Dreaming

A dream can be such a strange thing. Somehow, my brain makes up (I presume) this bizzare story out of my memories and thoughts and what I’ve been pondering before I went to sleep. I find myself taking a tour through a building where I have to slide under the door to get from one room to another, or have to jump into a pool to get to work. And oddly enough, the absurd rules in this dream world don’t seem peculiar to me while I’m in the dream!

So what if you had a dream that was not weird, but was real and intense? What if in the dream you were not doing crazy things like I described above, but were experiencing a vivid reality that was very different from the dull reality of day-to-day life? Perhaps it could be an extension of your five senses: You can see colors that go beyond the normal visual spectrum the human eye can see. Maybe you can taste sound, hear color, see music, smell virtue, feel a fragrance. That would be an amazing experience!

In my last post, I talked about that longing for home, for that place I’ve been missing for so much of my life. I also discussed it in this post about heaven. That longing is still the desire for the peace of heaven. I know from 1 Corinthian 2:9 that “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” So I tap Chris Rice yet again for his outstanding song, Deep Enough To Dream, from his 1997 album of the same name, and hear his story of a deep, intensely real dream that is not silly and not strange, and is so wonderful that you don’t want to leave the dream; you want it to be the new reality.

Tags: Chris Rice, dream, Heaven

When I left home to go to attend my freshman year of college, I was pumped. I was leaving my smaller world and moving into a wider reality of independance. It was the great adventure of my life!

… and after a month at college, five hundred miles away from my parents, my brother, and my sister, I was so homesick that I almost couldn’t stand it. The adventure hadn’t soured or gone bad. School wasn’t a terrible experience; in fact, I was rather enjoying it. I had made a few friends, could sleep and eat on my own schedule (for the most part), and the classes were actually interesting. But I really missed my own home, my own bed, and my own family.

By Thanksgiving I had found someone at my college who lived in the Chicago area and who was going home for the holiday. I begged a ride, and appeared on the doorstep of my home on the day before Turkey Day.

It was so wonderful. I got out of my friend’s car, walked up to the front door of my home, opened the door, and there was my mother and father, my sister and brother, and a great welcome from them all. And the Thanksgiving dinner was, I’m sure, the best I’d had for a long time, because it was at home.

As the years passed, there were other Thanksgiving dinners at home, but I think none were as important to me as that first one after I had been away from home for a while. And yet, there is still that desire for “coming home”. It’s been 35 years since I begged that ride home as a college freshman, but to remember the feeling of coming home then still brings tears to my eyes. I have a longing for home – but I can’t get there anymore by hitching a ride. How do I achieve this goal?

I have learned that what I am truly longing for is that real home, that home I will have with my Father in heaven. The love and togetherness I remember from those visits back to home was just a reflection of that reunion I will have in heaven. It comes back to that desire for Joy that I discussed here.

Chris Rice again gets a chance to shine here, with another song from the Run The Earth, Watch The Sky album. Circle Up is the first of three songs I want to use to illustrate this reunion coming in heaven, for those who have accepted the salvation that Jesus offers.

Revelation 21:14 says, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Hear the hum of angel curiosity
The children of the Lord are gathering
Finally the day we’ve all been dreaming of
Called up forever in His love 

Circle up, circle up around the throne
Old and young saints of every history
Great and small angels all and seraphim
Grab a hand, twirl a dance,
Circle up and worship Him
Grab a hand, twirl a dance
Circle up and worship Him

Hear the thunder of unfolding wings
Feel the mighty wind their beating brings
Bring your grateful tears and flood the floor
Rise up and worship like a storm

Circle up, circle up around the throne
Old and young saints of every history
Great and small angels all and seraphim
Grab a hand, twirl a dance
Circle up and worship Him
Grab a hand, twirl a dance
Circle up and worship Him

Now hear His golden voice above it all
He’s saying, “This tear is the last to fall”
A few simple words and another storm He calms
Invites us all into his arms!

Circle up, circle up around the throne
Old and young saints of every history
Great and small, angels all and seraphim
Grab a hand, twirl a dance
Circle up, and worship Him

Tags: Chris Rice, Heaven, home

Robert Frost wrote his poem The Road Not Taken in 1920. The poem is about a traveler who comes to a branching in his road in the woods, where he has to make a decision. He weighs both options, and decides to chose the less worn path, considering that perhaps he might return some day to take the other road, but knowing that this will likely never happen. And this less traveled road is the one that “made all the difference”.

Every person has an important place in their life where they must make a decision that also makes “all the difference”. It may be a single choice, or it may be a series of choices, but it determines the direction they will follow for the rest of their days on earth. And even on that path with multiple branches, there is still the one fork in the road that starts the journey in the direction they choose.

This first step on the narrow road, the road less traveled, is well covered in literature throughout the ages. In the Lord Of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, It can be the step Saruman took in studying the arts of the Enemy too deeply, and which resulted in his ensnarement by Sauron. Or it could be the decision by Frodo to leave his safe home and take the Ring on that hopeless journey to try to destroy it in Mordor. The paths of Anakin Skywalker and his son Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga track similar choices that show how they learn to handle power, and how it shapes their lives and destinies.

Even for those of us who live less exciting lives, those who live lives that seem to be inconsequential, we all have our moment in time that starts us on a path. Jesus once told his disciples to find the narrow gate on their path in life. “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14) The choice of the narrow road does not determine whether the outcome is riches or poverty, but whether or not the journey is one of fulfillment or despair.

Larry Norman in his album In Another Land made reference to Frost’s poem. His song One Way poignantly emphasizes the difference his choice made to him.

Newsong also addressed this topic in an indirect way. Their song from the Sheltering Tree album identified this fork in the road as a Defining Moment – the point that clarified the rest of a person’s life.

Here is your double play (* double play! *) for today. First, Larry Norman’s song One Way:

And here is Defining Moment by Newsong:

Tags: J.R.R. Tolkien, Larry Norman, Newsong, path, Robert Frost, Star Wars

One of Bob Ayala‘s songs was the subject of my last post, which brought to mind another of his songs that I enjoy. To see the full significance of what he writes in this song, it helps to know some of his history. Ayala lost his vision as a youth, but he did not let it him embitter him. Instead, he turned his energies to singing about Jesus in many different ways.

He was also apparently a fan of the works of C.S. Lewis. On his first album, Joy By Surprise, released in 1976, Ayala made his title song a variation of Lewis’ autobiography “Surprised By Joy“. In that book, Lewis described his journey from atheism to Christianity, in his life-long search for Joy. Both Lewis and Ayala find this Joy they were seeking to be fulfilled in none other than Jesus himself. Jesus was discovered to be the embodiment and expression of Joy.

These comparisons to Lewis’ works extend further with the artwork that he had placed on the cover of his Joy By Surprise album. As best as I can tell, there appears to have been one cover for the vinyl LP version of the album (which I do not own), and a different cover for the cassette version (which I do own).

(cassette cover)	(LP cover)

In both of these views, it recreates the scene from Lewis’ The Last Battle, in which a door in a stable in Narnia is actually a doorway to the true Narnia, an extension of Aslan’s country. Like the characters who represent the Narnia that has remained true to Aslan, these album covers depict Bob Ayala himself walking through that door from our world to the next world, and meeting Aslan face to face. And Bob actually sees his Savior! The song lyrics reflect this: “Like scales, my illusions are falling from my eyes“. Enjoy this classic!

Tags: Bob Ayala, C.S. Lewis, Joy, Narnia