Sometimes God speaks to me through dreams. Maybe it’s because while I am asleep my mind is not being distracted by the myriad of things that I get preoccupied with during the day. Over the past few years I’ve had several dreams with a recurring theme: I am scheduled to take off in an airplane – or in one dream it was a rocket ship – but something keeps me from being able to get there on time. As I think back on all of these dreams two things come to mind, the first is that in each one of these dreams I was late and didn’t take off as scheduled; the second is that I did not I see the planes – or rocket ship – take off without me. Each dream ended before that occurred. I think there may be some significance to that.

In the most recent dream I had on this theme, I was at some sort of Christian retreat with lots of other folks. It was held in a very small and remote community on the coast and when it came time to leave, we all had to fly out but on a number of different flights as the airport was very small. Getting to the airport required taking a small ferry boat from the little island the retreat was held on to a bigger island. When it was getting close to my flight time I walked on the ferry, and as it reached the other side there was a large crowd of people milling around, perhaps waiting for their flights. I could have walked through the crowd and gone straight to the airport which was situated on the waterfront, but having an aversion to crowds, I decided to walk one block into the town and head down the main street thinking I would easily find an alternate route to the airport. But that was not the case; instead I quickly found myself in a residential area and the airport was nowhere in sight. I saw a bus coming my way and so I hopped on thinking surely it would take me directly to the airport, but instead it took me further from town – and the airport – and into a lush rural area. I don’t remember much else about the dream except for the anxiety I felt as I realized I was probably going to miss my flight. With each dream the anxiety persists even after waking.

I always seek God for help when I want to understand my dreams, but after this particular one, I wanted to know why I kept on dreaming about missing the boat – or the plane in this case. The understanding came to me in a flash while I was listening to my pastor preach a message in church the next Sunday. The flight represented the best that God has for me. It represented life in the Spirit and intimacy with Him. In all of these dreams I kept being distracted from what it is that God wants for me. In the last dream I willfully took a detour and got lost. In the rocket ship dream I forgot my luggage and felt compelled to run back and get it just as the passengers were starting to board.

The Lord showed me that this scenario plays out  in my spiritual life on a daily basis. While I am busy doing things that are good and are of service to others and to my church or community, many of these good things actually lead me away from the best that God has for me. Some of these good things I do, as well as the not so good distractions I have right here at home, often steal time away that would be better spent in communion – intimacy – with Him. And without that intimacy with Him, I don’t truly know what His will is for me; I cannot discern what His best is for me.

After experiencing this revelation in church I began to take a look at the things that occupy my time during the week and to pray and seek God for help with discerning which of these good – and not so good – things I need to let go of in order to make room for His best for me. I am still trying to work it out, with His help, but I’m thankful that He is patient with me. And I believe that the fact that I didn’t witness any of the dream flights taking off with me is His way of showing me that it’s not too late; there’s still time for me to get it together and learn to love Him with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. This is the first and greatest commandment, according to Jesus, and whenever I have endeavoured to obey it in the past, I’ve found that my life becomes so much “ease-ier” and more joyful.

Father, thank You for your loving patience towards me. Help me to take time today just to be with You. I don’t want to miss Your best for my life. I don’t want to settle for the “good” substitute or the counterfeit. I surrender everything I have and am and ever will be to You now. Your will, not mine, be done in my life today. I pray in Jesus’ Name.