Dreams and Realities: Navigating Life's Journeys

1. Dreaming Peter Fitch, St. Croix Vineyard Sunday, September 24, 2017

2. We mean different things • Our night-time dreams • Longing for something better (as individuals or societies) • High-praise for the captain of the football team . . . He’s such a dream! • Means of communication • Sub-conscious to conscious mind • God to the human soul

3. Numbers 12: 6-8 “Hear now My words:If there is a prophet among you,I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision.I shall speak with him in adream.7“Not so, with My servant Moses,He is faithful in all My household;8With him I speak mouth to mouth,Even openly, and not in dark sayings,And he beholds the form of the Lord.Why then were you not afraidTo speak against My servant, against Moses?”

4. Humility and Faithfulness • These seem to be keys to clearer revelations • Otherwise there’s too much opportunity for misuse of power • We grow as we wrestle with riddles (dark sayings) • What happens to Mary Ellen occasionally . . .

5. Joseph’s Life (Genesis 37) 5 Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Please listen to this dream which I have had; 7 for behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf rose up and also stood erect; and behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8 Then his brothers said to him, “Are you actually going to reign over us? Or are you really going to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

6. The dream was true . . . • It was like a calling from the future • He wasn’t ready for it yet, but it set the course of his life • In between the dream and its fulfillment, he has a hundred challenges • Finally he becomes the person that the dream needed him to be

7. One of the early board members at SSU • Philanthropist—loved to raise money for orphanage in Haiti • Gave too much, lost everything • Someone found him on a beach • Happy as a clam! • And then, watch out . . . • Some things changed, but some things remained the same (like the inner drive at the core of his being, the dream)

8. Laurence Boldt, How to Find the Work You Love Ultimately, the discovery of a life's work begins with the realization of what it means to be a human being--embracing what binds us all together and appreciating what makes each of us unique. As long as we deny that we are social beings and ignore the needs of the world, we miss the sense that our work is meaningful. We feel cut off, lonely and alienated. As long as we deny our individuality and fail to develop and express our unique talents and gifts, we miss the joy of creative self-expression. We feel frustrated, repressed and trapped.

9. Laurence Boldt, How to Find the Work You Love Simply put: To the extent that your work takes into account the needs of the world, it will be meaningful; to the extent that through it you express your unique talents, it will be joyful. • (my addition) To the extent that you invite God into it, it will be blessed by His participation

10. Current Issues (BBC Article, September 23) NFL: Donald Trump says players protesting during US national anthem should be fired (Sept. 22, speech in support of Alabama Republican Senate candidate) "Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he's fired. He's fired,'" Trump said.

11. Tweet by Jared Rizzi • "Get that son of a bitch off the field"- black man protesting racial injustice • "Very fine people"- white people demanding racial injustice

12. Matthew 6:28-33 28 And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 

13. Matthew 6:28-33 31 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

14. False dreams • Personal ambitions if they run rough-shod over others • Personal comfort that does the same • Patriotism if it leads to “my country, right or wrong” • Myself as King or Queen with others serving • My country as best with others serving

15. True Dreams • The Kingdom of God and His righteousness • Learning to serve God by following an inner longing for justice on the earth • Longing for fair and just and compassionate treatment for all • Learning to serve such a dream by caring for others and by standing against wrong-doing, wherever we find it

16. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-April 4, 1968) • “I have a dream” speech, August 28, 1963 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1YQs4Yprcc (12:15 to end) • Patty Griffin, Up to the Mountain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA6Q5-Ap3o8