The Dream Whip

Unless the Lord builds the house,

those who build it labor in vain. 

Unless the Lord watches over the city,

the watchman stays awake in vain.

 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest,

eating the bread of anxious toil;

for he gives to his beloved sleep.

– Psalm 127:1-2

To sleep, perchance to dream, as Hamlet says, is indeed a gift.  Hamlet is meditating upon death, as sleep is a little death.  They are intertwined, speaking one, of the other. 

 I don’t think God is un-American or French or anything.  He doesn’t tell us to be indolent or unconcerned, to cast aside vigilance and industry.  Jesus encourages us to watchfulness, but it is to watch and pray.  Guarding our lives, our families, and our possessions, laboring defiantly to build towers to reach heaven, apart from God, these are futile endeavors.  

One thing I have learned from trying to grow my own food is that I cannot defy nature.  Sometimes I can put plants out early, sow seeds early and do all right.  The ground will warm quickly, there won’t be a late frost and everything will germinate, develop,  and prosper.  Generally, though, it is better to work with the seasonal averages if I don’t want to have seed rot in the ground or frost kill off or stunt my plants.  

Times and seasons are important in seeking God.  Immorality and unrighteousness are never in season, but sometimes even our good works can be out of season.  We labor, we struggle, we plow and plant and water and nothing happens, or our efforts backfire on us.  Though we should not trust too much to appearances, our apparent failures may occur, not because we have done the wrong thing, but because we have done it at the wrong time.  We can get out of sync with the rhythm of God’s work.  

God’s rhythm includes resting and recreating, sleeping and dreaming.  Gagdad mentioned that Western Civilization may be built on Paul’s dream of the Macedonian Call:

And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.  And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.  So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.  And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”  And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.  (Acts 16:6-10, emphasis added)

I think that our lives are built on dreams and visions, as well.  They don’t even have to be remembered; most probably are not.  Something in us pushes this way or that and we find ourselves interacting with people in places we can’t recall so much as dreaming of, though, somehow, it seems familiar.   

We discover 

and recover 

what we sought 

all unaware.   

Jesus tells us that the way to destruction is broad and easily found, while the narrow way is often obscure with no wide loads.  We think of these ways as descending – downhill to hell, versus ascending, climbing up the rough side of the mountain to heaven.  In these symbols, the Lord is telling is that, one way, He is with us, while the other way, we are on our own.  He is the Way, and we have to pay attention to the signs if we are going to get on the right road.  

It is a scientific fact that sleep-derivation will kill a man.  Not to dream God's dream is to miss God's path and be out of God's time, and to miss the Way of Life is a sleep from which we will not so soon awake.