Leonard Dow is a Stewardship and Development Specialist with Everence Financial. Prior to this, he served as Pastor of Oxford Circle Mennonite Church in Philadelphia for 20 years. He is married to Dr. Rosalie Rolon-Dow and they have three children. 

Science tells us that when we do not dream we become unsettled mentally and physically. Studies have shown the importance of dreams to our physical health and well-being. In one study, researchers woke subjects just as they were drifting off into REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. They found that those who were not allowed to dream experienced:

• Anxiety
• Stress
• Depression
• Distraction
• Dizziness

Perhaps you too are experiencing similar symptoms this Advent season – anxiety, stress, depression? Well, the good news is that this season of Advent is designed especially for you!  Because Advent season is our needed reminder that we need to dream.  In fact, when we do not dream, not only is our body and mind negatively impacted, our very soul is spiritually damaged.

Yet, it has been my observation that the church community is increasingly placing a higher value on our actions and efficiency over and against taking the time to dream together. Admittingly, measuring our impact can potentially be a very useful and innovative stewardship tool.  But we also need to come to terms with the unintended risk we take whenever we over value efficiency.  Eventually, dreaming and dreamers become taboo. And when we no longer value dreaming as much as we do action or efficiency, our response to the dreamers in our midst will resemble Joseph’s older brothers when they mockingly spoke to him.

“Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other.  “Come now let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him.  Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.” Genesis 37:19-20

Let us not fall prey to believing the lie that dreaming is a luxury we no longer have time for in 2017-18.  Because Advent is the season that gives us the permission to dream again, to refresh our soul and open our spiritual eyes to envision light into our darkness, beseeching our God, “thy Kingdom, thy will be done here on earth as it is in heaven”!  And the good news is that like Joseph, the Bible is full of dreamers:  Samuel, Gideon, Jeremiah, all the minor prophets. In the Christmas narrative we find the strategic placement by God of the dreamers Zechariah, the Magi, Simeon, Joseph and of course, Mary, the mother of Jesus.  But what can be overlooked in Scripture is how dreaming is also part of and meant for the benefit of the community of God in Christ.  At Pentecost, Peter declares it most clearly that daily we are being invited to dream together when he says(quoting the dreamer and prophet Joel): ^“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.”  (Acts 2:16-18)

And what we see at Pentecost is also foreshadowed in the Old Testament throughout the Psalms of Ascent.  Scholars tell us that these particular Psalms of Ascent (120-134) were sung and/or read by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims as they journeyed together back to Jerusalem, to the Temple, to the Holy of Holies on the high holy days and festivals.  And what we cannot lose sight of is that these pilgrims, like us today, were experiencing firsthand anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress from war(s) and military occupation.

Yet, they dreamed.  “When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed.  Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.  Then it was said amongst the nations, “the Lord has done great things for them.  The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled joy.” Psalm 126:1-3

 So, as you journey this Advent season, dream.  Take the time to seek and to see or envision with your spiritual eyes our neighbors, communities and world as God desires it to be, not only as it currently is.  But do not dream alone. Dream with and in your faith community.

Because:

• Our Mennonite church is in need of dreamers,
• Our local churches and surrounding communities are in need of dreamers and,
• Our country is in the need of dreamers (including the 800,000 DACA* dreamers)

 *In March 2018 the US would end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals  March 2018, throwing almost 800,000 people children of undocumented parents into turmoil and fear.