Friday, January 08, 2010

Friday Five: Dreams

Sophia from RevGalBlogPals writes:

With the beginning of my college teaching semester I have been having some unusually intense and memorable dreams lately--especially related to my Women and Religion class. With the beginning of a new calendar year many of us are engaging with dreams of another kind: planning, brainstorming, setting intentions or resolutions, etc. And many churches will celebrate the baptism of Jesus this Sunday, reading the Gospel account of his vision of the Holy Spirit as a dove and the "beloved child" words of Godde that set him off on his mission sharing Godde's dream for the world. So let's take a few minutes on this (where I am at least) lovely snow-blanketed Friday morning and share about the many different dreams and visions in our lives.


1. Do you tend to daydream? I do. But I think that it is a largely self-serving habit, so I am trying to turn them into prayers of conscious conversation with God instead.

2. Do you usually remember your night dreams? Do you find them symbolic and meaningful or just quirky? Most of the time, they are just quirky, and usually related to something that is going on in my life. For instance, Bearded Brewer likes to sleep with the window open. In cold weather, that usually results in a dream of being in a snowbank, or lying on the ice... and then I wake up freezing!

3. Have you ever had a life changing dream which you'll never forget? No, honestly, I don't think I have.

4. Share a long term dream for one or more aspects of your life and work. How about graduating in May and starting a CPE unit shortly after? I guess this is a theme, but I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to be done with school.

5. Share a dream for 2010....How can we support you in prayer on both the short and long term dreams? I am a bit jaded, I guess. I had dreams of where I thought I would be in ministry and the doors seem fairly firmly closed. So I'm just focusing on a dose of reality and intentional listening to God's voice and direction, rather than telling God what I think is going to happen.

I do pray for our daughters' future and the places God will take them and use them. The opportunities that they will be offered will have fewer bumps in the road. So I guess my BIG dream would be for a world where equality is not fought for, but is granted, and service and work is given based on gifts, not gender.

I'd say that's a pretty BIG dream for all of us!

4 comments:

Sally said...

What a prayer Deb, I'll pray for that, and echo it for my girls too.

Dr. Laura Marie Grimes said...

What a wonderful dream for the world--God's too, for sure.

Prayers that God will make a way out of no way, as the black church says, as you face those closed doors....

Jan said...

Great cartoon! I echo your thoughts about dreams. . . .but you WILL get those goals accomplished. Better goals than dreams. . . .

Di said...

I feel like I can relate to your answer for number 5. But Deb-- you forgot your other dream for 2010: That OSU keeps up its streak against Michigan!