Okay, I had a really weird dream last night. I could use some “interpretive” input.
For an unknown reason, I was buying some merchandise from a store full of Jewish artifacts. Maps, charts, Old Testament stuff. Since I’m currently writing my way through the OT for “What’s in the Bible,” I guess that part makes sense. Kind of.
Anyway, I had my purchases, but I didn’t have a way to get them home. Someone in the store offered to let me use their Mini Cooper. They handed me the keys. Cool. I like Mini Coopers. So I walk out to the parking lot – we’re in a downtown urban area – throw my stuff into the back of this small car and start driving. I get kind of stuck in the parking lot, though. It’s really tight, and I have to back up, turn, pull forward, turn, back up again, etc. On the second or third back up, I accidentally scrape along the side of another car. Rather badly. Somehow my Mini Cooper isn’t as “mini” as it should be.
I look at the back of the other car, and to my horror, it’s a Bentley or similar mega-bucks luxury sedan. Huge, beautiful, and now badly damaged. By me. Obviously this car belongs to someone rich and famous – someone who will now be very angry with me. I pull over to the side as people start running out from a nearby building. Turns out the building houses a recording studio, and the people running out are members of a very successful (fictional) Southern Gospel singing family. So successful that they now drive a Bentley. And they’re furious with me for messing up their ride.
This really huge guy – a member of the family – comes up to me like he’s going to punch me out. Then the elderly matriarch approaches and he stops. She walks right up to me, lifts her cane over her head, and starts whacking me with it. I’m being beaten up by the elderly matriarch of a Southern Gospel family. I’m still trying to figure out how I hit their car, so I turn back to look at my borrowed Mini Cooper and realize it isn’t a Mini Cooper at all, but rather an early 1970’s Corvette. No wonder I scraped the Bentley! The front end of an old Corvette is WAY longer than a Mini Cooper’s snoot!
The old lady’s cane keeps whacking against me as I ponder my next question: How on earth could the supposed key to a Mini Cooper have opened and started this old Corvette? Was I… set up?
Then I woke up.
So… what’s it mean? Coming the week after I just attempted to explain the Song of Solomon to children, am I diving into the Old Testament too deeply for the comfort of… Christian Gospel singers? With luxury cars? Am I in danger of upsetting the “status quo?” And which “status quo” would that be, exactly?
The more I think about my dream, the more I think it would make a very interesting scene from a low budget independent film. (Except the “scratching the Bentley” part. We’d have to fake that with special effects.)
So… anyone want to take that on?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Truthfully, it sounds like you just ate something that didn’t sit well with your stomach. But if I were you, I stay away from Mini Coopers and Bentleys for a while…and Southern Gospel singers.
Usta!
The only aspect of your dream that I recognize from my own is: something has undergone a significant change that should have been obvious but I don’t notice it until later – Mini Cooper to Corvette in your dream. I don’t know what that means.
Did you scratch one of the Fabulous Bentley Brothers’ cars?
The cars could symbolize stepping into something bigger or deeper than you currently imagine (how you stepped into a Mini Cooper, but came out a Corvette) – your ‘vehicle of ministry,’ so to speak. I’m not sure what the gospel singers would represent. You might have guessed it, people or other good-meaning Christians opposed to your teachings.
God has given you keys.
Make sure you’re driving the right car, otherwise, you’ll be very uncomfortable, and Christians won’t be too happy with you.
Pray about it Phil 😉
biblegateway.comDisclaimer: I’m Jewish, so I’m probably coming into this from a different perspective.
The key is the Southern Gospel singers. Are they real Christians, pleased by accurate preaching of the gospel, or are they mock-Christians, annoyed by the same?
The fact they spent their money on a Bentley may or may not be a clue. But the fact they think the proper response to accidental damage to their vehicle is violence is one. You believe forbearance and self-control are the fruits of the spirit (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%205:22-23&version=NIV). Therefore, you have to believe they either haven’t been given the grace to cultivate the spirit, or they have but they refused it.
