It Starts with What I Think About

Most of us dream a lot. We can't remember what we have dreamed; but we remember that we did. Now and then we remember them in detail. I would be curious to know what yours are like. Mine are weird. I can't make heads or tails of them. Years ago some of them were frightening. I would wake up in a sweat. And some drew pictures that were not proper. Any responsibility that I had for those probably came from listening to and talking about some of the wrong things in the wrong places. But for a long time the dreams have just been weird. Some of you appear, strange combinations of us doing odd things, not frightening, just innocent, odd things. At breakfast I tell Judy about the ones I can remember. She'll confirm that they are odd. Then I quickly forget them.

In the Old Testament, and occasionally in the New Testament, God seems to have presented some dreams that he used to direct patriarchs, prophets and apostles. Joseph, Jacob, Isaiah, and Paul were given messages that way. And a few others! Maybe he wants to do that now, but to most of us he hasn't given the interpretive keys that he gave them. So I think I will just enjoy the funny little dreams that I can remember.

But — what you and I think about is another thing. Our minds are the places where our actions are incubated. When we capture a thought that passes by, entertain it, store it, and review it, it is on its way to becoming a part of us, inches away from action. That's why what we sit and watch, what we talk about, what we write down, and what we plan are so crucial to our faith and life. If our thoughts are indeed, inches away from action (and really, action already) then what we entertain is a big part of who we are. And, if I'm a Christian, who I am, and whose I am, means everything. "Let's "think on these things" — the kind of things that we hear Paul writing about today.