I had an interesting dream last night.
In my dream I was at someone’s house that I didn’t know. A relative of this person walked in (a guy) and started sharing about all of his life problems. His marriage was falling apart, he hated his job, and nothing in his life seemed to bring satisfaction for more than a short period of time. I sat on the couch listening to him describe all of his problems, the whole time thinking that this sounds very familiar. I mean, how many people work so hard for something, thinking that if they only get a house, car, spouse, job, money - fill in the blank – than they’ll finally be happy. Only to have that happiness last a short time and still have the same thirst –unfulfilled- pop back up.

As my dream continued I asked the man, “Would you describe this discontent in your life as something similar to a thirst?” He reluctantly nodded. I then shared how he’s not alone in what he’s feeling. “Every one of us has deep desires that we strive to quench by a variety of things. Some of us quench most of them by getting married, making money, gaining power or status, buying a new house or whatever. Often times though that’s not enough and there is still a deep thirst that doesn’t seem to get quenched.”

“The reality of life is this; we only have a desire for something if that desire can be filled. If there weren’t such a thing as water you wouldn’t thirst for it. If there weren’t such a thing as food you wouldn’t be hungry. Every desire has a fulfillment. Every thirst has something that can quench it.” I then asked the man this question:” If you haven’t found something in this world that can quench your deepest thirst, then the most logical conclusion is that what you’re looking for isn’t in this world.” I went on to tell him about my faith and relationship with God which has been the only thing I’ve found to quench the deepest sense of meaning and belonging in my life.

The whole dream was interesting to me on a couple of levels. I almost never remember word for word what I say in a dream, let alone have a real conversation. Also, I guess you would call this ‘witnessing,’ which is not something I can ever recall dreaming about. Anyways, I don’t know why I felt like sharing this other than at the end of my dream, what I had shared with the man seemed to resonate in his heart and it definitely resonated with me when I woke up this morning.