DREAM: Yet Tis' Not I ...february 19,2010(updated Aug 12, 2011)

I was alone prone facing up, with a perplexed  expression on my face. I was enclosed in a high tech cylindrical space ship of some kind. I heard the  words,'It is not I, Christ lives in me.' Also from  the same scripture and hymn is sung, 'Buried with Christ.'

REFLECTION: The image scene was very white and sterile. The cylinder much larger than a medical MRI machine but it stirred claustrophobic feelings in me. I needed to turn away from the image. Also, I looked somewhat in distress. I felt that I was about to be thrust into movement, to 'blast off.' Obviously, this has a spiritual message. It speaks of dying, of God being the center of new personality, and implies some kind of resurrecting type of change is imminent. It is such a strong God connection imaged here that it is startling.

I do not know where else to go with this. I tend to take it as speaking of my present situation. I have felt quite weak physically and emotionally all morning. I am due to attend an afternoon Chaplain's meeting. The changes I've experienced in God image over the years have at times been nearly overwhelming to my ego mind. It is like the 'ego being buried' so that a broader personality or 'self' can be born. I have honestly felt that kind of change happened to me decisively long ago. But this language  insists that I be aware  this is something that happens over and over, again and again...... 'death, burial and resurrection' is the process of inner spiritual/psychological development, not a one time happening in history of one individual.  This dream makes such a strong statement of it that I even feel it in my body. I'm  more aware that even at my stage of life there can still be very significant changes in my inner and  outer life and situation. Perhaps the dream is saying the time for such a change is at hand.

 I've been confident for years that the human person Jesus of Nazareth lived daily with a sense of imminent outer as well as inner change in his surroundings. This he described as 'The coming and nearness of the Kingdom of God.' Yet, I also know that in a major sense that kingdom did not materialize, the world was not put into some kind of final or perfect order of justice and love. The problems Jesus faced still remain, though much increased, with humanity today. So the dream asks me to be alert that major breakthroughs and changes in my personal life and the culture remain likely. There is always a need to be prepared to 'blast off' in life's developing adventure. The New Testament speaks of  the Spirit of Jesus being raised and continuing to live in very real ways.  And many verify that is a spiritual reality for them today.  So he was not misguided in his inner assurance of a continuing process of 'kingdom coming ' and 'resurrection happening.'

But how does that experience apply to me and perhaps all of us today? The dream is seeking to say something about that and puts it into an image that is very 21st century. Yet it uses words that are straight from scripture and an old baptismal hymn. I can still hear the sounds of an adult body 'going into' and 'coming out of' the water in a Church of Christ style baptism. Then the whole church would sing, 'yet tis not I, Christ liveth in me.'  It gave one the impression of a great  'send off' into an ever changing life. This timeless symbol originating from the Collective Unconscious surely intends to provide a symbol of our continual 'God connected' life and the natural development of the spiritual nature of every human being. The dream is offering up to my 'Christian consciousness' the Christian 'version' of that symbol but the symbol belongs to all strands of religion; and more importantly it belongs to the very nature of humanity and human spiritual development.

The dream puts me on alert. It gives permission to have strong hopes of positive movements of life, justice, healing, renewal, restoration both personally and culturally. It implies that it is time for 'other powerful forces' to do for me, for us, what we cannot possibly alone do for ourselves. It is a time to place ourselves in a spirit of cooperation into Sacred spaces.  Ours is a time for humans of every variety and persuasion, as well as ones with a Christian heritage, to 'wait in our own Jerusalems' with strong anticipation of  breakthroughs in Human/God consciousness.