Do dreams mean anything?

Last night I dreamed of being in a European country and before being allowed to leave, I had to trace every penny I spent to discern the tax I owed. I was given a device much like a credit card-smart phone combination. It started with the beginning of my vacation and gave alternate choices of where I traveled next or what I purchased. If I remembered incorrectly, it kicked me back until I got it right.

This was a frustrating dream. The tax device came with a thick magazine of instructions that read like most tax forms. Other people tried to help me. By the time I woke up, I’d gone through the process so many times that I wanted to toss it and escape to the border.

This morning’s devotional verses brought a chuckle and make a good point:

“In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul. My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.” (Isaiah 26:8–9)

How much better to yearn for God in the night than to try and escape an almost nightmare of a complicated dream. Not that God is simple, but even without being able to figure Him out, I can still worship Him rather than wanting to pitch any situation I’m in, dreaming or awake, and running away from it.

Sometimes dreams come from puzzles and situations in life. Sometimes, like my father used to say, they come from eating too much pizza! I rarely try to figure out the meaning of my dreams. If they are important, God seems to make that clear. Most of them are silly nonsense and I often wake up laughing aloud.

As for this dream, there is a purpose in God giving me these verses about seeking Him in the night. Some of the psalmists also write of yearning for God in the night. Is the person sleeping or awake? I’ve had a few dreams where God was at work and startled me awake, but most of my encounters with Him are when I am praying and His presence becomes obvious and precious. These are few. These verses heighten my desire to seek Him.

Isaiah says that when God’s judgments are present, then people learn His righteousness. This suggests a rebuke, a correction. It is like God to do that in private, not to make my follies known publicly but to correct and instruct me when I am alone. Nighttime for me is the best time; no distractions and no one else listening.

I didn’t get much from that dream about the complexity of figuring out what I owed in taxes except that I realize how frustrated I am of my complex brain. It is always set on ‘fast and furious’ and makes me tired. God is telling me that I need to focus on Him and more directly seek Him when life comes at me like a freight train. If I must review what I have done, where I’ve spent my resources, far better to do it with His hand holding mine — in the night when He has my full attention. Then I will not feel like running away but be able to slow down and see the righteousness that He is teaching me.

^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, faith in You is never dull. Yet thoughts of You always slow my crazy brain, give me pause, help me rest. If nothing else, dreams like that one last night, and Scripture passages like this one in the morning show me that waiting for You and seeking You are far more profitable than the frantic and frustrating exercise of trying to figure out life’s challenges without You!