what dreams may come ...

I know that is a title of something or other, but I kind of like it - vaguely hopeful sounding, recieving, and willing to see what comes.

There is a wonder to the world, knowing that I am not perfect, but assured in the fact that no one else is either. It's comforting, in a way. I like the saying that goes we are all limited in all abilities except for virture.

I dreamt the other night that I was in a play that I didn't know the lines for, and that I was not able to rehearse beforehand. I ended up on stage, in a gorgeous yellow silk dress with a burgandy short coat, flipping through the script (whose pages were out of order)looking for my lines and stalling while the audience rustled. After leaving the stage I looked back and saw that all the audience's seats were facing out from the stage and wondered at it. I was told that that was for two reasons - because sometimes the audience had to perform in part of the choir for the play and also that the audience needed to work to watch the play so that they would appreciate it more. There was a balance in that, after my on-stage confusion. I was called to perform, but then everyone else is called to perform as well. And while I performed I was not the only one working, the audience was as well. In the other part of my dream, where I was traveling to the theatre to perform, I walked through many neighborhoods that were reported to be dangerous, but I was fine.

In my dream, and in my life more and more, I have realized that people are not to be scared of. They are to be loved, sometimes pitied and sometimes respected. I have been thinking a lot on how people are often so scared of other people. I don't understand that. If I am kind to others, and believe me people will sense if you are genuinely nice or just putting it on, then usually they will be kind to me. This applies to rich snots and to lowly gang-bangers, because I have gotten on well with both. The thing is, they are both human and in that humanity there is still a ragged sense of brotherhood.

I think that people can sense if you are scared of them, and like an animal, if you are scared then they will usually give you something to be scared of. If you are assured in the true hope of the love of God, and walk in his peace, then they will like you and want to be with you and share your peace. The thing is, God will have his way in the end, and if I am not fearful, then I will be freed to listen to him and follow his directions. If I am filled with fear, then I am frozen and unable to honor him with my obedience. If I render myself unable to obey then I am truly worthless, and that is the only thing to be really fearful of.