So I had a dream the other night and I keep thinking about it so I thought I would share my thoughts. In this dream I was driving to work in a pretty rough storm and I saw ahead of me a car that was being swallowed up by a sinkhole which was filling with water. I saw many passing by but I felt I needed to help so I parked to the side and worked my way to the edge where I saw a man trying to escape the car. He was climbing from the driver’s side window and at this point most of the car had been consumed by the water-filled precipice. As I extended my arm he leapt and I was able to connect and pull him to safety as the car sank deeper into the hole. I urgently asked him if there was anyone else in the car to which he responded “No.” No sooner than he answered my question, I saw a hand extend from below the surface of the water and a woman rising to the surface gasping for air and struggling to stay afloat. I was able to reach in and rescue her as well as I drug her onto solid ground beside the man who had basically left her for dead. She was scared and angry and began screaming at the man for leaving her behind. I am not sure why he chose to only save himself but he was paying for his decision now.
As the dream continued, the storm began to get increasingly worse as the rain fell hard to the ground. As cars drove by the sinkhole, I noticed that the ground looked unstable and there was almost a ripple effect as if the street were a pond that someone had dropped a rock into. Around me there were people starting to gather as the woman continued to berate the man and he pleaded for her forgiveness. I realized that where we were standing was soon going to be part of the sinkhole as the asphalt continued to erode around the area where the earth swallowed the car. I said to the people gathered around, “We’d better get back, this ground seems a bit unstable”. As we backed up a bit the earth began to cave in around us. I watched as my wife’s car fell into the hole and with every passing second more and more ground began to disappear until everyone was in a state of total panic fleeing for their lives. At this point I was looking for higher ground. The only thing I could find was an old house next to an abandoned building of some sort. I motioned to the dozen people around me to head that way and we fled to seek refuge in the house.
When we got to the door of the house, we knocked and rang the doorbell but there was no answer. There were lights on inside the home but it appeared as if no one was home. I went to a window adjacent to the front porch and peered in. Inside I saw an elderly lady sitting in a wing backed chair with a tray of food in front of her. She was warming herself by a fire and staring off into space looking at what I could only imagine was a television set. I banged on the window to try to get her attention but I could not catch her gaze. I assumed at this point that she was hard of hearing and just could not hear our pleas for help. As I went back to the porch, a member of the group had noticed an open window on an upper floor of the home. We decided that since we could not get the woman’s attention, that we would climb the house and gain our entry into the home through that window in order to escape the deadly storm. We climbed the house as if we were all expert rock climbers shimmying up the walls with ease. I climbed the drain pipe to a flat part of the roof. A woman followed me and as we got to the top we saw how vast the hole had become. It looked as if it were many miles wide and all we could see was water rushing along and sweeping everything and anyone in its path away. We worked our way across the roof until we were over the window. I hung down over the edge and was able to swing my legs over to the ledge to get a foothold. I carefully balanced myself as I shifted my weight forward plunging through the open window into the dark expanse.
The others started making their way in through the window and we soon were all in the house and out of the rain and cold. I used the flashlight on my cell phone to illuminate the room in front of me. Many others followed suit and soon the room was lit enough to see pretty much the entire landscape. This room looked like an attic with a high domed ceiling with a few light fixtures hanging from the top. I looked around for a switch to turn on the lights but could not find one. As we fumbled around trying to find a way out of the room, a man yelled “Over here! I found some stairs.” We rushed over to find an old wooden staircase leading down to another level of the house. As we went down we heard the noise of the television and saw the glow of the fireplace as we approached the room where the old lady was sitting. I approached the lady and explained to her our predicament in a calm way as to not frighten her. She seemed pretty calm to have a house full of intruders as she offered us towels and blankets to dry ourselves.
Some of the others were exploring the house trying to find things they could use to warm themselves up and dry off. People were calling their families and loved ones to explain what had happened. I called my wife to tell her but there was no answer. I called my parents to warn them of the storm and the rising waters but there was not an answer there either. I decided to call my boss Brad to let him know I would not make it into work today and when he answered I explained the situation and he said the oddest thing. He said, “Man, that sucks. This is the second car you have lost this way this year.” Not sure why in the dream I had experienced this type of issue before but nevertheless it happened. He told me to be careful and to check in with him later. I agreed, ended the call and tried to reach my wife again. Still no answer. This time I left a message. I told her about the storm and the car and everything that had happened so far and asked her to call me back as soon as she could. As I hung up the phone, I heard a man yelling from outside for us to come see what he had found.
We ran outside to find him standing next to a boat. The water was almost high enough to pull the boat off of its trailer. I ran back and asked the lady about the boat and if we could use it. I wanted to make sure it would run. She explained to me that it had been sitting there for a few years since her husband had passed away. She knew nothing about the boat other than her husband loved to go fishing. She gave me permission to take the boat and I ran back to the group of people who were already boarding the vessel. We found a couple of gas cans on the boat and added what fuel we could to the tank and tried to start it up. It sputtered and clanked a bit but fired up in a cloud of white smoke. We unhooked it from its trailer and started to pull away but I stopped. I looked at the full boat and the people in it and I turned toward one man and said “We are going to pass many who need our help as we leave this place. There is not much room in this boat and if we load it down it will sink us all.” I thought to myself, “Who am I to pick and choose who lives and who dies?” As we left the house to find dry ground and get this group to safety, I watched the house fade away and I awoke from the dream.
As I sat on the edge of my bed, I immediately thought of the parable of the wise man and the foolish man from the 7th chapter of Matthew. As Jesus was teaching the saints in his “Sermon on the Mount” he gave the following instruction:
“Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
“And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
“And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
“And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”
I felt that the spirit of the Lord was teaching me that I need to make sure that my foundation is built upon the rock. That if not I could be easily swept away. I knew then that I had some work to do. Not only for myself but for my family. At the end of the day, we choose which foundation upon which to build our house. It is our responsibility to build a house of faith, a house of righteousness, a house of salvation.
Incidental Ramblings 