I had that dream last night.
Again.
Over the psst few years it has been recurring over and over again. Different, but always the same.
I am out playing golf with some friends. The course is always different. One time I was playing Augusta National, home of the Masters. At other times it is course that I have played, at others a brand new course I have never seen before.
But always, on the first tee, I am faced with an impossible shot. Not just for me, but for anyone not named Tiger Woods!
I am inside—sometimes the cart shack, at others the clubhouse—but on the very first tee I have to hit my drive through a doorway!
Now if you have ever seen me play golf, you know that whenever I see the pros teeing off with people lining the fairways I know that if that were me those spectators would be putting their lives in danger! I never ever ever know where it is going to go. I have plans, ideas, hopes and dreams—but those are just that! It is always an adventure.
But in this dream, I have to hit the ball through a doorway! A narrow doorway. And I know it is just impossible!
But last night, there was a twist! The door was there (actually a window) but this time I had to hit through the house! Totally impossible! I ended up hitting the ball in and through the house, taking a 10 on the hole! (This is the fist time I remember actually playing the hole! So there is that!)
I thought about playing the hole again, instead of using a driver just chipping the ball over the house. That was my plan, but then I realized that this wasn’t a real golf course, but more like a putt-putt course. There was a hole in the middle of the living room that if I hit it, would drop the ball right next to the hole.
Now therapists (including my wife) tell me that dreams are always about the person dreaming. So I have been wondering what I am feeling impossible about. There is no way for me to hit a golf ball through a window, a door, down a hallway and out on to the fairway. So what am I attempting to do that just isn’t doable?
It really doesn’t take Freud to figure out that as I am getting closer and closer to retirement, the things I used to do are just not doable anymore. I am physically not able to do them, but also emotionally and spiritually. I just don’t have the energy.
But last night (when I woke up after this latest dream) I wondered if it is also about church. Are we still playing a game that has changed? Instead of trying to hit the ball 250 yards, perhaps we should focus on those things that are right in front of us.
As John Lennon said, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”
What are your dreams saying about our future?