I don’t consider myself to be a prolific dreamer, but when I do, my dreams tend to be short on extensive detail, often with a simple theme or meaning.

On this occasion, I had been in a new position in church for only a short period. I dreamt I was at the house of my new team leader, along with my fellow team members. As I stood watching my team leader reading and marking the homework of my peers, I realized I hadn’t completed my homework assignment—mainly because I hadn’t known there was one! I felt awkward and admitted that I didn’t have my ‘binder’ with me. ‘No matter’, smiled my leader warmly, I shouldn’t worry that I didn’t have the homework with me – as they were sure that I would have done it, even if it couldn’t be seen. I was after all, the kind of person that did their homework!

Now I was on the horns of a virtual dilemma; should I smile serenely and say nothing, bringing my completed homework to the next meeting, or should I tell the person outright that I hadn’t done it? To do the former, trying to hide the truth, would be dishonest, but if it was the latter, what would my new leader think of me? Someone who didn’t do his homework? The high opinion they had of me would be shattered . . . maybe I wasn’t as awesome as they seemed to think I was!

In the midst of this I heard a name being called out repeatedly in the background, seemingly unconnected with anything else. What did that mean?

On this occasion, it wasn’t long before Holy Spirit showed me the meaning of my dream. There were two main aspects: the first related to a sense of wanting to hide things, as the name (or more accurately, it’s pronunciation) related to a reluctance to acknowledge family roots. The second concerned an invitation to vulnerable communication with this new leader in my life. There was to be no fear of rejection.

I knew my new leader had a high opinion of me—they had already communicated that, but this dream gave me the confidence to approach them with the dream, and share how I felt God was encouraging me to be open and vulnerable in our relationship, free from shame or fear.

Without the dream, I would not necessarily have chosen to engage immediately in a vulnerable relationship where I felt safe to share at a deeper level about my own life and circumstances with this new leader. Although there needed to be trust built in the new relationship, I felt the dream enabled me to bypass some of my natural aversion to immediate intimacy or ‘over-sharing’, by showing me that it was safe to be open and honest about myself without shame or fear. My ability to connect with this leader was subsequently accelerated because I wasn’t second guessing as to how I would be received or perceived.

By Haydon Murr