The Question is Why: (Audible )
Are we not truly thankful that we are no longer two-year-olds?! Their age bracket is often related to additional words like “terrible” – but we understand these are their growing years when they are beginning to learn about themselves, others, and the world around them. Can we not agree that there is something endearing and tiring about their questioning and inquisitive minds? Innocently, and with no malice, they ponder the world around them. They look for answers. They are not satisfied with everything we say, so they drill deeper… Why? Why? Why?
Why is the sky blue? Why is grass green? Why are there clouds?
“Because just because.” we say.
Why…why…why….? They pound away!
Our energy depleted, we simply shrug…
I don’t know. I don’t know.
Just like them, we are seldom happy with a “because” or IDK answer. We want to KNOW. To Understand. To be able to explain it to someone else.
Why am I asking? Yesterday. My research for our midweek Bible study took me down an unexpected path and an email early this morning sort of broadened my inquisitive process. Put together, I’m thinking we don’t know all the answers so we keep searching for the reason.
This morning, I take this as a fresh word for thinking through today. Why. I apply this question to yesterday’s research and the email this morning. Questions are good. Answers? Maybe they are not satisfying at all… However. Here goes.
Why do we pray? Why do we dream?
To answer the second question, I changed my Google search question from yesterdays research. “Why do we Pray” became “Why do we dream”. The answers to both questions come from varied and different sources. “Why” seems to be one of the most sought out questions for many of us, and all those on the other side of the equation stretch their mind and research into providing answers. Scientist, medical specialists, astronomers, market research analyst, bible scholars and thinkers all over the place! The list is lengthy of those attempting to find the answer to “why”.
Praying seems to be a normal thing that many religious cultures experience. The “why” depends on the “who” you ask! For myself, and from my background, I can only say that I believe there is power in prayer, and the words and focus on the action is important, necessary and without it, I would be an incomplete person. His disciples asked Jesus to teach them “to” pray (Luke 11:1) and then compared that they hoped what he would give them would be something like John the Baptist taught to his followers. So, Jesus gives them a formula of prayer (The Lord’s Prayer) and essentially tells them to say the prayer (Luke 11:2) or to use it as their manner, or pattern, of prayer (Matthew 6:9).
Now… Here’s my thought about prayer. The disciples have been taught prayer all their lives, and for generations back to the Garden of Eden, they have known that prayer was their communication vehicle to God. So, why did they need the teaching of Jesus? Each Rabbi, and they considered him one (John 1:38), taught their students and followers with their own style and format. They built their lessons and examples on others before them who had lived through a situation, or set a foundation for others to build upon. You can look to Paul’s teaching to get the gist of foundational teaching. (Romans 15:20, 1 Corinthians 3:10-12, Ephesians 2:20, etc.)
But the teaching of Jesus seemed to go deeper… broader… and cover more about prayer than perhaps they had ever heard before. The Lord’s Prayer is worthy of deeper thought and study. I’ll share more about it later on.
Let me move to dreaming for a moment.
Dreaming seems to be a normal process. Just as scientists are not sure why we sleep, it is often during our deepest REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleeping period that our brains are recorded as being hyper active. Not like someone who needs drugs to dampen down the brain so they can function, rather, it’s like the brain is busy reliving and refurbishing our memories and thoughts. Maybe there is a planned reorganization happening, to which I say we may never know. Just like my computer’s hard drive needs to be reorganized every so often to keep data structured properly, maybe our dreams represent what’s happening within our memory banks as our brain moves things around according to how we are wired?
I don’t know, and I doubt that anyone else does either!
So. Here’s my deeper question and thought about these two “why’s”…
Can dreams and prayers be tied together? Perhaps. Perhaps dreams are the silent and seldom remembered prayers that we have as we rest. This is what one Jewish Rabbi seems to present as he shares about Jacob. Jacob is part of the heritage of God’s promise to Abraham, that flows through to King David and beyond – all the way to Jesus Christ! He’s an important person in scripture. But it does not mean he automatically knew everything he needed to carry on his role. He had to learn just like we do through life changing experiences.
Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the LORD stood above it and said: “I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” (Genesis 28:10-17 NKJV)
Dreams, says the Rabbi, are simply the method that our subconscious uses to express our prayers to the messengers that deliver them to God and bring back the results. [Source] Do I think this is the answer? Am I understanding it correctly? Am I sure? No. It’s worthy of deeper thought and study. But in the Old Testament, the only place this word for “ladder” is used is here alone. There’s something special about connecting earth bound mortals to God in heaven. His dream used a ladder. Why? Good question! Again, the Rabbi teaches that the ladder is but the steps we use to get deeper into our prayers. Each rung has a deeper meaning. More about this later…
But what I connect here is the idea that it was while sleeping and dreaming that God was involved with mankind. The defining word for “angels” describes them as “messengers” – they bring messages and blessings to us directly from God, and they take from us messages directly to God. This is perhaps why we question the focus on angels within scripture more times than you can shake a stick at! They are Messengers with a purpose!
Here’s my daily thought. Just as needful is our nightly rest, and the recurring dream process so is a prayer to the awakened person. Prayer is my conscious act, while dreaming is my subconscious and uncontrollable act. I would like to think they are connected…but we may never know. What do you think?