Posts tagged dreams
Your old men will dream dreams
0I don’t really consider myself an old man, but I do find that God speaks to me through dreams quite a bit.
I haven’t written about it here, but my grandfather passed away near the end of May. As I wrote in my journal, it was “a moment I’ve been dreading most of my adult life. But it’s here, and so is God, and because of that, it’s okay. Granddad is not suffering anymore. He’s with the Lord. And I will see him again.”
The night after he died, I had the following dream. I have always known Granddad to be a believer, so as his health declined I never fretted about his eternal estate. After sharing this dream with my parents, they told me that as Granddad breathed his last in this world (after having suffering for so long), he had a smile on his face.
Here’s the dream:
I saw a sprawling property with multiple buildings and fields. It was very pleasant—the sun was shining brightly, the trees were green and swaying in the breeze, and the day was comfortably warm. The sky was a blazing, rich blue, full of bright white puffy clouds. Granddad was outside tending the property, preparing one area for some sort of race that he was hosting (I had the sense that it was a children’s event – the track he was creating was small). He was clearing debris from the field. He was not a young man – he looked older. Not as old as he did as of late, but the way I remember him in his 60′s. But he was hale, and spry as a man in his prime. He strode briskly around the property, shirt off, gloves on his hands, work boots on his feet. At one point, there was a stump in the ground he needed to clear. With incredible, superhuman strength, he grabbed it with both hands, effortlessly snapped the trunk way from the roots, and hurled it aside. As I observed this, I thought, “I’m in my 30′s and there’s no way I could do that!” I was concerned for his heart condition as I watched him work so hard, but nobody around me was worried. I looked at his face, and he looked back at me briefly – he was not smiling, but he seemed intent on his work. And deeply content.
The Mind’s Fourth Watch
0At night
when the mind at rest
becomes a theatre of the soul
I saw a Great Lion
The marble stare of His eyes
as the sun through a magnifying glass
pinpointed against a small, dry leaf
compelled to smoke and burn.
Fearsome Hunter
King’s mane, thick paw, and bristly fur
Reared up not to pounce or devour
Nor to strike down or shed blood
But to embrace
Me.
Upon whom He doted
More than young who wait at mother’s hip
More than brothers who stand in war
More than lovers whose agony is to reach from afar
I am His frail prey, but at my word the hunt stopped.
Hurt, betrayal,
bewilderment, sadness.
“Why can’t we have a relationship?”
No, Lion, that would not be proper.
Then the air was pulled tight
And I feared the answer of this tender One
And the mind’s fourth watch ended, leaving me to wonder,
What am I really afraid of?
Thoughts on Hell, Part I
0“Why, oh WHY, Mr. MonT-SteR, would you write about such a morbid and terrifying subject?”
Well, friends, I have to confess that I don’t really like doing it. As I mentioned in my last post, I feel compelled to do so. You’ll see why as you read on.
I need to begin by first relating a conversation I had in college with someone who found herself increasingly at odds with the Christian faith she had grown up with. For the sake of this post, I’ll refer to her as Mona. Mona’s boyfriend at the time was an ardent atheist, and a very bright one at that. No doubt his questions and points of disagreement with Christianity seemed insurmountable to her, and so Mona teetered between belief and apostasy.
A chance meeting between the two of us in the hall of our dorm gave us the opportunity to chat, which in turn brought up matters of faith (or the lack thereof). Eventually, Mona confessed that she was nearly prepared to chuck her faith altogether.
“Really?” I asked, with an alarm I couldn’t hide. “How come?”
“Because there are things about Christianity that I don’t think are right,” she said. “For example, I just don’t believe that a good and loving God would send people to Hell.”
We both had classes to attend, so time didn’t allow for any further discussion on the matter until later. But I knew enough to understand that Mona’s objection was ill-formed — it didn’t accurately reflect a Christian understanding of judgment and punishment of the wicked.
“Well,” I replied, “I have to say that I disagree with you on that. If you’d like, we can talk about it later.”
Mona said she’d like that, and we went our separate ways.
I’m sorry to say that a combination of busyness and shifting social circles made our parting that day a permanent one. I never did get to talk with Mona about Hell or any of the other Christian doctrines she was struggling with. But our short conversation serves to illustrate what a stumbling block the notion of Hell can be to belief in Christ. Millions of people ask Mona’s question every day: How can a good and loving God allow people to suffer unspeakable horrors in Hell for all eternity?
But tMR readers asked another question at the beginning of my post: Why write about this of all things? Well, I actually pretended that 1) tMR actually has readers, and 2) said pretend readers actually asked that question. Pathetic as that may be, here’s my two-part answer:
- I want to explore the biblical case for the reality of Hell. Is it solid, tenuous, or inconclusive? Through that process, I hope to present an accurate picture of Hell that may serve to remove an obstacle to belief in Christ for some who read The MonT-SteR REPORT.
- I am embarking on this project because I recently had two extremely vivid and disturbing dreams about Hell. I belong to the camp in Christianity that believes God still chooses dreams as a means of communication that is both secondary and subservient to the record of Scripture. Hence, I feel that the dreams I had may reflect the reality of Hell in some measure. But I only want to discuss them in light of what the Bible has to say on the matter, since it is the authoritative standard for Christian faith and praxis.
You want to know what my dreams were, don’t you? Hey, I’m not gonna show all my cards at once. I’ve got to give you folks a reason to come back!
Stay tuned for Part II….
Blessings,
Rob
aka The MonT-SteR
Bizarro.
0Hear me retell a strange dream I had last night about current political theater in this 3rd installment of From the MonT-SteR’s Mouth.