The Nightmare within the Dream

Allow me lay out the dream: a young lady falls in love with a king, the king reciprocates that love for the young lady, and then like all things too good to be true, her life is turned upside down. This verse that we just read is the last part of a sequence of bad events and each event gets progressively worse until what you can imagine happening happens, but at the end of it all, her resolve remains the same. First, the king is knocking on her door, but she was sleeping and she misses her lover because she got to the door too late. Then she goes out in her nightgown looking for her lover but she can’t find him. It’s not for a lack of looking that she can’t find him. In fact, she scours the entire city for him but cannot find him. She’s calling his name and he’s not answering. Then she runs in a rough patch (which is an understatement) — the very people who are supposed to be taking care of the city, the people her lover, the king, entrusted with his citizens, beats and rapes her. It is a monstrosity of a dream she is having; however, her last words are: “if you find my beloved, tell him I am faint with love” (v 8). You can’t knock this girl on not having the will power. She went looking and got nothing to show for it but a series of bad events and still committed herself to the search of her lover.   This has two practical applications for us. The first application is that a series of nightmarish events should not keep us from what/whom we love. That is to say that if we love something (a hobby or line of work) we should not allow setbacks to dictate to us that we should stop and desist. Likewise, that is to say that if we love some type of liberty granted to us in the Constitution and that is taken away, that we should say die because of abuses of power which seek out to dishearten us. Additionally, that means that if we love God with all our heart, mind and soul, then doing good things in God’s name, even if it comes at a serious cost us, should not deter us from continuing to love God with all our hearts, minds and souls. This means that we are not allow a series of nightmarish events to change how we feel about how God feels about us. If you read this story in its entirety, we find that our relationship with God is similar in that He knocks, but we’re too busy sleeping to realize that God is knocking, and when we answer, He’s gone because, well, there’s only so long you can knock on a door. Think about that the next time you’re sleeping.   The second application we need to take away from this is that just because people say and look trustworthy to have the best intentions for you, doesn’t mean that they actually do. Let me explain this is it is a more nuanced explanation of the idea of a “watchman.” A watchman’s purpose, according to the prophets is to take care of the people that live within the walls of a watchman’s care. Meaning that they need to be vigilant against attacks coming from the outside. They are charged with taking care of the people in their charge. Modern examples of this would be: pastors, counselors, police officers, parents etc; basically anybody who is supposed to be responsible for another human being is a watchman. Therefore, if we are under the watch of watchmen and we ourselves are watchmen– the question is simple: are we doing what we’re charged with doing and doing that with the best intentions for the others we serve? Or are we violating the trust of those we watch and messing up their lives by our decisions?   In both applications from this passage, the conclusion is clear– just because we are experiencing a nightmare within a dream or because we are the cause of that nightmare, it doesn’t give us an excuses for losing hope, ever. Whatever it is that you’re going through or causing in your life and in others, don’t let that excuse you from living the dream God placed in your heart. The nightmare always ends, but your dream doesn’t have to.