Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

• Romans 8:28-30

“And afterward,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your old men will dream dreams,
    your young men will see visions.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

• Joel 2:28-29

The idols speak deceitfully, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd.

• Zechariah 10:2

I had a dream that made me afraid. As I was lying in bed, the images and visions that passed through my mind terrified me.

• Daniel 4:5

“Darn that dream, I dream each night
You say you love me and you hold me tight
But when I awake, you’re out of sight
Oh, darn that dream

Darn your lips and darn your eyes
They lift me high above the moonlit skies
Then I tumble out of paradise
Oh, darn that dream

Darn that one track mind of mine
It can’t understand that you don’t care
Just to change the mood I’m in
I’d welcome a nice old nightmare

Darn that dream and bless it too
Without that dream I never would have you
But it haunts me and it won’t come true
Oh, darn that dream

Darn that dream and bless it too
Without that dream I never would have you
But it haunts me and it won’t come true
Oh, darn that dream.”

• James van Heusen, Darn that Dream

“I’ve met some very nice people
Some very very very nice people
But you meet the nicest people in your dreams
It’s funny but it’s true
That’s where I first met you
And you’re the nicest paradisest thing I ever knew

[Chorus]
I’ve searched the universe over
From Wackinacsac to Dover
And now that we have met how sweet it seems
I love you morе the more I know you
Which only goes to show you
That you meet thе nicest people in your dreams

[Chorus]
I’ve searched the universe over
From Wackinacsac to Dover
Now that we have met how sweet it seems
I love you more the more I know you
It only goes to show you
That you meet the nicest people in your dreams
Oh you meet the nicest people in your dreams”

• Peter Mulvey, You Meet the Nicest People in Your Dreams

On the second song lyric, the way Fats Waller sings it, “Wackinacsac” becomes “Wacky Nagasaki.”  You can choose your own way of singing it, or not.

I got a new watch about a month ago.  My old one had no way to reset the time other than to sync with the phone, and a file got corrupted, and it refused to do so.  A watch that cannot tell time is not a watch.  But my new watch is very stingy with “deep sleep” minutes.  If I am not dreaming, I know that I will not be getting much deep sleep credit on the watch, but I had a lot of dreams last night, only remembering one weird part of one dream, and my watch said that I had the first three hours of deep sleep in one night, usually barely two hours of deep sleep.  Frankly, the watch may be right.  To get credit for deep sleep, your pulse has to be low and steady and you cannot move.  With it being so hot that the air conditioning cannot keep up, I do a lot of tossing and turning.

But as for the dream, I dreamed that an old boss, who never smiled, smiled at me as a simple little training seminar with a dozen attendees turned into me teaching at an amphitheater with thousands in attendance and even more walking in to stand in the back.  I looked at my boss to ask what happened to our 24 or less in the classroom limit?  He smiled, which freaked me out, and he said, “They heard you were teaching, and they opened attendance to any of the company’s small mills that could never afford the training.”

Note: We never offered multiple classes with a 24 person limit to pad a contract for more money.  It was really us trying to help the customer get a better teacher-trainee ratio to enhance learning.  I had to do a repeat performance at one steel mill when they crammed 45 people in each of two sessions.  No eye contact except for three or four that kept asking questions, and the guys who absolutely needed to understand got lost in the crowd and did not listen to anything that I had to say.  It was almost magical.   Twenty to twenty-four trainees, and you had everyone involved and enthused to learn.  Twenty-five in the same classroom and retention of what was taught dropped drastically.  Why pay for a course to be taught when they will retain less than half the information?

But here I was, a little scared and a little proud of people knowing my abilities, but I knew very few people would really learn anything.  In the meantime, the boss was backing up a truck to haul away the money that the company would earn while I got paid the same as if I had three people in the class.  Note: My lowest class attendance ever was six.

But rather than remember any of the other dreams last night (as of writing this), I awoke singing “Darn that Dream.”  And by the time I had brushed my teeth, I was singing “You Meet the Nicest People in Your Dreams.”

I simply shrugged and said, “I guess I know what I am writing about next.”

Both of these songs talk about meeting someone in their dreams.  But then while the Fats Waller classic is upbeat and whimsical, Darn that Dream goes to a dark place.  The singer realizes that they never can have this person that they fall in love with in the dream.  While Joel speaks of dreams and visions, Zechariah warns that some dreams are placed there by Satan to trouble us.  Yet, Daniel had a troubling dream from God, a dream that must be written down because it is God’s plan for the world.

My wife had a few dreams, three in particular.  The one about her death came through down to the last detail.  The others were more disturbing, and she kept asking God whether these were dreams of warning or were they dreams that would come true.  One was about family and the other was about the church.  I see the disturbing dream about the church becoming closer to the truth each day, while the one about family seems to be a sad, but foregone conclusion – yet, while there is still breath …

While not all dreams are oracles from God, maybe very few, we should read the Scriptures to see if one dream or another is biblical.  And if any dream brings someone closer to God, it was a good dream, even if the dream was a nightmare.  All things work for the good for those who love God.

And when a dream helps us to read more in the Bible, pray more, and worship God more, then it was for our good.

Here is Sarah Vaughan with the Count Basie Orchestra singing Darn That Dream.

Here is Fats Waller playing and singing You Meet the Nicest People (In Your Dreams).

Sleep well and sweet dreams.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.