What is inside? ...

Tuesday, Nov 12, 2013. How do you know something about what is inside of you? Do you know your inner feelings? Do you know what drives you? Do you know your longing? Or is it hidden to you? Is it deep inside, and even you yourself do not know what is inside of you?

Dreams are one possible path into your feelings …

Recently, I had a strange dream. I was waiting in a queue at some airport in Eastern Europe - with my whole work unit. It took ages to make some progress. Then, the queue had to dissolve and we all had to queue up from scratch, starting to wait again for ages. The dream went on like this … without no change until I woke up.

Often, I can influence my dreams. Half awake I decide that the dream is stupid and I turn around and dream something else. This dream however was very patent and did not want to go away. It showed a significant impact.

For me, things like this dream are a good example of feelings which are inside you and you sometimes do not want to see them. You want to avoid them. You want not to have them - but they are there.

Here, the meaning is pretty clear. With our work unit, we have been waiting to be able to properly do experiments with our main development line for some years now, and it is still unclear how we can gain some efficiency. We have been waiting for others, but the progress is extremely slow and support is not given to us, other things have priority. The dream expresses my frustration with the environment.

God knows me …

What other paths are there to learn about what is inside of you? Dreams can be one way. But there are others. God himself knows what is inside of you. Psalm 139 expresses this in a very clear way:

O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. 5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. (Psalm 139: 1-5)

We can learn about ourselves when we listen to the Lord. That happens either when we study his word, the biblical books. Or when we go into prayer and take time to listen to him. Prayer can be a time to talk, but also a time to listen, to be silent, to think and meditate about the Lord and to interact with him and his Holy Spirit. He can guide us to learn more about what is inside of us - and to deal with it in a constructive way. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts