There are tons of different belief systems in our world. Some religious, some scientific, logical, or political, some based on personal life-living choices, like how we make our bed. Do you tuck the top sheet in all around? Do you put the top sheet inside up? Or don’t you ever make your bed? Whichever way you do it, it might be that you learned it or developed that lifestyle for yourself, and you are sticking to it! For myself, I have plenty of things I live by, whether it’s the way I set the table or making sure I turn my blinker on when I'm going to turn while driving, being a Jesus follower, or whatever. Many of the more solid things I believe in are settled by the experiences I’ve had (like putting the top sheet on whichever side is softer - I don't care how you do it!). Then there are other people’s experiences that aid us as well.
[Definition break: a belief system is a set of values, codes, tenets, thoughts, ideas, etc., that a person or a group of people believe. It helps them interpret the world and act in a way that aligns with their beliefs. *]
I’ll start with a dream I had recently. In the dream I was at a wedding – no idea who’s it was – and, as dreams often do, it warped away and the wedding was suddenly over and some of us were loading up a station wagon (didn’t everyone have a station wagon at some point in their lives that could be brought back into a dream?) with items we were taking home, i.e., food, decorations, cleaning supplies, etc., though I’m not sure exactly what we were loading as dreams fog up on us after waking. I know something was annoyingly large and taking up a lot of space {ooohhh, that's why she used that picture for the blog!}. So, we have loaded the station wagon with stuff and people, and there was no room left for me. I believe the wedding took place in the Manistee Ramsdell ballroom – because I think it did…and because it wasn’t far from our house. I checked the front seat to see if there was room there, and the station wagon was suddenly a moving van/truck. (Don’t you love dreams?!?) There were three people there, so no room. No idea who they were. I think they were family members. (Jeez, I’m the old one now – and no one offered me a seat??) So, I intermittently walked and jogged home (apparently my body can’t run all the way home in a dream any more than it can in real life these days). When I’m two or three blocks from my house, I see one of my daughter-in-laws watching my approach. There’s sympathy all over her face. She’s a runner and would gladly have given her seat to me (in real life), so she was probably feeling bad (in the dream) at that point even though she understood I didn’t mind giving up my seat for someone else (in the dream and in real life). Very likely, (in the dream) she didn’t know I got bumped to the curb. So, then I wake up.
This is the cool bit that might have something to do with some of the things I believe in – yes, I’m still on track even if it doesn’t seem like it… Lots of mornings, if I wake up early, I’ll check my Facebook notifications. I picked up my phone after waking from the dream, checked the time, turned it on, and the first notification I see is one that that daughter-in-law posted – she doesn’t post very often. My brain thought she was out running to an event, but later I looked more closely and saw she was off having an adventure on her own – in a car. But weird, right? I like to throw a prayer up for people when this type of thing happens, so I did.
Which leads me to another night a number of years ago. I woke up suddenly that night. I don’t recall if there was a dream, but I was filled with dread for one of my daughters who was living in Chicago – in a so-so neighborhood (drug dealers next door – she and her roommate gave their kids popsicles to keep on their good side). It felt very much like something really bad was happening right then. So, I started praying. The next time I talked to her, I found out she had been working that night at a neighborhood bar and an aggressive, mean drunk had been giving her trouble. She laughed when she told me about it (she’s smart but can be fierce and a little fearless). She got so disgusted with the drunk, she dropped the 6 pack of beer he was trying to buy on the floor. Before he could get physical with her, the regulars (neighborhood hanging out guys) got up off their perches, got in the guy’s face, forced him to leave and told him to never come back. (As my pastor says, “Yay, God.” Who knew late night drinkers could be angels/protectors?) It pays to be nice to the regulars – it builds the buddy system. Of course, the point of this was that I woke that night at the same time it was happening. And I started praying for her…Yay, God, indeed.
During her years in Chicago, this same daughter woke up really upset one morning, like REALLY upset, telling her boyfriend about how in her very real dream the Empire State Building and the Sears Tower had been hit by terrorists in planes. The boyfriend said something like: “No, it was the Twin Towers and the Pentagon!” You guessed it: it was the morning of September 9, 2001. This was the same daughter who told her sister (who was also living in Chicago at the time) that she wouldn’t drive home with her for Christmas because she’d dreamt the night before that they had both driven north with their uncle and they’d been in a car accident and died. One came with the uncle, and one came by train. I’m still grateful my daughter took that dream serious after the 9/11 dream.
Plenty of other things, dreams, and the like have happened to me, so I believe in God and a spiritual world and that we have some connections to it if we’re willing to believe and keep our eyes and ears open. Whatever your belief systems are, commit to them, let them guide you, but always respect other people’s choice in their beliefs. We are all different people, we are all raised differently, often in very different cultures and eras, and we are all exposed to so many different things, policies, belief systems, schooling – the list is endless – so we are bound to perceive things differently. Respect goes a long way in being able to share each other’s beliefs, see with a new perspective, and perhaps recognize that some of our own beliefs might need some tweaking (remember, we are the only person we can change). One of the sure things about this life is that we never stop learning. At least, we shouldn’t.
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