So making them mad and caned by the matriarch is probably you you picking up your cross (http://bible.cc/matthew/16-24.htm). The change from the Mini Cooper to the Corvette probably means you never intended to hurt anybody’s feeling, but something you did turned out to be bigger than what you planned. That happens to jellyfish – sometimes the current takes them further than they want to go.
This leaves the store at the beginning. Were the artifacts in the store exclusively Old Testament stuff, or did they include Jewish stuff from later periods?
The interpretation of your dream. The seven fat cattle… I mean, the Jewish artifacts represent the old scriptures that you used to glean from. The key to the mini Cooper represents a journey (small ofcourse) in which you try to heist gold bars from a bank in Italy. And the gospel singing group represents, well… A gospel singing group with an elderly irritated member who is aware that you have gold bars in your mini Cooper and won’t let you get away with it. But you shape shift your mini Cooper into a 70’s Vette. Smart move. Let me know if any of this resonates true.
I claim no word of wisdom here.
However, the Southern Gospel family may represent a major church ministry or church tradition.
Whether damaging thier mammon and irritating them to the point of having them attack you is good or bad, I don’t know. It may be something you need to do, even if it irritates the church heirarchy. Or it may be something you need to avoid because it would damage the church.
If you really feel this is from the LORD and not the pastrami and jalepeno sandwich you had before bed, and the interpretation is not coming to you directly, you should seek Godly council that will pray (and perhaps fast) with you.
My $.02 US. God bless.
Hi, Phil!
It’s important to discern if this dream is from your soul, working out things that are concerning you, or if you believe the dream is from the Lord. What I’m getting is that although you may be thinking “What’s in the Bible” is a small ministry (Mini-Cooper), it’s actually going to take off fast (Corvette). As Doug said, God has given you the keys to this endeavour. I believe the Lord is preparing you for the backlash you may get from the religious and traditionalists- what you have to say is going to bump up against what they value (the Bentley) and cause change.
Abundant blessings!!
Must have been a weird night for media professionals. My professor had a dream we were broadcasting hockey in Bemidji and our HD production trailer was floating on a lake. He needed to take the pickup truck into town for some reason but was concerned the trailer would sink as a result.
He decided as long as no one opened the doors on the trailer it would be fine. Somehow a door came open and the trailer sunk. My professor then had the idea that they could raise the trailer and blow dry the computers and everything would be fine. Then he woke up.
Not sure what all this means but my professor said no storm-chasers before bed might help.
yep. i think you pretty much covered it in that last paragraph there. let somebody make it as an indie film, with puppets, and get Daren to be the store clerk.
i don’t read anything into my dreams, but it’s fun to remember some of the odd ones!
have a great weekend,
Kimberly
I’m thinking you forgot to put Sunday School Lady back in her puppet closet for the night!
Interesting dream…my 2 cents…
My husband and I have been looking into the OT for some time now and learning A LOT of truth that most of the Christian world has NO CLUE about or has selectively discarded.
Maybe the initial store about Jewish artifacts is just that, looking into old Jewish roots, customs and realizing that the OT is more for us today that ever. ie. Lev. 23 ‘These are MY appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies…”
…Christians think “those poor Jews are caught up in their old traditional feasts”, but in fact, they (even in their ignorance of Christ) are doing what God said EVERYONE in the world should be doing – following HIS feasts…
Mini Cooper (new/flashy) – your desire to stick to the safe acceptable way followed traditionally by most Christians…
Corvette – revelation of OT truth…and its safety (bigger/safer than MCooper)
You’re stuck in which direction to take ie. parking lot…front – back…front – back to decide whether to take or leave God’s new direction (His leading)…
Scrape car – rub others the wrong way.
Bentley – typical, successful, Christian leaders rooted in tradition…
Gospel singers – being surrounded by traditional Christians
Big guy – young people – very powerful in debating faith (not physical fighting)
Old lady whacking you (old school traditional Christians) – get ready for controversy and people in opposition of your new found OT revelation. Ruffling feathers…contradicting “status quo”…
Realization – YOU driving the Corvette – OLD truth received by YOU, not you being driven by someone else.
