to the essential.
