Micah 6:8

Don't Buy Things You Cannot Afford

My dream

Every once in awhile I have dreams that are so interesting that I wonder if they might be from God. Here's one from last night that that I not sure how to interpret. There are some obvious symbols in there but I don't quite know how to piece it all together, if that's even possible.

I had a dream last night that I was in a large city in South Africa. I was there on some trip and was staying in a fancy hotel. In my touring I came upon a begging woman. She had black sunken eyes and that what she really wanted was water so that she could nurse her baby. I tried to bring her water from my hotel room in a dixie cup but spilled the water before I got to her. Then I talked to the front desk woman about buying some water. She let me fill a dixie cup with milk but I spilled that as well. Why I was trying to get her something to drink her baby died. After this happened I went with her to see her home. She lived in squaller. I met her husband. She explained that her room did have a tap but that her landlord wouldn't turn them on unless he had financial incentive to do so. Instead of water he would give them soap, which of course they couldn't use without water. She told me that most days she could manage to bring home for herself about 1/2L and she would try to make do with that. I told her about how where I am from water is in abundance. That every home has running water, no one is really poor. I even told her about how I had a rain barrel in my yard full of water and that people would actually complain about the rain as though it were not precious. After visiting we went for a walk back to my hotel. We passed a bus that was picking up people to take to different prisons around the world. In particular I remember Vancouver and Pitsburg. I mused with this woman over whether she could do anything that would send her to these place but she sighed and said that even that was hopeless; they would just send her to the prisons there, which were worse. While we were walking back to my hotel I realized that I could get her some water in my water bottle instead of a dixie cup. When we got there she noticed the front desk woman step away for a moment and decided that that would be her opportunity to see what she could steal from the hotel. I told her that I wouldn't endorse that but that I would still try to get her some water. At that point I woke up.

The People formerly known as The Congregation

I found a great article by Bill Kinnon about the trend of people leaving the institutional church because they have become jaded by the corporate success model that so many churches are driven by. There are some great comments and links that follow the article that are also worth reading. The iMonk also has his own insightful comments on the article as well.

I'm not sure why it is that so many people are becoming jaded by institutional churches. I suspect that partly it has to do with the fact that our society has shifted to be less specialist focused. As more people have access to more knowledge our need to depend on specialists has decreased substantially. I think that this has led us to be less trusting of people that claim to be specialists. We're more sceptical of our doctors, researchers, counsellors, teachers, politicians and pastors. The guise of expert is crumbling. Now like never before are people starting to question everything that is around them and ask why we are doing things the way that we are. This is a good thing even if it is scary for the "experts". There really are no expert Christians. Yes, some are called to be pastors, teachers, preachers, apostles and prophets but that should be five people and not one. If we can do away with the idea that one man is the head of a congregation, realize that our job is to love one another, and not to put on Sunday services, then maybe we can see a church where everyone puts in as much as they can and see themselves as responsible for their church as they really are.

Oh how I long to see a more beautiful bride...