By John A. Lee D.Min.,
Pastoral Psychotherapist

There are many spiritual practices within the Christian tradition that people find helpful to their spiritual life. The most common of these include prayer, study of Scripture and sacred texts, worship, meditation and devotional time.

One practice found throughout the scriptures and history of Christianity is working with dreams. Dreams are important in all wisdom traditions.

Remember the dream of Pharaoh interpreted by Joseph that saved the nation? The Egyptian ruler dreamed of seven fat cows and then seven lean cows.

None of the priests could understand the dream to Pharaoh’s satisfaction. Then he heard of a Joseph in his prison that could understand dreams and he was called forth. Joseph told the ruler the dream meant there would be seven good years of crops and then seven lean years. He explained that it meant the people should build silos now and store grain during the good years to provide for their survival in the bad years; it was so.

 Another tale of famous dreams is found in the New Testament. We hear them read every Christmas season. The first is when Joseph found Mary, his betrothed, with child. As he was about to divorce her he dreamed that the child would grow in wisdom and save his people and Joseph stayed with Mary.

The remainder of the story is familiar to us. Of course, after the wise men visited the infant Jesus they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod. They traveled home by another route. The child was saved from the slaughter of the innocents.

In modern times, while Eli Whitney was inventing the sewing machine, he could not keep the thread from breaking. He eventually dreamed of a needle with the hole in the point rather than the head. The sewing machine has been with us ever since.

Both as a pastor and therapist I have listened to many dreams.  Sometimes these dreams have shown people where they are stuck in life, helped them see a new opportunity on the horizon or revealed a way to solve a problem. One student I encountered kept a pencil and paper by his bedside. Solutions to algebra problems that eluded him during the day would appear solved in a dream. He would rise and write down the solved equation for his classes the next day.

The question is always, ‘How does one access his or her dreams?’ Start with take them seriously, especially if they make no sense at all. They use a different logic than what is considered ordinary. Then see a professional. Often therapists and pastors have experience in working with dreams. Lastly, our family shared our dreams at the breakfast table. We just honored them without putting any meaning into them.

A helpful book you can refer to is Dreams: God’s Forgotten Language by Jon Sanford. Good dreams.