Yes you were set up…
I don’t think this has anything to do with Song of Solomon…
Sorry for coming to this party late…However your dream means that your efforts to learn and share truth are getting sidetracked by worldly concerns and interactions.
Ah!! This made me smile. I’m guessing you’re not going to be another Joseph, judging by your dreams, but you do have quite a knack for humorous storytelling. And I’m glad you have opportunity to continue using your creative talents productively. Actually, it kind of reminds me of the Asparagus of La Mancha. Been munching on chips and salsa before bed again?
Phil,
I actually just read your story online for the first time. Very touching. Very moving. I’ve never been too caught up in the VeggieTale craze, but being a Children’s Pastor, I recognize that it was (and still is) good entertainment/storytelling for kids and parents. I also have had dreams of Disney “success” as you described earlier tensions of, and your story is a challenge to that mentality. Thank you for posting your story and not making me buy the book 🙂 Not that I saw myself at your level of experience or expertise, but we often see success as a God-given right if we follow and obey…which isn’t entirely biblical (considering Jesus’ story). Thank you, for sharing your story so openly.
I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have posted your dream if you had really thought it was nothing but a silly, accidental occurance. Although, maybe I’m wrong. However, as I just read your story for the first time, and then taking a casual look through your blog I saw this posting, it seemed pretty clear to me that this dream is an inside look at the truth you have experienced in life.
Mini-Coop…the mini “Disney-dream” that you originally set out for in the past, and which you are still burdened with even in the midst of your new ventures (study of OT history for current project = “artifacts”) Your past is the lense through which you view the world…it remains with you. Your early success and wit…it was a gift from God (“keys”)! As you maneuvered successfully with the company, you came to realize that your “mini-Disney” dream was intersecting (crashing) with other people’s “disney-dreams” of granduere…even so called “Christians” (southern gospel often seems most innocent and harmless) who had made it to another level of success above you, even like Lyrick (the Bentley). You took a beating, an unrelenting beating even from the purchased company of the most trusted, proven, nurturing “matriarch” in your story before he died in the airport. As you look back on the experience, you continue to see the error of the so-called “mini” dream of making it big…you realize as time goes on just how disproportionate your dream really was (more like a corvette than a mini-coop), regretting your haste in damaging other people’s dreams of granduer.
Dream from God? Well, maybe. At least, an inside look at what you have gone through and the way you are processing it. A reminder not to put your eggs in that vehicle (dream-catcher?!) again, but only in your Lord. Not trying to sound preachy here, because your story was a breath of fresh air, of humility and lessons learned. I know I’m miles away from your experience, but I prayed for you just now, that God would complete His work that He began in you.
Your brother in Christ,
Joel
I believe strongly that dreams are the indirect voice of God, speaking to the heart of the dreamer while the mind is still. They play over our mind in symbols which have specific meaning to the dreamer.
The dream’s purpose is to make you whole, and to resolve a problem that the dreamer is working on, or a specific hurt God has been addressing to heal. The wound may be presenting itself again through a current circumstance. The dream NEVER condemns.
I would say that your dream reflected something you were currently wrestling at that time. The dream is about you, not the other people presented in the dream.
The dream started with you buying ‘merchandise’ from a Jewish artifact type store (using a current natural circumstance as a ‘symbol’ reflecting your current inner-life; picking and choosing the events of your past history you are trying to sort out and come to peace with)
That specific individual in the store that handed you the keys was most likely a neglected part of you – and the mini-cooper (a symbol of your inner life)- your ‘functional but not impressive’ mode of getting around?…and you actually kinda like it?… may be a simpler way…? But at the same time, it’s causing your flexibility/ mobility to be cramped? (Only you, the dreamer, would know if that relates)
The Bentley (believe it or not) may symbolize a more highly respected mode of ‘getting around’ that has been damaged or disfigured by the lesser esteemed mini-cooper.
