Who’s Church is this?

I dreamed that I was in a country club type place where there were a fair amount of people milling about. I needed to take a shower, but I saw someone at the counter who was paying for the amount of time their shower took and it was very expensive.

I wandered around and saw all the different things people could do. Everyone was dressed nicely and smiling. Everything was mostly white and shades of grey.

I saw people who were underwater checking out submerged colorful shipwrecks. They didn’t have tanks on so I was wondering how they could be so deep with only holding their breath. Then somehow I knew they were in very shallow water.

I wandered around until I found the shower. With my bird’s eye view I could see a shadow of someone in the shower. Although it was private, I knew that Kirk (my real brother) was just finishing up. He wasn’t aware of my presence. After he was gone, I was in the shower area getting undressed. I kept thinking that Kirk could see me.

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As I typed up this dream in my journal, it occurred to me that this place represents a church. One that was like many churches that I’ve been to and even a member of. After pondering this interpretation for a while, I was shocked to find out that my brother’s name, Kirk, means church.

This church was full of bustling activities, with something for everyone to do. It was shallow and clean, where everyone appears to be happy. However, the lack of color in most of this dream gave a clue that God’s presence was lacking.

This type of church doesn’t dive into the deep with God. It makes a mockery out of what should be hard to grasp and yet wonderful to experience which is being in the deep waters of God’s Holy Spirit. Instead of needing faith to go into dark waters – instead of expending all the time needed to learn how to navigate those deep waters – a fake experience is provided that is ready-made, easy, and fun. The result is a shipwrecked faith that was never real.

The one, most important thing – a cleansing faith in Jesus Himself – is obscure, hard to find, and costs a lot. No one else is waiting for the shower because no one knows it exists. In trying to engage in this experience, the church sees your every move. So it seems that something genuine is missing – is this church a fake brother trying to represent our true Brother Jesus?