Attention To the Dreamer

Since I was in junior high I can remember being very intrigued by dreams.  The story of Joseph interpreting the Pharaoh's dreams always stood out to me and made me wonder, how come God doesn’t talk to me in dreams?  I’ve always been a detailed dreamer and when I write out my dreams it takes me a while because I remember a lot of information.  So, about a year ago I went into a Barnes and Nobles Bookstore and found an awesome leather bound journal to record my dreams in.  I remember I had done something similar when I was younger, but I fell out of it.  This happens to be something that occurs with me frequently… that is the falling out of plans, because I started to forget to log my dreams again.

I haven’t had too many dreams that I can remember since being here in Peru, so these past two weeks when I remembered several of my dreams I took notice.  Usually, my dreams don’t really connect with real life.  They may, in a under-the-hood kind of way, be a glimpse into one’s conscience, but these have been dreams that have directly tied into my life.  In one dream I had I bought a car and was driving it around, the next morning my mother sent me an email saying they got a new car!  When I looked it up online I realized it looked a lot like the car I had dreamed of.  Crazy thing is, I remember looking at the odometer in the car and it had 40,000 or so miles on it (I don’t remember the exact number, only that it looked something like 4*,***… does that make sense?)  and when I asked my mom how many miles this car has she said 43,000!  This dream really started to make me pay attention and the next dream I had helped me make a decision about a difficult situation. 

Well, last night I had another dream.  I dreamed that I was being persecuted for doing our mission work in Peru and we were being sent to be executed.  While we were walking I remember thinking how I didn’t want to be a missionary anymore if it meant I was going to die.  I caught myself instantly and knew that I had to be faithful to God and trust in Him.  I remember I was crying and was in hysterics, but I kept telling myself that God wasn’t going to leave me.  I think we escaped, but we ended up getting caught again and then we escaped and then I woke up.  There’s a lot of other details, but that’s the gist. 

I was rather freaked out when I woke up, to say the least, knowing how relevant the others were that I have had recently.  I knew this morning that I needed to write these dreams down in my dream journal (which I so happen to bring with me).  When I sat down to write the down I looked at the last entry… September 22, 2009.  Today is September 21, 2010!  I know it looks like a coincidence, but I think God is really calling me to pay attention to my dreams and this is how.  I never thought I would ask you to pray for me like this and quite honestly I would think I were crazy on the other side of this, but pray that if God is trying to use dreams to talk to me that I would have the ability and wisdom to interpret them correctly.