The angry people in the dream are parts of yourself. They don’t represent other people-types or Christians. It appears you are angry with yourself. Do you feel you’ve put-off and offended your potential strength (the huge strong man) and do you think you’ve offended your senior citizen/retirement years? (the old matriarch) Maybe you need to give yourself some slack and plenty of forgiveness. Bring those things to God.
It’s important to know what the old 70s Corvette means to YOU specifically. It’s an important key to the dream’s interpretation. It may be pointing you to something that’s hindering you NOW, that occurred during a time in your life that a 70s Corvette would have significance. If so… present that thing to the Lord and let Him do His work on it. Surrender it.
I don’t think the dream is about offending other people by what your working on. The dream is showing you some areas that YOU need healing/ inner work. – (and who doesn’t?)
Dreams have nothing to do with food… but it’s a common opinion. 🙂
I saw the dream today through my son Daniel who has been a fan since you started … I thought it strange because my daughter just brought home ‘Robin Good’ for my grand daughter (our kids have been Veggie fans since mid-nineties) but I commented to my son how a lot of the new themes were all English since the new company took over (Sheerlock Holmes, Robin Good and now the up and coming Penniless Princess, which is from the story ‘The Little Princess’). I know vehicles often represent ministry in dreams and you thought you were driving a mini-cooper and the other family, a Bentley … these vehicles are both made in the UK while the Corvette is American made. So the point is … as you navigate through the Old Testament/New Testament and continue to do what the Lord has called you to do … be aware of the vehicle you are driving (maybe best not to borrow unless you are certain of the vehicle) or you may upset the ‘powers’ that be … I believe the ‘early 70’s’ Corvette is significant as well but you can probably answer what happened in the early 70’s. Other thoughts but I’ll stop there.
For what it’s worth:
Something attractive that someone offers you may not quite be what it first seems…
I’m curious what “merchandise” you bought at the store. Remember that and maybe you’ll have a key to the dream. I do however like all your dream “chooses” for cars. Blessings.
Hi – I don’t know your bio very well, basically only the wikipedia entry on veggietales and a 2 min youtube book review of Me, Myself and Bob, which a friend of mine recently recommended with great affection. But I have been lucky with dream interpretation for friends in the past so here goes.
My guess would be the dream is analogy for your career and your perceptions of what you have tried to create and offer through your art and an attempt to avoid open competition with those colleagues who evangelize your same messages in “serious venues” such as institutions and the traditional, publically sanctioned, mainstream forms of devotion, and whose top executioners are in effect the only members of such institutions who could afford “vehicles of transmission like Bentleys. I think your mini-cooper meant to symbolize your own appreciation of your individual style as put out into the work through your efforts (and whose trunk, despite the car’s small size- is packed; with what? hope? generosity? creativity? artistic ingenuity? anger for not having earned greater esteem from your spiritual community? resentment that your expression of faith is perhaps judged as inauthentic or of lesser value b/c done in an innovative and well intentioned artistic form? The fact your “mini” suddenly transforms into a more aggressive and more traditionally noticeable car with historically associated sex appeal – for lack of a better term [but with a strong “core” or good “heart” cor/cuore/ = heart, of “corvette”] – seems to me to indication frustration and an upsetting feeling toward your industry/past treatment by peers or by the industry but I don’t know). As for why the key can start both, hmm. Because you are the key — but you don’t find it in your sense of equality among peers to admit to yourself a deserved or perhaps just lucky, but real ownership of some personal power or talent (and based on, it seems to me, your desire to show humility; but if that humility is too self-deprecating it means your need for self appreciation might be order, or conversely only your inner self’s need to publically express your self-respect by keeping quiet about your disappointment both in the “nobles” failure, to help your cause so to speak, either by acknowledging the millennial failures that traditional, rigid beliefs about legitimate styles of evangelizing, and the even greater one neglecting to fulfill the fundamental commitment made by choosing that career, to spread and find the means to live as and show others how to live the divine word which you and your spiritual community both nominally and professionally proclaim in the public realm to espouse with a particular sort of seriousness.
