I dream a lot and don’t remember most of them. This dream, from July 10, 2023, I will remember because to forget it is dangerous.
One morning a man looked out his kitchen window and saw a bear in the field next door to his home. He had never seen a bear in that field, and this made the man a bit curious. His curiosity grew after seeing the same bear in the same field the next morning. And the next morning, and the next. Growing tired of looking through the window the man went outside to the edge of the field for a closer look. The bear was still a long way off, so he wasn’t concerned.
The next morning the man sees the bear in the field again, but this time the bear is closer. The following day the bear is even closer. Within days the man returns to looking at the bear through a window because the bear is no longer in the field; he’s in the man’s back yard.
The bears lounges and rolls in the man’s yard, enjoying the flowers and sniffing the area. After days of these visits, the man decides to leave the safety of the house to watch the bear from his back deck. The bear notices the man but continues to explore the yard. One day, the man’s curiosity causes him to take a chair and sit in the yard with the bear. Impulsively he attempts to talk to the bear, strangely wondering if the bear will respond. “Good morning, Mr. Bear. How are things today?” The bear rolls, sniffs and groans. The bear sits on his haunches like a dog. But, the bear doesn’t talk back to the man.
After a few weeks of “bear in the back yard” the man becomes comfortable with his visitor. The man drinks his morning coffee with the bear. Once, he brought out his guitar and sang music for the bear. He even began to make an extra piece of toast for the bear for breakfast. The man had butter and the bear had jam. It seemed to the man that they were becoming good friends.
After several months of visits the man one morning went out to greet his hairy visitor, toast and coffee in hand. That morning was different from all the others. After the man greeted the bear “good day” the bear attacked him. The man didn’t survive.
Was the bear’s usual behavior due an injury? Was the bear hungry? Or, did he just get up on the wrong side of the cave that morning? We don’t know. We do know one thing.
The man forgot that bears are dangerous animals. The friendship the man thought he had with the bear was not grounded in this truth. We ignore truth to our own peril, even to the destruction of our very life.
Is there something that you have let in your life in which you were curious? Are you involved with some dangerous habit that you think you have tamed? Our spiritual enemy speaks to us of that illusion, but it is a lie. The control you imagine is not grounded in the truth; you don’t have control.
Don’t try to befriend bears. Don’t try to tame a destructive habit. Both will destroy you and the ones you love. Allow God to help you remove it from your life.
