My next major dream came on July 31st, 2008. It also felt like a message for our church family, as well as myself. Again, I am sharing this as I believe it will provide as a good reminder, or gentle rebuke to many of us.

I was gathered with a large crowd at a funeral. There was a general feeling of indifference. I wasn't even sure who had died. Some one in the crowd finally stood up, and spoke up. He said, "it's time to face the facts, this person is dead." I saw coloured fabric laid out on the floor, which represented 3 parts of life. As he bends down to rearrange the middle fabric (which is blood red), the spokesperson then says, "the road to real life is going to be the hardest to talk about." He then tells everyone to start gathering rocks. Apparently rocks had been requested for the funeral but there weren't enough there. Everyone obediently leaves and gathers rocks in pails and bring them back in. At this point I wake up with the song "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" clearly going through my head.

Jesus, lover of my soul
Jesus, I will never let you go
You've taken me from the miry clay
You've set my feet upon the rock, and now I know
I love you, I need you
Though my world may fall, I'll never let you go
My Saviour, my closest friend
I will worship you until the very end

In praying over this dream some serious things were brought to light. The nameless person at the funeral was in fact Jesus. I believe the indifference at the beginning of the dream symbolizes our indifference to the death of Jesus. People were more interested in themselves and what was going on around them. When the spokesperson said that it was time to face the facts he was referring to the sacrifice Jesus made, and that He needs to be our focus. The red fabric, surprisingly enough (ha ha) represented the blood of Christ. I believe the other fabrics were a symbol of earthly life and heaven, but they weren't as important. This said to me that we need to focus on the path to "real life." Real life is found in the blood. Real life is found in Christ. The rocks spoke of our foundation. Whether it's not strong enough or we don't have enough of one, I'm not sure. There was a display of great obedience, however, when the people in this dream were rebuked-which is what I hope (and I believe God hopes) this message will bring-obedience and reverence to a deserving God. As far as the song in my head when I awoke, I think it was meant as a reminder of how we should feel about God and what he has done for us. A reminder of who Christ is suppose to be to us.

Another interesting thing jumped out at me while going over this dream again for my blog. We were busy having Christ's funeral. We weren't even at the point of celebrating his rising again. That sure saddens my heart that we could be so wrapped up in ourselves that, not only do we forget about Jesus and what He did for us, but that we also forget about the great joy His overcoming death can, and should, bring us. It's like God was saying that some of us haven't even reached that stage of great joy, we are too busy with ourselves.

Also recently brought to mind is the word from Revelation 3:14-22. God asked the Laodiceans to give up what they thought was important and valuable and exchange it for what really matters. They didn't even realize that they were wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. The believed they were good Christians.

I pray that this dream will also speak to you. That it may prompt you to sit down and ask Jesus, "have I been focusing more on earthly things than you? Am I missing out on the great joy you want me to have?" I hope, of course, that you can answer "no" to both of these questions, but if you can't, may this be the gentle reminder you need to shift your focus back to the "real life."