That’s my interpretation — dunno if it helps or resounds with you. But from your website it looks like your career is banging, so. Thanks for reading!
Nina
The car represents your travels… you may feel your recent endeavors are small like a mini cooper but it it turns out you are in a faster car… you endeavors are taking off quickly and you find yourself scraping a Bentley of a Southern Gospel group… and head matriarch hits you! The matriarch being Veggi tales.. they are going to take a beating not killed just a beating but they are not happy with you… because you are in a Corvette.. I suggest you fasten your seat belts your in for a fast ride!
Hey there, just now saw this, so I’m coming late to the party.
Pretty cool dream. When I have a dream that I can remember vividly, I tend to pay attention to it. Sometimes I know definitely it’s something from the Lord, other times I study it because you can always learn something from the symbolism in a dream. But any dream that I remember distinctly, I pray over, and ask God to reveal anything I need to see.
You’re in a store buying things. You’re shopping, considering choices. This could possibly represent you considering options for your life, or your future. Where should you go next? This works quite well with the fact that you’re buying maps, and stuff from the Old Testament. Maps represent direction. You’re seeking direction for your life; you want to know which way you’re supposed to go, and you’re looking at good sources of information, God-centered sources of information.
You don’t have a car. This is interesting, considering the fact that cars usually represent the path of one’s life, or one’s life journey. Perhaps you aren’t sure about the path of your life. Perhaps you don’t feel worthy to have a car of your own. You didn’t say you forgot your car, you just said you didn’t have a way to get your packages home. You didn’t have a car. This could be a perception of yourself. Only you and God can determine what this means.
However, someone gives you keys to their car. And Jesus have given you His Life. Selah. He gave you the “keys” to your life when you were quite young, if I remember your story correctly (humor, making people laugh, and then later on came puppets and video and such).
But it’s a Mini Cooper. Now, you like Mini Coopers, but it is quite small. Perhaps this is a perception you have of your own life. You don’t see yourself as being all that important, perhaps? You’re not sure you could say that your life has been all that significant in the grand scheme of things? Or at least not as important as the lives of others (that’s why they have the Bentley and you have just a Mini Cooper).
The urban area represents the hustle and bustle of your everyday life. All the things you have to deal with. And in this parking lot, you have to do a lot of going forward, and backing up. Going forward, and backing up. Kinda like “three steps forward, two steps back.” Your life journey hasn’t been all smooth sailing, and still sometimes feels like you’re having trouble getting somewhere.
The accident – It could represent an attitude you have about yourself. You see yourself as being in the wrong, as if you’ve done something and you’ve interpreted it as really bad. So you harbor guilt over this. You’ve messed up and there’s no way to undo it. So you’re stuck with the mark on the other car.
Now the strong, big man, and the old woman are interesting just by themselves. They might represent two aspects of your personality. You want to be strong, to believe what God says about you, to believe you have a place, and you are important. But at the same time, you beat on yourself, criticize yourself, berate yourself for past mistakes. See, the old woman stopped the big, strong man. Is the negative winning over the positive in your life?
But, go back to the keys. The man who gave you the keys trusted you with his car. He knew you would do right with it. He knew you would be okay. So what if you had a little scrape along the way. He gave you the keys. That’s pretty important. And when you turned back to look at the car after the accident, you realized it was a lot bigger than you first thought. Not a Mini Cooper, but a Corvette.
Your life has been a lot bigger in God’s grand scheme of things than you’ve realized. You’ve made a much bigger impact in the body of Christ, in the Kingdom of God, and in the entire world, than you will ever know. So let the strong man (faith) speak, and tell the old woman (criticism) to go away and leave you alone.
Just my two cents. Hope it helps. Blessings to you!
Phil, before interpreting his sueño(o ael menos eso creo) vi veggietales at age 10, I wanted to be executive producer and if I think veggietales for love, I want you, my own Studio and big idea worked together.
If you really believe it by love I love him, but I also hate it, from the first episode I saw I wanted to work with you and be your friend.
