I am not someone who dreams a lot of prophetic dreams. I don’t usually see visions in my sleep that then become real. I don’t doubt that some people have those kinds of dreams, but they usually do not happen to me. My dreams are mostly goofy. I have funny dreams that I will wake up and share with Marti, my wife, and we will laugh over. But I had a dream last December that has stayed with me. I am not sure it is a prophetic dream – it was not predicting something in the future. But it was nonetheless powerful.

Before I describe the dream I have to tell you a little context. December is not that long ago, though sometimes it feels like it was with all that has been happening in the world since then. But in December I was going back and forth between sadness, dread, and anger at the incoming trump administration. My sadness was that the country had chosen someone who many of us knew (and now all of us are finding out) was completely incompetent and cruel. I was angry about that too. But I was also dreading the amount of energy I knew I was going to have to expend to fight against a federal government bent on causing unnecessary suffering.

A big part of these feelings were selfish to be honest. Since I had arrived at the Festival Center we had endured through a pandemic, extensive renovations, and a hundred other small to medium-sized emergencies. I selfishly was ready for a little normalcy. There was so much I was planning on trying to build that you can’t do when you are fighting against autocracy. So, this was what was happening in my mind when I had this dream.

In the dream I was sitting on a bench in a park. People were walking and gathering around, birds were in the trees, and other animals were scurrying about. All of sudden the winds started shifting and they were blowing hard against my face. I looked down and my legs had become water and as the winds began to pick up, the water in the shape of my legs became cement that went down deep into the ground beneath me. I suddenly was rooted on that bench, my legs and feet firmly fixed into the ground beneath me.

I sat there as the winds grew more and more chaotic and I knew nothing was going to move me.

Then I woke up. I knew when I awoke that I do not normally have dreams like that. I never have dreams where parts of my body transform into something else. I also woke up from that dream knowing that I was ready for what was coming. I wasn’t excited at all for what was to come. But I did know that the moronic and soulless administration coming into power was not going to overwhelm me.

Now, there have been hard days, no doubt. I have felt overwhelmed from time to time. I am angry at the lawlessness and the cruelty and I honestly cannot stop laughing at the stupidity and incompetence. These guys really are bad at this stuff. But as I reflect on that dream I realize the importance of me sitting, rather than standing because I sit at the front desk of the Festival Center most days, especially in the mornings. I love it. I get to greet folks coming into work. I get to have all kinds of conversations with all kinds of people. Several days a week at least – and some weeks like last week it is everyday – someone comes in who is angry, sad, overwhelmed and needs to talk, to laugh, or just vent.

I think that is why I had that dream. I honestly love those moments. I feel like that dream was my calling for this moment in time. To listen, to encourage, to prod, to laugh, and, for God’s sake, to have fun. To just be present and not move. Nothing this administration will do will move me (except when I march or protest!). They just do not have the power to overcome God’s call on me or any of us. I hope you remember that. They have a lot of power; thanks to the Supreme Court, too much power. But they do not have power over what God is calling you to. They never will.