Help, I’m in a Nightmare!

Last night I had a dream.

In my dream I was in a bare room facing a wall with 6 cubbies attached directly to the wall, three on top of 3.

Each cubby had an electrical outlet in the center with things plugged into the outlets.

Then, suddenly, for no apparent reason, the bottom center outlet burst into flames! I unplugged the things that were plugged in there, and the fire went out. Immediately after that, the outlet on the bottom left burst into flames as well.

As I hurriedly unplugged things from that outlet and saw that the flames were extinguished, the three outlets on top burst into flames. Each subsequent outburst was worse than the one before.

By that time I was beginning to wake up, and I decided it was time to leave dreamland, since it was not likely to get any better and would likely get worse instead.

I was wondering if I could use my dream as a word picture to teach some sort of lesson, and I think I’ve hit on an idea.

Sometimes we get so busy in life that it feels like we are running from one place to another putting out fires. Can any of you relate?

And I was wondering if any of us try to manipulate the situations, leaning on our own understanding, using our own resources to put out the fires that really only can be put out with the help of God Himself.

We may even think that if we just unplug things and become less busy, everything will be okay. And when we try it, it does seem to be better for a while. Maybe we say “no” to extra activities or quit a job and move to another field, or maybe we retire.

Then, another problem develops and then another, and another. The combination of all the problems happening at the same time is overwhelming.

I’d like to suggest that if we find ourselves in such a situation, we may be living in a dream world of sorts, a bad dream from which we need to wake up and discover a reality that we may never have known existed.

Now please hear me out. I’m not saying that the problems are not real.  They are.

Rather,  when we turn our focus away from that overwhelming set of problems and cry out to God, who alone can put out all those fires and set things straight, we find the reality of God.

We find the reality of God!

We find that He truly cares and is able to take care of things that are way beyond our capabilities.

God is just as real as the stunningly bright tops of the clouds even though we focus on the gray underside and the coming storm or the dreariness of the day.

In other words, God has been real all along, willing and able to help, but we were so focused on the problems that we were unable to experience Him.

Dear Lord, we bring our overwhelming problems to You today and ask that You make Yourself known to us.  Help us to discover the reality of Who You are, no matter how the problems are resolved.  Help us to know that even if the problems don’t turn out the way we want them to, You will be walking beside us all the way, holding our hands and extending to us the loving compassion that we all need.  In Jesus’ name we pray,

Amen

Casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully].   1 Peter 5:7  AMP

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