But here in Mexico it is impossible to be executive producer of something so my parents don’t want me to move abroad, and say to make my own life, I would not if my parents.
But I hate it! , because a fool crossed my thoughts not left thinking how it would be my miserable future and that of my team, because I sami, I need them to you and a big idea.
There are days where I say just like a brave warrior I will make my own life.
Hare, and there are days when I cry like a big river, alone, in the dark, when they cry feel as if it will take a strong poison and that it ended slowly with my bones; and while I cry I say this-never, never see to philiy to Mike. thank you Phil my happiness is bipolar.
Please philiy beg it, help me do not want to be a scientist, who añoraría to have another job, missing philiy, mike, big idea and my team (my friends and do a job for the sake of God and the children).
Sami i live in mexico i have 14 years old
Sometimes we don’t understand the dream till much later when the pieces gradually fall into place. I had a dream in 2007 that just came true in 2013. Till then I didn’t know what it meant, but I kept on searching to find the answer.
No expert at all, of course, but here goes it…
“Interpretive Input”, cool phrase…
“For an unknown reason, I was buying some merchandise from a store full of Jewish artifacts. Maps, charts, Old Testament stuff. ”
You were acquiring artifacts, Hebrew artifacts. The Old Testament is also an ancient Hebrew Text. Think about the information you were given. You will take it with you and own it. This will not be a window shopping experience.
“Anyway, I had my purchases, but I didn’t have a way to get them home. Someone in the store offered to let me use their Mini Cooper. They handed me the keys. Cool. I like Mini Coopers. So I walk out to the parking lot – we’re in a downtown urban area – throw my stuff into the back of this small car and start driving.”
The man running the Jewish artifact store gave you his personal car, just what you think is enough to move forward with only what you have in your hands (new to you, yet old information).
“I get kind of stuck in the parking lot, though. It’s really tight, and I have to back up, turn, pull forward, turn, back up again, etc. On the second or third back up, I accidentally scrape along the side of another car. Rather badly. Somehow my Mini Cooper isn’t as “mini” as it should be.”
As you try to move forward with what you are learning, you are having trouble. The information means much more than you realize and is very big and difficult to sort through. You are not used to it and it is a struggle.
“I look at the back of the other car, and to my horror, it’s a Bentley or similar mega-bucks luxury sedan. Huge, beautiful, and now badly damaged. By me. Obviously this car belongs to someone rich and famous – someone who will now be very angry with me. I pull over to the side as people start running out from a nearby building. Turns out the building houses a recording studio, and the people running out are members of a very successful (fictional) Southern Gospel singing family. So successful that they now drive a Bentley. And they’re furious with me for messing up their ride.”
This is the “You are now Here sign”. Your beliefs and goals are currently based in the southern gospel tradition with its successful track record. By carrying this new data, the old system is getting banged up and altered. This happens every time we learn something new that challenges us. Learning is growing and growing is hard. Change, we like not.
“This really huge guy – a member of the family – comes up to me like he’s going to punch me out. Then the elderly matriarch approaches and he stops. She walks right up to me, lifts her cane over her head, and starts whacking me with it. I’m being beaten up by the elderly matriarch of a Southern Gospel family. I’m still trying to figure out how I hit their car, so I turn back to look at my borrowed Mini Cooper and realize it isn’t a Mini Cooper at all, but rather an early 1970?s Corvette. No wonder I scraped the Bentley! The front end of an old Corvette is WAY longer than a Mini Cooper’s snoot!”
The matriarch is like the sweet Sunday school lady we all know and love. She taught you well and is both respected and loved. But you have to step forward on your own if you are going to grow. The large man is the thing in all of us that protects what we are familiar with. You thought you given the keys to something insignificant and small, but it you ended up finding out that what you were actually driving was not only older but more valuable. Many cars decrease in worth over time, the corvette doesn’t. It is also faster, more valuable and a bit beyond the control of most at first.
Yes, you were in danger of upsetting the status quo, but not of other people… your own and fairly significantly.