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Whenever I catch a cold, it usually lasts about a week and has a pretty regimented schedule. I don’t know what that says about me, but I can generally set my clock to its different stages. The first stage is a fever that usually lasts a day, then a runny nose that lasts 2-3 days, and the week finishes off with a cough that won’t go away. On the first night of every cold I inevitably have a fever dream. These dreams usually involve me somehow unlocking the secrets of the universe in weird complex ways. My last one was my in a room with infinite lines of infinity going in every direction. My task was to delete them all. When I had about 5 or so left, I woke up (and to be honest, this was probably one of my more “normal” fever dreams, or at least the one that made the most sense to me).

When I was in graduate school studying early American history, my first research project was on Philadelphia’s own Benjamin Rush. My goal was to explore and explain why a man so involved in the revolutionary cause abandoned hope in the endeavor a few years into George Washington’s presidency. The ink hadn’t even dried on the Constitution before Rush threw up his hands and basically said, “well, we gave it our all, but this was a colossal failure.” While reading through his letters in dusty books in old archives, one thing continually caught my attention: the man dreamed. A lot. It seemed like every other letter he and John Adams wrote to each other was a dream one of them had and their interpretation of it. Like me, a lot of their dreams were fever dreams. Every animal species in existence at the time all fought, attacked, and ate each other with Adams barely escaping nude and a man standing on a broom and trying to lift himself up by pulling on its handles are just two of many dreams they shared. However, unlike me, it was very clear that their dreams were not real. Oftentimes, one man would ask another about a current political and/or cultural event, and the other would respond with “I’ve got a dream.” It would just so happen that the dream would answer the exact question the other asked especially after they gave their dream’s interpretation.

Rush and Adams often dreamed of a better future for the United States. Adams’s dream in which all the animals were killing each other was a call for unity when they witnessed a fractured nation divided by two political parties that were polarizing more and more each day (wait a minute, this sounds familiar). Despite Rush’s pessimism, neither man wanted to see the country they loved and sacrificed so much for fail. Their dreams were for peace and unity (on a side note, we can learn a lot from both of them since they were on opposite ends of the political spectrum and remained friends until Rush’s death).

Like Rush and Adams, the Bible shows that people dream and then those dreams are interpreted, for example Joseph and Daniel interpreted other people’s dreams. God used these dreams (and their subsequent interpretations) to show His glory and help not only His people but other nations as well. In Joseph’s case, his interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream ensured that not only would the Egyptians survive a famine, but his family as well. Joseph knew that God had used him so “that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20b). Daniel’s interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream illustrated the power and glory of God so much so that even the pagan king proclaimed that Daniel’s “God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for [Daniel had] been able to reveal this mystery” (Daniel 2:47).

Now, I am not one for dream interpretation. I know that my fever dreams are just that: dreams caused by my fever so I’ve never really looked into any deeper meaning of them and probably never will. But that doesn’t mean I don’t think that we shouldn’t dream. I don’t think it was wrong of Rush and Adams to dream for a better, more united country. When I look around the world and see all of the wrongs that are occurring, I feel a kindred spirit to men like Rush and Adams. I dream for a world with less violence and more peace. One of the reasons why I am a Christian is because, with the Christian faith, I don’t just have to dream. I have hope and assurance. I can hope in the God who protected Joseph and Daniel (and his friends Rach, Shack, and Benny) through their trials. My hope can be placed in a God who is sovereign and while I may not understand what is going on or why it’s happening, I can exclaim like Joseph “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20a).

But hope can only get us so far depending on what our hope is built on. How many times have we built our hope on politicians, friends, family, spouses only to be disappointed. However, with God, there is an assurance that one day all will be made right. Jesus promised that He would return at the end of this age, making everything right in the world. There will one day be a time Jesus will “wipe away every tear from [our] eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore” (Revelation 22:4).

To live in that world, to have Jesus come back and make all things new. That is something to dream about.

Scott Flovin is an Elder at Liberti Church Collingswood. 

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