A guest post by Susan McPherson . . .
God often uses dreams to speak to me. It’s so intriguing and connects with me so well.
Here is a dream I had in 2015 which is still speaking to me in 2022. How cool is that! God isn’t bound by time. He just picks up where He left off seven years ago.
In the dream, someone took down my fence during the night. Then coffee grinds and spilled coffee were on the seat of my car.
First of all, the fence symbolizes boundaries. I was allowing others to violate my boundaries; in doing so, this was stealing my enjoyment and rest. Instead, I was being drawn into the “grinds” of life — the grinds of life were driving me. The coffee, which symbolizes relaxing enjoyment was spilled on the car seat. It was gone, and in its place were the coffee grinds.
God was trying to help me put up boundaries (a fence in the dream) and show me how I was being driven by the “grinds” of life and had spilled/lost my “coffee” (relaxing enjoyment), and in its place on the car seat were the coffee grinds. He was wanting to direct my steps, instead of my allowing circumstances to drive me. His way yields peace and rest; my way yields hysteria, stress, and unrest.
Great dream, which He used to begin to turn my life around from self-driven to God-led. He was encouraging me not to allow whoever and whatever to take away my boundaries/fence, which brings relaxing enjoyment like a nice cup of coffee.
Fast forward seven years, during which I was primarily working on staying in peace and rest in the Lord and letting Him direct my steps (the message from the dream). But in April of 2021, Bill, my husband got a diagnosis of prostate cancer. Unintentionally, I shifted out of rest and peace in the Lord and went back into my old coping ways of cranking up my life by staying busy and taking care of everyone. I reacted instead of responded. I was being “driven,” once again, by circumstances and the daily “grinds” of life. Peace and rest were hard to find.
In January 2022, nine months after Bill’s diagnosis, I took a month-long sabbatical. I began to return to the Lord and His rest. I could see how I had ever so slightly stepped out of His peace and rest when I heard the diagnosis. Although this shift was subtle at first, it began to manifest more and more. I even began to get injuries from “trying too hard,” and finally I began to slow down, sit down, shut up, and listen.
Then in early February 2022, I went on a two-day retreat to the mountains for further rest and refreshment. It was there that I ran across this dream from 2015. Of all the pages in my journal, I turned right to it! I realized it was the same trial I had been walking in for the past nine or so months. God was once again trying to get my attention.
What He showed me was that when trauma came (Bill’s cancer diagnosis) I reacted instead of responded, and I fell into that pattern of being driven by the daily grinds. Trauma knocked the “fence” (my boundaries) down, and I went into “take care of everyone” mode, an old way of coping.
I’m back on track now with God, and His peace and rest are evidence of that. I’m also now learning that God isn’t bound or held to time. I have idolized time, and it wrecked my life. Time is trying to drive my car/life; time is my enemy/demon. Instead of being bound to time, God punctuates events. So, I’m still trying to walk consistently in the unforced rhythms of grace and not succumb to the constrictions of time.
I’ll end with another dream I had on the last day of my sabbatical, January 31, 2022. In this dream, I was in a car with only my pink nightgown on, with a man and two children. The man was about to drive off to the grocery store (or somewhere), and I got so mad and angry and yelled/cried at him, “You’re so insensitive,” since he was obviously not aware of my being in a nightgown and how I would feel going somewhere. I don’t want to unpack the whole dream at this time. I just want to focus on the nightgown and its meaning. It means “entering into a season of rest, intimacy, and refreshing; recovering from an affliction or setback.” Exactly what had happened to me and where I was! I was indeed recovering from an affliction and setback.
One week later, I was sitting in my vehicle looking at a tree, and a bluebird landed on the branch right in front of me. I love bluebirds, and they aren’t real common here. I was so enthralled with the beautiful bird, so when I got home, I looked up the meaning of bluebird. And I’ll end on this note: Bluebird represents “revelation and healing news coming; spiritual joy, happy life; contentment.” Ahhhh …
And in case you are wondering … my husband was healed of cancer!
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Copyright © 2022 by Susan McPherson
— Dream symbology definitions from Dr. Barbie L. Breathitt, A to Z Dream Symbology Dictionary (North Richland Hills, TX: Barbie Breathitt Enterprises, Inc., 2015).
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Susan McPherson is a mother of seven and blessed with many beautiful grandchildren. After raising her children on a farm, she and her husband have moved to the mountains, where they are enjoying rest.
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