DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

I had a dream early this week (last week of June 2019).

It is one of those dreams

which you remember vividly

as soon as you wake up,

every detail, every nuance

is very clear to your mind

almost as if you really lived the events

in real life.

In fact I think it was a message from the Lord and

I will like to share it with you.

In my dream,

I was in a third world country,

could be Sierra Leone, West Africa, or some other African Country.

And yet, it can also be in the United States, South Carolina, or Illinois,

places I have lived for significant periods of time;

(funny thing about dreams –they can fit in multiple locations at once).

In my dream

I was looking to buy a used car –

I was looking for a deal – because

I did not want to pay too much and yet

I wanted a very good car –

in fact a BMW.

I had this friend

(nameless in the dream, but

I had known him for quite a while

in the dream.

He had gained my trust.

It appeared that he was good at making the type of connections

I was seeking

to get me a very good car –

in the dream!

As a result,

I gave him a significant sum of money –

Over $10,000

in the dream.

Not too long after he called me to say he had found the perfect  car for me, and

I was excited!

I went over to his car shop

(he was a mechanic)  and

the first thing I noticed were a couple of arm chairs,

old wooden and reconditioned arm chairs classics.

Someone had taken what looked like a BMW logo decal and

pasted it on the front end of one of the arms

on each of these chairs.

I thought to myself,

“I hope nobody is trying to pass this off as a ‘bucket’ seat of a BMW car”

 “Hmm, this does not have anything to do with my car”

But I followed my ‘friend’ into his shop.

A privately owned body shop

His shop was a bit away from any main road/street –

It was a non-franchise shop

not like Meineke, or Tuffy, or Firestone, or anything like that.

The floor was bare; grease and dirt had formed successive layers over time.

It was somewhat narrow, tall, and

there’re were parts of old cars

at different stages of being put back together.

The length of the shop

was about a semi-trailer and a half long,

                with hydraulic lifts, tool boxes etc.,

strewn all along the building, such that

there is no way to tell what is at the back of the building

when one enters the door at the front.

So my ‘friend’ takes me into his shop

but I do not see a car

            in the dream.

I am thinking:

“It must be at the back,

at the end of the building”

                in my dream.

Halfway through the building

all I can still see are scraps,

here and there, and then

the shell and/skeleton of a car, but

no shiny, new BMW

of my dreams!

Then, I see this old skeleton of a car!

There were

no panels,

no doors,

no floor carpets,

no rear-view mirror,

no side view mirror

no parking, head, signal or brake lights;

no seats, and the steering wheel

was mostly metal

in my dream.

The color was rusted or corrupted away;

it was hard to tell

what color this frame of a car was, and

it was obviously very old.

It was the type of thing

one would find in a junk yard –

after it had been stripped away

by parts scavengers.

My ‘friend’ began to tell me

about how this ‘skeleton’ was going to be,

a classic,

the envy of my friends,

the perfect car

of very high antique value

that I was longing for,

when he was finished with it.

I need not worry at all

in my dream.

The antique armchairs

at the front of the building,

were indeed the ‘pilot’ ‘bucket’ seats

for the car

in my dream!

In my dream,

I was aghast.

Shaken to my core.

How can it be?

I was angry with him.

I sat him down, and began to tell him that

I was no longer interested in this project; that

I wanted my money back.

As I am speaking to him,

in the dream,

I am realizing that

he was not my friend, that

he was a scam artist, and that

I had a monumental task

to get my money back from him.

I am thinking

will I have to go to the police?

Is it going to be nasty?

Does he even have my money

to give back to me?

How did we get here?

Do your Homework!

Photo by Startup Stock Photos on Pexels.com

THEN I WOKE UP!!!

From my dream!

The dream remained fresh in my mind.

It seemed to me that the fact that

I remembered it so clearly,

could be taken as a message

(from God!)

to me, and

to others.

I thought,

I must pass the lessons

of my dream to others.

God gave me this dream

as a teaching moment

that I and others might learn from it.

So, what are the lessons?

 ADDICTED TO ‘EASY’!

I like most people,

(I think) am ‘addicted to easy’.

The phrase is not original with me.

I first heard Pastor Tom Harding

of Alive Church, in Central, SC,

use it once as he described his own personal journey,

and I immediately identified with it.

Why did I want to have someone else

in my dream

do the leg work for me

to buy a good car?

With so many internet tools at our disposal

to search for stuff we want,

why ask someone

to do it for you,

when you can do it yourself?

Why did I not do enough of my own homework

about whether I can trust this person

with my hard earned money?

Why was I so quick

to part with my money to someone

who would in the end scam me?

 

QUICK FIXES

Why did I not want to wait

in my dream,

until I had saved enough money

to buy the quality car

that I really wanted?

Why am I asking someone to perform ‘magic’

for me

(i.e. do a miracle –

give   me the desire of my heart

with little cost/effort

on my part)

when I can work my own way

towards my own ‘miracle’?

Why did I go looking for a ‘miracle’

of a nice car at below market value

now,

when a better opportunity might present itself

to me

if I was patient enough to wait for it?

Why did I not wait

until the perfect

and (better) opportunity

presented itself

to buy the car that I wanted?

Why do I have to have it now?

 

TOO TRUSTING!

Too late!

After I woke up, and

going over the details of the dream,

I realized that in the dream,

I did not specify

the year,

model,

condition,

timeframe that the car was to be purchased, and

the mileage of the car that I wanted.

I did not specify that

I did not want a rebuilding project

for a car,

nor what would be the exit arrangements

if I or my ‘friend’ were dissatisfied

at the performance of the agreement

we were entering into.

I just left it all up to my ‘friend’.

That is not to say

I had no true friends

in the dream

that I could trust for very important aspects

of my life.

It was just that ultimately,

I had allowed others to become responsible

on my behalf,

to make decisions

which were mine alone to make.

Why?

Naivety,

forgetfulness of the

self-centeredness, and yes,

sinfulness

of the human heart.

Most people would put their interest first over that of the others

If/when it comes to a choice

between those two –

including me –

alas if not all the time

I would say most times,

but for the grace of God!!

So?

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

Prov. 10.4

“Lazy hands

make a man poor, but

diligent hands

bring wealth”

AVOID QUICK FIXES,

Prov. 16.32

“Better

a patient man

than a warrior,

a man who controls his temper

than one who takes a city”.

 

DON’T BE NAÏVE!!

Prov. 22.3:

“A prudent man

sees danger and

takes refuge,

but the simple

keep going and

suffer for it.”

Blessings

Dr. Ray

Do your Homework!!